Your experienced Doula Collective (Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows and beyond!)
A 2011 study from the Cochrane Collaboration Pregnancy and Childbirth Group showed clear evidence for the effectiveness of doulas in creating positive birth outcomes.
Hiring a doula is part of creating a birth you are happy with, asking questions, trusting your care provider and informed consent are all pieces to the pie. Research does indicate…
fewer medical interventions
less vacuum/forcep delivery
less analgesic use
less Cesarean Births
report more positive birth experience
I’m often asked why a doula is “So Expensive” And I suppose if you have never broken down the pieces or really know how much time is involved maybe you would think that. Ridge Meadows Doula Services Charges $1200. Here is a breakdown of our expenses.
Consultation/Interview- we consider this free, we are willing to share as much time with you as you need to ensure you get a good idea of who we are. We explain our philosophy, the advantages of a doula, our experience, our beliefs on birth and we let you see a part of our sparkling personalities. When we are hired we give you immediate phone and email support. Some families email every day, this is great— it helps build our relationship.
Prenatal #1– This is a 2-hour commitment with 2 doulas, the birther and her partner. We learn how the pregnancy has been going, how involved your partner wants to be, we build a birth plan in detail, we talk about the ins and out of a hospital or home birth and we go through our doula bag.
Prenatal #2– This is also a 2-hour commitment with 2 doulas. We explore your hopes and fears of births and work through them individually. We go over and practice comfort measures and teach you how to use our tens machine. Then we remind you to switch gears, we talk about after baby is born… Freezer meals, guests or no guests, breastfeeding etc.
The birth– For RMDS there is no right or wrong time to call us, it is when you need us.
Sometimes we come over, tuck you in and read on your couch.
Sometimes we come over and once everyone is settled we fall asleep also.
Sometimes we hook up the tens machine and remind you of the birth you are wanting.
Sometimes we come over and we start massaging and hip squeezing right away.
Sometimes you are rocking it on your own and we remind you of it.
Sometimes we meet you at the hospital.
Sometimes we come and start setting up the birth pool right away.
When we are there we support you for as many hours as needed. We have had births in 4 hours and births in 50 hours. We don’t leave right when a baby will be born, so we plan for the long haul. When we plan we arrange childcare, throw a meal in the slow cooker, we miss soccer practices, doula night outs, birthdays with friends and families. It’s our life. Our phone is on and we go to bed early, we skip the glass of wine, we make sure our car has gas and we have our doula bag by the front door. This is the doula life. And this is part of the job.
Postpartum Visit- This visit is many things. We often talk about and celebrate the birth. We help with breastfeeding, teach you first bathing techniques if needed, let you shower while we hold baby. We don’t expect a cup of tea, heck, we will get YOU a cup of tea. We want to connect, support, and encourage you. This takes time, 2 hours-ish.
So yes, doulas are expensive, even after all the hours we are with our clients we go out and we spend our money educating ourselves by taking additional workshops and classes.
Why do we do it? Because we love it because we believe every woman deserves to have informed choice, because birth matters!
Happy Birthing, Nicole
Teresa Pitman, co-author of La Leche League’s The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, shares this information, “The composition of your breast milk will change in response to the need of your baby – a higher water content in the hot weather and a higher fat content in the colder months.”
Tips to breastfeeding in the hot summer….for baby
-liquids other than breast milk are filling, they don’t have as much nutrients and may effect your breast milk supply. avoid water and stick with your milk.
-breast milk is supply and demand, feed baby frequently.
-Breast milk is designed to be thirst quenching and full of vitamins, fat and other goodness. Remember how thirsty you are in the heat, baby is too. Give him some thirst quenching foremilk.
Tips for breastfeeding in the hot summer…. for Mom
-Try and offer skin to skin. While this can me a sticky sweaty option it can increase your milk supply and offer more hydration for your little one. Oxytocin! (bonus if you can find AC!) If this is not possible have a thin receiving blanket between you and baby
-breastfeed side laying— this way baby isn’t sweat induced suction cupped to you.
Tips for supporting breastfeeding… for fathers and other family members
– Offer a cool drink for mom as she is breastfeeding
-offer encouragement. You know what it’s like when someone tries to snuggle up to you in the heat of summer, imagine this every few hours. Remind her of her awesomeness and dedication to the health of her baby.
Breast milk is perfect for summer. Wither you are going to the beach, playground or camping breast milk is always available. It’s super easy! It requires no preparation, no refrigeration, doesn’t spoil, and often comes in easy to access packaging, (think tank tops and maxi dresses)
Anything else to add? Please comment below.
So way, way back in July (or June) Nicole asked me to do a little blog for her on the importance of routines. Since I wasn’t in the routine of being a guest blogger, I came up with a few reasons why I couldn’t do it, and when all else failed, I ignored her. Now if you know anything about Nicole, you know she doesn’t do ‘ignore’. So last week I found myself in possession of yet another email requesting I get on it and get guest blogging.
So I found myself in the position of actually thinking through routines and why they are important to us. And actually that not only are they important, but a requirement for stability within a person and a home.
I think that some people baulk at the idea of a routine as they believe it will take away their freedom, their creativity and their independence. Routines will make us un-flexible, make our lives boring, creating a monotonous existence that will numb our minds and cause us to be a little like the stepford wives.
In actuality, just the opposite is true.
To begin with, most of us already have routines in our lives. We rise and go to bed roughly at the same time every day. We have a hygiene routine and a routine to nourish our bodies.
Whether we work at home or out of the home we have our routines. Another reason to establish routines is that they provide emotional safety for children (and adults too). We are all better at attempting new challenges (from children learning to tie their shoes to adults beginning a new job) when the regular routine is reliable. Generally speaking we handle change best within the framework of well-known routines, which allow us flexibility but keeps the expectations consistent. This means, “no surprises”, and that help us all to manage our thoughts and emotions, which empowers us to take control of ourselves and our environment.
Routines work in our lives from eliminating power struggles with your children to getting your children to cooperate. We all know “what comes next” and so it becomes habitual. No one feels, overpowered, disregarded or pushed around.
Daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly routines guide our lives and provide consistency, which enables us to live with harmony and security. And just so you know, I was reading the other day about artists. Even the most creative of them need to start by mastering the standards of the past and learning the rules of art composition. Only after the rules have been mastered and the artist feels safe within the structure of traditional visual artwork, can he stretch his wings and be his most creative. And so it is with us and our children. We are the very best we can be when we have a routine that helps us to know and understand the rules that keep us grounded and in control of ourselves. After that creativity, freedom and independence abound! So don’t be afraid of routines: embrace them. You’ll be glad you did!
The talented Sandra Deutsmann is local to Maple Ridge and Pitt meadows area and has been teaching Parents and Parenting classes for many years. When she’s not facilitating Parenting Programs she can be found singing, dancing or chanting overtop of crying babies and bouncing new mothers at her Parent Child Mother Goose Programs . She not only has a voice of an angel but she has a very experienced non-judgemental approach to parenting that has been desired from many parents in the community.
I’ve heard this time and time again. “My competition is Doula (blank)” I’ve always struggled with the idea because I know I have different strengths from other doulas, therefore in my mind we are not competition, we are different doulas with different skill sets in the same community. Interviewing a Doula is very personal, the mother needs to be comfortable with me or the relationship at the birth will be strained. So I welcome the questions and concerns to make sure we are a good match.
Yesterday I sat with another doula chatting birth, placentas and doula-ing and I was happy to hear she had a similar value.
The doula field is still not mainstream. Doulas need to work together, networks and spread the benefits of a doula.
The knowledge and empowerment from my coffee meeting yesterday proved my point.
