I love to listen to the Not Your Average Runner podcast on my early morning training runs. Yesterday, I listened to Episode 68: Ultrarunning and Beating Type Two Diabetes with Betsy Hartley. This episode was AMAZING. They all are, really, and I encourage anyone who is preparing to have a natural childbirth to listen to …
"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." -Jim Rohn This quote is painted above the stage at my kids' school. I didn't pay much attention to this quote until a few months ago, and now it has become sort of like a mantra. I have been training for my first …
I have this funny habit of mixing up punchlines, forgetting jokes, and getting quotes just plain wrong. It even applies to how I think about my children. Lately, my thoughts have been on potty training. Actually, I think too much of my past nine years of being a mother has been spent on worrying about …
I have attended many births during the past 8 years, and every single one is a new adventure. I keep waiting for the day that I feel like I know exactly what I am doing when I am attending births, but that day has yet to come. I have to approach each birth as a …
I am planning to take a postpartum doula training this weekend. I'm not sure why, but I've been feeling the ever so slight push to take a postpartum doula training for the last year and a half or so. I'm still pretty uncertain about what I am going to do with this. I am uncertain …
I am preparing for a half-marathon right now. This will be my first time training for and participating in a race of this distance. So far, my longest distance has been a 10K. I am nervous and excited for this opportunity. I have been working toward this goal for a long time, and I still …
We've all seen those doula stats. You know the ones. People who have a doula tend to have: Shorter labors Fewer requests for pain meds A better postpartum experience More birth satisfaction AND A heck of a good time* * Ok, so I made this one up. But here is a link to a reference …
Continue reading "How doulas help you have a less painful birth"
Sometimes I run across some confusion about what doulas can and can't do for a client. Doulas possess knowledge and skills that are very different from that of a midwife, nurse, or OB. Although some of the skills might overlap between these roles, there are very clear boundaries that doulas follow in order to keep …
When I was pregnant with my second baby, my midwife told me that preparing to give birth was like training for a marathon. I pretty much blew her off because I'd already given birth (which wasn't terrible), and it seemed NOTHING like what I imagined running a marathon would be (pretty much like the worst …
Continue reading "How preparing for birth is like training for a (half) marathon"
I recently completed a 10K, and I wanted to share a few thoughts that I had about the experience. It was too much for me to write, and I just couldn't figure out quite how to write about it. I decided that a video would do a much better job at capturing my thoughts. Summary: …
Continue reading "How running helps me celebrate other women"
