First off, let me say that I definitely don’t believe that homebirth is for every woman.  Even though studies have shown homebirth to be generally as safe as hospital birth for babies and safer for mothers in low-risk pregnancies (that is, 70-90% of women), some mothers simply feel safer in the hospital and that’s OK. …

The Joint Commission requires hospitals to ask patients to rate their pain at regular intervals.  Most use a smiley-face pain scale like this: Since I’ve long thought asking this of laboring women to be unhelpful at best and the cause of additional pain at worst, I’ve begun suggesting to clients that they consider using the…

As I type this, my older two children (ages 8 and 10) are at a park near our house having a picnic with three of their friends. And no adults. I try not to look out the window too much to see if I can see them coming back yet, but as a modern parent…

Warning: If you have never given birth before, this post may be a lot to handle.  However, I feel it is part of my duty as a doula to not let any woman give birth and then exclaim, “Why didn’t anyone tell me?!”  So, you’re welcome. Women who’ve had a medication-free birth generally feel pretty…

If you have had a baby before, you know that checking in to the hospital and answering all of their intake questions takes approximately 4 hours, or, hopefully, all of the time you’re there before you’re actively pushing your baby out. If you plan to do most of your laboring at home, or if you’re…