Preparing for your prenatal visit with your birth doula

When and where do we meet?Your visit should be scheduled around your 36/37th week in pregnancy. Typically, your doula will come to your home however, if you feel more comfortable meeting somewhere else or virtually this can be arranged. Budget around 1-2 hours at your prenatal appointment.What will we discuss?What happens after the prenatal visit?During the prenatal visit, most clients utilize the time to discuss their birth preferences, delve into their options, and address any anxieties or fears that may be …

Three Prideful Children’s Stories I’m Sharing With My Children This Pride Month

Happy Pride Month friends! This June has been extra special in getting to share Pride festivities with my kiddo; who’s now 5 and can participate and engage in new, exciting ways. My son, Maddox, and I had a ton of fun attending his first pride parade & learning about what the expression of freedom meant for individual people we encountered.   As the month comes to a close, we’ve kept the pride celebrations and talk going in our household all …

How to Feel Your Best Postpartum

Postpartum is among the most challenging times in a familys life. Your body is healing, hormones are running wild, you’re more exhausted than you knew was possible, and in the midst of it all, you’re learning how to be a caregiver to the amazing little human you created. Even if you have not physically given birth, the early days of a new baby can be exhausting and scary, and finding time to care for yourself isn’t easy. Basically — it’s …

So What Exactly Does a Postpartum Doula Do?

What exactly a postpartum doula does is such a hard question to answer, because it is so uniquely tailored to our clients. All I can say is so many people enter a new parents’ home, and the focus is all on the baby. Even all the doctors and lactation consultant visits in the initial months focus almost solely on the baby. The birthing person gets ONE visit at 6 weeks.  The Partner doesn’t get a check in. The main thread through everything …

Ways Birthing from Within Helps Parents

In our Birthing from Within childbirth education class you will… Explore the internal landscape for labor The internal landscape for labor relates to the emotional and mental journey – the internal experience. Regardless of how birth unfolds medically, the inner journey tends to have some common milestones. In addition to learning about anatomy, physical stages of labor, hormones and physiology, we go deep into the internal experience and also help parents prepare for and recognize some of those emotional guide posts …

10 Questions to Ask Your Provider about Pregnancy, Birth, & Postpartum from BBS Senior Doula Kerry Reynolds

Kerry Reynolds is a Balanced Birth Support Senior Doula serving Metro DC & Greater Maryland. She has been a birth doula for over a decade with tons of experience supporting all kinds of births including home birth, medicated and non–medicated hospital, cesarean birth, twin deliveries, LGBTQ families and VBAC deliveries. Learn more about Kerry by visiting her Balanced Birth Support profile. Getting to know your doctor or midwife is an important part of preparing for birth & postpartum.  Its essential that …

Alleviating Common Pregnancy Aches and Pains by Rebekah Mustaleski, CPM-TN

Rebekah Mustaleski is Compression Director with MotifMedical.com and a Certified Professional Midwife with Roots & Wings Midwifery in Knoxville, TN, where she promotes evidence-based maternity care for families seeking an out of hospital delivery. She is working to improve maternal outcomes during the childbearing year and to promote a sustainable business model for midwifery practices across the country. Rebekah is co-owner of Roots & Wings Midwifery, LLC as well as Treasurer for the Tennessee Midwives Association. If you look up …

You Are Not Alone: Statistics, Resources, & Support for Victims of Domestic Violence

“Domestic violence is the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another. It includes physical violence, sexual violence, psychological violence, and emotional abuse. The frequency and severity of domestic violence can vary dramatically; however, the one constant component of domestic violence is one partner’s consistent efforts to maintain power and control over the other.” National Coalition Against Domestic Violence The victims of domestic violence and its …

Hey Maryland! Balanced Birth Support wants YOU to work with us supporting families in Greater Maryland!

Balanced Birth Support is a group of well respected birth and postpartum doulas, lactation consultants, sleep specialists, and childbirth educators. We have been serving families in the DC metro area for over a decade and have expanded to include Boston, North Carolina, New York, and New Hampshire. Most recently we  have begun serving families in Greater Maryland including Montgomery & Frederick Counties, Baltimore, Annapolis, and surrounding areas, and the Eastern Shore! We are looking for birth and postpartum doulas of …