Sacred Birthkeeping Doula Services

07/10/2022

Nope 👇

Some facts about nuchal cords:

🔆 Nuchal cords are incredibly common, occurring in an estimated 1 of 3 births.

🔆 They are very rarely dangerous.

🔆 Fetuses receive oxygen through the umbilical cord, not by breathing through the mouth or nose, so a cord around the neck is not cutting off their air like it would for you or me. If the cord is left in tact, the baby can still be receiving oxygen from the placenta for several minutes after birth.

🔆 Most babies with a nuchal cord have one that is very loose and it can be simply slipped over the head after birth. There is usually no indication of the nuchal cord at all.

🔆 The main way for a nuchal cord to be harmful (if the cord is healthy) is if it is wrapped multiple times and is so tight that it compresses itself, thereby decreasing blood flow inside, or if there is a true knot so tight that it does the same (rare). The cord would have to be extremely tight to cut off blood flow between the body and brain.

🔆 Nuchal cord is very difficult to identify before birth, even with ultrasound.

🔆 You do not need to have a c-section solely due to a suspected nuchal cord.

🔆 Medications given during a birth induction/augmentation can cause erratic & extra strong contractions, causing heart decelerations in the fetus. If a c-section is performed and a nuchal cord is discovered, it is frequently blamed (though the cause was more likely the induction meds). This can lead the mother to feel her baby was "saved" by the hospital staff, when they may have actually been the ones to CAUSE the issues the baby was "saved" from.

🔆 A healthy umbilical cord is filled with a gelatinous substance called Wharton's Jelly that protects the cord vessels as a fetus twists and turns its way inside the uterus.

If you want to read up on the evidence on nuchal cord, visit my Instagram account () and scroll back to my post of that name.

04/30/2022

What does a well fitting fl**ge look like? What about too large or too small?

Here we show that this ni**le measures as 15 mm using our silicone ni**le ruler. This means a fl**ge size of 17 is recommended.

Here we show the too small and the too large options in a range of 15 mm up to 36 mm! In the smaller fl**ge, we can see that the base of the ni**le doesn’t fit into the tunnel entrance and in the larger fl**ges, there is excessive space around the ni**le base in that fl**ge tunnel. The appropriate size, the 17 mm fl**ge, leaves just a bit of space around the ni**le base to allow for good movement during pumping.

If we are using a fl**ge that is too large for our pre-pump ni**le measurement, we can experience ni**le redness, swelling, soreness, and even tissue damage. When the tunnel entrance of the fl**ge hits too far outside of the area of the ni**le, this can put pressure on the milk ducts that bring milk from the alveoli, or milk sacks, to the ni**le. With this happening repeatedly, it can lead to decreased milk supply as we aren’t allowing all milk to be removed, or even lead to clogs which if left untreated, can lead to mastitis.

The correct fl**ge size should not cause any discomfort while pumping and should yield a good milk output. When you book a fl**ge sizing with us, we will give you a range of a few sizes that may work for your pre-pump measurements and you may find that one size of your range is more comfortable than the other. Unfortunately fl**ge sizing isn’t black and white so we have to be willing to explore the gray!

Reposted with

If you would like to book a session with Legendairy, you can email us at fl**gefit@legendairymilk.com or click the “Flange Fitting” tab on our website to book. Remember that there is no live session so you don’t have to take time out of your busy schedule to meet! You complete our intake form, provide the requested photos and videos through our secure platform and you receive a report back! This comprehensive sizing is only $25.00.

04/25/2022

04/16/2022

"See that tiny pink bead on my lanyard? That is the size of a newborn's tiny tummy. When baby is born, the birthing parent produces colostrum for baby, which is the perfect for baby. Colostrum contains just the amount of food baby needs and passes antibodies. It's ! In this photo, I have a standard 2 ounce bottle of formula that is given to new babies. So, if baby's belly is only the size of a marble, what happens when baby is fed 2 ounces? Well, baby will usually spit up all the extra, which then can be spinned into baby having reflux. When really, baby is just being over fed. This leads to interventions like formula changes, antacid medications, etc. It's important that we give families all the available information so they can make the best decisions for their families. " available from www.birthingandbreastfeeding.com/store

04/07/2022

Everyone should have this information. 👇🏼
This way, if you choose to have IV fluids and or need them, newborn weight and loss/gain can account for this in the first weeks.
In 2011 a team of Canadian researchers published a study which linked routine IV fluids with excessive weight loss in newborns. The study concluded that it takes about 24 hours for babies to correct their fluid state and therefore a true birth weight should be done at 24 hours. Here's the issue with with weighing baby at birth with a mother who received IV fluids: those fluids not only over saturate the mother (throwing her into an electrolyte imbalance), but this same thing happens to baby!
So let's say you had the typical hospital birth..labored for 12 hours with fluids being pumped into you the entire time. Baby is born weighing 8lbs 8oz. You go to your 3 day postpartum checkup and baby is down to 7lbs 5oz! Well..thats over a whole pound lost. The provider you see suddenly encourages you to supplement with formula because your baby is losing too much weight. You wonder how could this be...youve been nursing round the clock, changed plenty of wet diapers. How could this happen? .
You spent months researching breastfeeding and all its benefits for it to come down to this?..and at only 3 days postpartum! You feel like you've failed, but you fear that your baby is starving. So what do you do? You supplement...with formula. Next your milk supply drops because you're not bringing baby to the breast, but rather to the bottle. Before you know it you have an exclusively formula fed baby. .
This scenario is SO common, and I believe receiving IV fluids in labor is a HUGE part of the problem. As if the obstetric community hasn't failed women enough..now their "harmless" interventions caused you to lose all confidence in your ability to feed & nourish your baby from your breasts. .
So what can you do???
1. STAY OUT OF THE SYSTEM!
2. Say NO to routine IV fluids
3. Bring this study to attention if this happens to you
4. Continue nursing your baby. Bring baby to breast as first solution when she cries
5. Nurse in demand NOT on schedule



Edited to add:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1948093/

References:
https://internationalbreastfeedingjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/1746-4358-6-9

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3174114/pdf/1746-4358-6-9.pdf

https://www.nfaap.org/sso/sso.aspx?nfredirect=https%3A%2F%2Fpediatrics.aappublications.org%2Fcontent%2F127%2F1%2Fe171.abstract%3Fsso%3D1%26sso_redirect_count%3D2%26nfstatus%3D401%26nftoken%3D00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000%26nfstatusdescription%3DERROR%253A%2520No%2520local%2520token&no-redirect

The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine put this as well in one of its 2017 protocols.
https://abm.memberclicks.net/assets/DOCUMENTS/PROTOCOLS/3-supplementation-protocol-english.pdf

https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2011/08/15/study-shows-link-between-maternal-iv-fluids-and-weight-loss-in-newborns/

Good info form evidence based birth.
https://evidencebasedbirth.com/iv-fluids-during-labor/

04/06/2022

Hey everyone! Instagram is messing with my main accounts since I share things that do not conform to the mainstream narrative. So I went ahead and made a new Instagram for my main page (follow me on ) and I made a new TikTok as well vikkifromjersey

03/22/2022

I can’t tell you how many times this has happened, for literally no reason! They administer Pitocin routinely all the time even when mothers don’t need it! And if they didn’t give it to you during your labor, they are going to give it to you after you birth baby to force the placenta out, and they aren’t going to tell you!

Fun fact: did you know that Pitocin (synthetic oxytocin) is derived from pigs?

Do you know why they don’t “allow you“ or “let you“ eat while in labor? Because they are preparing you for surgery. 30% of births in the United States result in a C-section.

Did you know that cervical checks are pretty much pointless? All they do is create worry in mom when she’s laboring and she thinks she must be 8 cm and they check her and she’s only 4. All that is doing is hindering mom’s natural progression. Now she feels unsure of her body and that feeling of “how am I going to do this“ kicks in because she thought she was a lot further than she actually is.That cervical check, that also puts mommy and baby at risk for infection. Not only that, but these doctors want to rush labor so badly that if your body is not progressing on their timeline, then the pressure for them to intervene to help “speed things up” comes in. And then let’s say you are at 10 cm, did you know that 10 cm does not have any indication on it being time to push? Mom can be at 10 cm for hours, it happens all the time. And it is completely normal! There are many variations of normal but in the hospital setting, once you hit 10 cm then they start coaching you to push. Not only is this unnecessarily exhausting, but it also increases risk of tearing.

Why do you think you hear stories of women pushing for three hours and nothing happens? Because the body is not ready, the body is being put under pressure that it doesn’t need to be under, the body is not listening to it’s instincts on pushing, therefore fetal ejection reflex is not likely to not occur.

And what happens after hours of coached pushing and still no sign of baby? I don’t think I need to tell you what happens next… I’m sure you can figure it out.

03/17/2022

As a birth worker, I have some hard lines. I will not take in a client who is choosing ge***al mutilation and I will not serve those who vacksinate. I will provide education and evidence based information for those on the fense, but all of my clients know up front that if this is something they’re choosing, I will gladly refer them to a birth worker who can better support their choice.

Some may say that’s not professional of me to have these biases. I do not care.

03/10/2022

🌙✨BIG NEWS! ✨🌙

I’m so happy to announce that I will be serving the White Mountains 🏔 of Arizona🌵 this summer 2022!

If you or someone you is seeking a birthkeeper/doula support and you are in this area, I’d be happy to chat about your birth wishes! I serve mother’s in all situations & settings, and do not limit my services to medically-attended births only—I specialize in supporting freebirth/unassisted births; I also offer virtual support for those outside of my service area or if this is your preference.

💦I am also a Lactation professional and offer lactation/breastfeeding consults both in-person & virtually. I am so passionate about helping mother’s have successful breastfeeding journeys!

🌺All July and August bookings will receive $100 off your birth package of choice, and a free gift!

For inquiries and detailed menu of services, please feel free to send me a message here, or shoot me an email at sacredbirthkeeping@gmail.com

Xoxo 🤍 Vikki

02/24/2022

Throwback to when I pushed this guy out in the bathtub!

02/20/2022

I think it’s really important that we stop normalizing having an over supply.

Being able to pump and freeze anything on top of feeding your baby exclusively, is technically an over supply. A full supply is 24 to 32 ounces of milk daily, 1 ounce combined from both breasts per hour equals a full supply. Yup—24opd (oz per day) is a full milk supply.

We so often see pictures of these huge freezer stashes, even the moderately sized ones with a couple dozen bags of milk, that’s extra milk that the baby didn’t need if that baby is being fed exclusively at the breast. If the baby is getting a bottle and you are pumping in place of that bottle, that’s technically not extra because that is replacing a feed. If you’re at work and you’re pumping while away from baby (baby will be getting bottles) this is not “extra” because you’re pumping in place of a feed. If you pump outside of a feed “just because”, that’s additional milk that the baby is not requiring for their nutrition right now, hence an overage.

I know that we don’t all look at it like that, because many of us, myself included, feel that having a small freezer stash really isn’t “extra“ it’s a necessity but in the technicalities of lactation, anything being stored in the freezer not needed to feed baby immediately and not being pumped in place of a feed is considered an over supply. Not being able to pump tons of milk for the freezer after feeding your baby is NORMAL. An oversupply is common, yes, but not normal; and as one of my favorite sayings go—“Common and normal are NOT the same thing!”

When I have clients that bring up this concern about not being able to pump enough to freeze (but yet they’re still EBF their baby because they don’t need to supplement in addition to nursing therefore they have a full supply) many of them choose to seek out a small stash of donor milk.

Don’t beat yourself up because your breasts are not overflowing with dozens of ounces of milk. These big freezer stashes are not the expectation you should be putting on yourself! The only expectation is that you try your best to do what’s best for your baby…and no one can tell you what that is, but you!

02/06/2022

A beautiful gift from one of my birth clients. I am so thankful to have connected with such a lovely mother and family and been given the honor of entering her birthing space 🤍

12/30/2021

My free birth babies 💗💙

After two hospital births:

one where I was unnecessarily induced, taken advantage of, fear mongered, lied to by the medical staff, and birth r***d, and my baby suffering damage from their poison and no informed consent…

…and the second where I was mocked, belittled, and gaslighted for refusing an epidural, physically assaulted by a bitter nurse who’s physical intervention caused my baby to get stuck during pushing/FER resulting in over 24 hours of intervention and IV medications I didn’t consent to that impaired my ability to speak and advocate for myself resulting in threats to take my baby to the nursery if I held her while being alone, all while starving me…

I said NEVER AGAIN.

Never again would I set foot in a hospital to birth a child if it wasn’t a true life/death emergency.

These two were born in my bathtub into the hands of their daddy. I had a doula for Nayelah’s unassisted birth and for Zion’s, it was just me and my husband Randy.

Amazing. Magical. Transformational. Primal. Healing. Life changing. Empowering. Filled with the Holy Spirit.

BIRTH IS NOT A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. BIRTH IS A LIFE CONDITION.

WE ARE NOT PATIENTS. WE ARE BIRTHING MOTHERS. WE ARE PREGNANT WOMEN.

We ARE capable of doing this without medical providers. Without hospitals. The problem is, WE ARE BRAINWASHED to think that we cannot do it without “them”

That we need them to be safe.

We MUST break free from this conditioning. Take back your birth!

YOU WERE MADE FOR THIS.

Disclaimer: you don’t need to justify to me why you needed the hospital or why you had a c section. I’m very much aware that emergencies happen as a birth worker, I’ve attended births where emergencies have happened and hospital transfer was needed. Ive attended births where mom had complications and the hospital was the safest place for her and baby. You don’t need to justify to anyone why you chose to get an epidural or whatever intervention. As long as you were given true informed consent, then you should be confident in your decision and not feel the need to justify it. I believe in choice and transparency. Every birth matters. Every birth is different. Xoxo

07/03/2021

Posted • Red flag comment right here 🚩

Doulas are advocates. They are support. They are encouragement. They are comfort. 

But they’re also education - confidence - options - and they know your rights.

Some doctors don’t want you reminded that you have choices because then they can’t do things their way.

If you know that you can refuse an unnecessary surgery, then they might not be able to schedule your birth and be in and out of the hospital in an hour. They might have to pull a whole shift. They might have to wait for you to labor - and they might not like that.

There is always one person who comments “not all OB’s are the same” on a post like this, so this line is for you - if you had a doctor that was happy to work with doulas, I’m glad you had the support you deserved, but not everyone is so lucky. And of course all OB’s aren’t the same - they’re individual human beings - some will be excellent at their job, and some will suck, just like any profession.

If you’re planning to give birth in a hospital, having a doula can really help you avoid trauma and have the birth you want. Be sure to ask your OB about their stance on doulas - even if you don’t plan to have one, their answer will clue you in to how controlling they plan to be during your birth. It’s best to ask about this during your early appointments so you have time to switch providers or find the support team you need.

My birthday/Mother’s Day discount codes are active through tomorrow:

🔆 Code TIGERMAMA gets you 20% off your entire order in my shop.
🔆 Get 15% off your order on supplements through my Fullscript account (link in bio).
🔆 Code BIRTHUPRISING gets you 15% off on organic nursing pillows (this code is good indefinitely).

04/26/2021

I’ve seen many posts and comments from birth workers denying any connection between the cv jab and the massive increase in miscarriage, stillbirth, menstrual disruption, and reproductive issues. Not just in women who received it, but those in contact with people who have received it, too. Regardless of the hundreds of thousands of reports, regardless of the hundreds of thousands of personal testimonies (in a world where we’re supposed to ‘believe women’) and despite some of the leading scientists speaking out about the dangers of this shot and it’s impact on fertility. Instead, they’re choosing to rely on compromised, biased refutation-propaganda (i.e. anything you find on Google when you look up cv jab and fertility).

I’d just like to put it out there, I am NOT that birth worker. I am appalled at how the same person who can see through the corruption and abuse of the medicalized birthing system and advocate for women, is incapable of recognizing (or admitting) what’s really going on.

03/10/2021

🤰🏻🤰🏼🤰🏽🤰🏾🤰🏿
In consults with potential clients (in this case- Zoom) I often get asked by the partner why a doula is necessary. Why does mom need a doula anyway? What’s the justification for the investment?

Well, that’s a simple answer really...but a lot goes into it!

According to a birth doula is a companion who supports a birthing person during labor and birth. Birth doulas are trained to provide continuous, one-on-one care, as well as information, physical support, and emotional support to birthing persons and their partners. Doulas nurture and support the birthing person throughout labor and birth. Their essential role is to provide continuous labor support to the mother, no matter what decisions the mother makes or how she gives birth (Labor support is defined as the therapeutic presence of another person, in which human-to-human interaction with caring behaviors is practiced). Emotional support helps the birthing person feel cared for and feel a sense of pride and empowerment after birth. One of the doula’s primary goals is to care for the mother’s emotional health and enhance her ability to have positive birth memories. Advocacy, another key role, is defined as supporting the birthing person in their right to make decisions about their own body and baby.

Importantly, the doula’s role and agenda are tied solely to the birthing person’s agenda. This is also known as primacy of interest. In other words, a doula’s primary responsibility is to the birthing person—not to a hospital administrator, nurse, midwife, or doctor.

Or, we can sum it up like this: you bring your car to the mechanic, but you don’t know much about cars. So, you bring uncle Vinny (who used to work on cars and knows everything about them) to make sure you get a good experience and are taken care of properly. That’s what I am at a birth, I’m uncle Vinny!

03/06/2021

You're not allowed to not allow me.

If I had a nickel for every time I've heard someone say that their provider wouldn't "allow" them to do/not do something, I'd have a lot of nickels.

But the quote above is one of the worst for me. I hear it ALL THE TIME.

It starts off like this...

Provider says, "I won't allow you to go past X gestation." This could be 39 weeks, 40 weeks, 41 weeks... you choose the number. It's different every time.

What they mean by this is, "I'm not comfortable with letting your body go into spontaneous labor on its own time, because I want control of the situation and fear liability."

With higher gestations there is a very minute risk of complications, such as stillbirth, which is what is always cited in these cases (except the real numbers are never provided).

But you know what's more risky than allowing your body to complete a physiological process that it's gotten that far in?

FORCING IT.

The risks of forcing a body into labor through membrane sweeps, induction methods, epidurals, assisted birth (vacuum/forceps) & abdominal surgery is FAR HIGHER than just waiting.

But they're not comfortable with waiting. They're not comfortable with you being in charge.

If you're told that something is "not allowed", always ask why. Always ask for the evidence. This way you can compare for yourself the risk of taking action vs. doing nothing.

Always remember, your "care" team works for you, not the other way around.

03/05/2021

Were you told that epidurals can contain opioids & narcotics?
According to the American Pregnancy Association, in order to keep the amount of anesthetic in an epidural lower, opioids or narcotics (such as fentanyl) are often added.
This is important information, especially for those in recovery who want to completely avoid this type of medication.
Epidurals can affect the baby by causing a slowed heart rate, "sleepiness" after birth, and trouble breastfeeding (all noted in the package insert). The anesthetic can also be found in the breastmilk of the mother, which has been shown to pass to the baby (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/effect-of-epidurals-on-breastfeeding/).
So the same people who just told you to spend 10 months avoiding alcohol, mercury from fish, and most medications are now the ones pushing an epidural… and they probably didn’t tell you what was in it.
You deserve to know the risks, benefits & alternatives of all procedures that are proposed to you. It's the only way that you can make the best choice possible in your unique situation.
No matter what you choose during your pregnancy, birth & postpartum, having all of the information presented to you beforehand is crucial. This is the best way to avoid regret & reduce your likelihood for birth trauma.
When I received an epidural during my first birth, I was not informed about its contents. Were you told that epidurals can contain opioids & narcotics?