Every now and then I come across a picture or story about a doula that leaves me thinking in my best Jim Gaffigan impression, "That's one way to live your life." I've read stories about the need for more pit bull doulas (not me) who will put their hands in front of a perineum (so …
Continue reading "5 Things You Should Know About Me Before We Even Meet"
Love them or hate them, birth plans have been a part of the birth world since before I had my first child over ten years ago. Some people ridicule birth plans and the people who create them, saying things like, "There's an automatic C-section." Other people, like my first midwives, expect their patients to have …
I fell in love with the rebozo during my first doula training almost ten years ago. If there comes a day that I stop being a doula, I will never be able to let go of my rebozos. They have become a part of me, and it is so hard to describe how I feel …
File this under "Things I Said I Would Never Do," but I finally broke down and made Child #3 a Potty Chart. I always wanted my children to be intrinsically motivated to use the potty, but it isn't really happening for Child #3. While we were finally able to help this child learn how to …
Continue reading "How to make a super easy potty training chart"
I'm in a bit of a bad mood today, and sometimes blogging is the best outlet I have to release my negative emotions. I've hesitated to blog about personal stuff for the past several years because I was scared to scare potential clients away. As I am approaching the end of my doula career, I've …
While scrolling through Instagram the past few weeks, I have seen several stories of planned hospital births turning into accidental home births or planned home births turning into accidental unassisted home births. I'm not surprised this is happening. COVID-19 has seemed to turn the world upside-down, including how care providers are working with their pregnant …
Continue reading "What it was like to have an accidental unassisted home birth"
Where can I even begin? These are some unprecedented and uncertain times, for sure. What can I say that hasn't been said already? I think this post will be more for me than any of my clients or readers. This really won't be an educational post as much as a personal post about where my …
Continue reading "Supporting clients during the COVID-19 pandemic"
Staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic reminds me of all the times that my kids have asked to help me cook or move heavy furniture and I've had to say no. I'd assure them, "If you really want to help me, the best way to help right now is to stay out of the way." …
Continue reading "When helping means staying out of the way"
What is it about that glorious round belly that invites so many crazy comments and so much unsolicited advice? How come everyone becomes a pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting expert except for the one going through the experience themselves? People say some of the darnedest things to parents-to-be about any subject, not the least, about food. …
Continue reading "Crazy things people said to me about food during pregnancy"
I started working as a doula in 2011. I decided to become a birth doula after the amazing natural childbirth of my first daughter. I had a natural childbirth in the hospital with an awesome group of midwives, who have mostly moved on to other ventures, save one midwife who is still there from the …
Keen Doula Care 