Journey Birth Services

01/14/2026

Maybe I was ahead of the times with Keith, Henry and Caroline?!!!? 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

​“We aren’t naming babies. We’re naming people."

01/08/2026

I mean, I carried my babies that way (and they’re no 23-17 so honestly not that long ago)…

01/07/2026

As a specialist in gestational diabetes nutrition, I talk about blood sugar & pregnancy. I’m busting 9 gestational diabetes myths with the latest research.

01/02/2026

01/02/2026

🔗: bit.ly/4qA0ooI

Colleen Slagen has been a professional baby name consultant since 2022, when she left her full-time job as a nurse practitioner to pursue her lifelong passion for names.

📷: Caeli Richter Photography

01/02/2026

2025 brought 21 babies, ranging in size from 6lb 8oz to 10lb 0oz!!! We even attended the first birth of 2025 in our county (not doing that for 2026 because we are off call here for the holidays!). 22% were born in the water 🥰

12/27/2025

The first year of motherhood brings profound changes to sleep patterns. New mothers lose up to 40% of deep sleep, the stage most critical for physical recovery, emotional regulation, and memory consolidation. This level of sleep deprivation in soldiers would be classified as “war level stress.”

For mothers, however, this intense loss of restorative sleep is often considered a normal part of parenting. The frequent night awakenings, feeding schedules, and caregiving demands disrupt the natural sleep cycle repeatedly. Even brief interruptions prevent the brain and body from reaching deep restorative states.

The cumulative effect of lost deep sleep contributes to fatigue, reduced cognitive function, and heightened emotional sensitivity. Mothers may experience increased stress, reduced patience, and slower decision-making, all while managing the needs of a newborn.

Understanding the biological impact of disrupted sleep emphasizes the importance of support systems. Partners, family members, and caregivers can help share nighttime responsibilities, allowing mothers brief periods of uninterrupted rest to recover.

Recognizing that “normal” sleep patterns in new mothers are extreme stress on the body and brain can guide empathy, support, and practical strategies to protect maternal wellbeing during this demanding first year.

12/04/2025

Healthy People 2030 aims to decrease low-risk cesarean delivery rates to 23.6% in the United States. In 2023, the national rate was 26.6%, though rates vary widely by state and hospital. This suggests a need for localized geographic estimates to identify places with a higher burden. In this study, the authors modeled 2023 low-risk cesarean delivery rates by county of birth using birth certificate data and found considerable variation in rates, with county rates ranging from 5.8% to 53.4%. Counties in the West had lower rates than those in the Midwest, South, and Northeast. County cesarean delivery rates increased with urbanicity. Only 47.7% (985) of counties had rates meeting the Healthy People 2030 target.

Read the full study in the December 2025 issue or at: https://buff.ly/Saxw22g