Latest Posts

  In my last blog post "COVID-19: Are you prepared to serve your clients", I posed the question about COVID-19: “Are you prepared to serve your clients?”. At that time it was early days of the global pandemic with just 1200 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and a dozen reported deaths. Now with more than 10.3 million confirmed infections and 500,000+ deaths worldwide, the coronavirus has taken root; transforming the nuances of our daily life and routines into a whirlwind of ...

Exploring birth options during the coronavirus pandemic isn't what anyone expected. In our earlier blog, we explored the conditions that would make out of hospital birth a safe and feasible alternative for families exploring birth options during the pandemic.   But informed decision-making involves a process more complex than weighing risks and benefits.   Is the choice fear driven?  If so, is a decision truly informed if it’s driven by a fear or trauma response?   How can we not overlook the qualities ...

For those providers who are working with pregnant persons or new parents and their newborns, balancing the directive “assume your pregnant patient is an infected person” (Breslin, et. al, 2020) with the need to prioritize access of PPE for those who work in medical centers directly caring for actively symptomatic infected persons leaves us with logistic, moral and ethical dilemmas. With a catastrophic shortage in essential PPE in medical centers, a lack of centralized distribution, and no end in sight, ...

You're fielding questions about home birth from clients who hadn't considered it until now. Here are some considerations...   Lots of families are afraid.  They don’t want to go to the hospital.  They’re asking about home birth.  How should you respond?   In this 2 part blog series, we look at implications for maternity care delivery methods, possibilities for these extraordinary times, and tools for supporting clients through fear and uncertainty, as well as informed-decision-making. Home Birth Prevalence & Safety Approximately ...

If you’re working as a doula, lactation consultant or First-Year Specialist, community health worker, would your care of families be considered an essential duty? Read your local ordinances for your region, but with current guidelines in place for California, Illinois, and Wisconsin, leaving your home to work with families in their homes would be permissible. Whether you should, we’ll explore further. Video Conferencing and telehealth As we explore how best to support your families who need your support, the first ...

On March 16th, we launched the COVID-Best Practices Course for Lactation Consultants, Doulas and Perinatal Educators.  It brought together providers around the country and it has since cultivated some meaningful conversations and collaborations.  So thank you, dear birthkeepers, and let’s keep it going. We’ve created a format for Community Conversations, and just had our first discussion last night. While we laid the ground to address practical and pressing issues affecting our practices, the group most needed to share our grief, ...