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A Day in the Life with DFW Midwife Collective…with a twist!

About to have a baby on Chisholm Trail Tollway!

OH BABY!

Have we got a story for you. These two ladies wrapped up our 2020 year in the only way you could imagine 2020 ending for midwives- crazy!! This mom’s water broke at 2am Sunday morning. After two days of trying everything to get labor started, and 10 hours of our birth team at her home all day yesterday, we all decided to go to our friends at Cleburne Harris to have them get labor going. When we decided to go to the hospital, she was at about 40 hours of her water being broken, tried strong red raspberry leaf tea, castor oil, breast pump, toilet sitting, lunges, stair climbing, brisk walks, curb walking, figure 8 on ball… I mean, all the things. When we left for the hospital not much was happening. Never in a million years would we expect what happened next. About 40 minutes into the drive, her husband called Midwife Susan, who had been following behind (rather far behind due to a certain car driving so slow), and said she needed to push… PUSH!!! From sporadic, moderate contractions to PUSHING in 40 minutes (bless those car rides). Susan was able to reach them quickly, already gloved with chux pads- she ran to their car. On the side of the highway, y’all. Fast forward another 10 minutes- we had a baby on Chisholm Tollway.

The “I DID IT”! look and pure happiness.

Student Midwife Whitney arrived not long after, as Midwife Susan was working on baby, and jumped in to help. Not long after a fireman arrived to look on with the trooper who had also arrived- all telling us how great we were doing, lol. Next, two EMTs and then Midwife Amanda. Everyone stayed to make sure we were all good. One EMT said it was his first birth call. ❤️ The EMTs offered any and all supplies, towels, blankets. Thankfully, because dad’s sweatshirt had already been used and Midwife Susan’s cardigan was currently keeping baby warm. Once placenta was delivered, dad cut cord, both mom and baby were stable, and the fireman and EMT left- we were ready to get somewhere more warm and comfortable. With the State Trooper’s blessing, and help, we did a caravan to Susan’s home a few minutes away, for postpartum recovery. Amanda made mom some late night breakfast, and mom and baby got their herbal bath. After exams, they were both dressed and ready to head home. This mom came to us in late pregnancy wanting an out of hospital birth. And not only that, a VBAC. We have loved having her in care and while this was NOT apart of the plan, watching her birth her VBAC baby with EASE was the perfect ending to our year (we are off call for the holidays!). She was strong, calm, powerful, and a complete badass. Thank you to the amazing Crowley Fire Department, Crowley EMT, and Texas State Troopers for their assistance. You were all hands off and respectful of the birth space we created in an unconventional way. We hope seeing that birth is SO normal that it can happen on the side of the road, even after a cesarean, with mom all smiles- your thoughts on out of hospital birth and midwives are positively affected. Congratulations J&S!! What a wild ride- literally! We could not be happier for your family. Baby Amilya is pure perfection. Powerhouse VBAC on the side of the highway perfectly sums up 2020, yeah? ❤️

Herbal bath for mom and baby
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Is Coronavirus ruining your birth plan? How changing your plan can help

You’ve got your OB, toured your hospital, lined up your doula, booked your photographer, and told your family & friends the plan. Everyone is excited to get that phone call and head to the hospital to welcome your new little one to the world.

And then BOOM! COVID-19 just wiped out all that excitement.

You’re feeling confused, worried, and stressed that your birth may not go the way you want, and I totally understand.

But not to worry! It’s never too late to adjust and pivot.

First – Let go of fear.

Know that your hospital and care provider are taking every precaution to keep you and your baby safe. The only change is the visitor policy and the number of support people allowed there – your family will have to wait till you get home to celebrate your little one’s arrival.  So keep calm and carry on. And wash your hands.

But if your family, doula, and photographer are super important to you…it’s not to late to change your plan.

Birth Photography Fort Worth

If you were considering a natural birth plan, midwives and birth centers across DFW are here to support you! Many of them are accepting late term transfers for low risk births helping you have the birth you want without hospital policy getting in the way.

Now, this isn’t to say we aren’t taking the corona virus seriously – we are!

But we also know how important your birth experience is to you.

“While we are closely monitoring COVID-19 and following the CDC’s precautions, we feel strongly in a woman’s right to choose. She will remember this day for the rest of her life and we want her to remember being supported and loved – not scared or fearful,” says Susan Taylor, a midwife with the DFW Midwife Collective.

Many of the Birth Centers and home birth midwives are also limiting visitors for the safety of you and your baby, but they aren’t clamping down so tightly on your support team.

Birth Photography Fort Worth

“While we will continue to encourage our clients to take safety measures themselves to protect their families, we will not limit them to choose only one support person at their birth. We will not ask them to leave their partner behind for prenatal appointments. We will not allow their birth to be engulfed with fear,” says Taylor.

It’s recommended to keep siblings and family at home for your meet & greet, but you’ll still be able to have your hubby, doula, and photographer there with you. (And with these precautions, it’s so important to have that birth photographer if you were planning on visitors!)

As an added advantage…

Many of these midwives are making house calls for prenatal appointments, so you don’t have to get out of the comfort of your quarantine and risk riding and elevator with someone whose cough may or may not be COVID-19.

Additionally. the cost of most birth centers and home births is normally far less than the most families incur giving birth at a hospital. Add in the bonus of the comfort of no IV constantly in your arm, the freedom to move, and a beautiful birth tub, and well, you can understand why some women never go back to the hospital for birth.

Birth Photography Fort Worth

If you’re considering making the jump, Midwife Cheryl Gaspard of Gentle Beginnings recommends gathering as much of your prenatal records as possible because a Records Request can take several weeks for your doctor’s office to respond.

As usual, I’ve done the work for you and prepped a list of those Birth Centers and Midwives I have either worked with or heard good things about that are accepting late transfers for your birth.  There may be others out there, but I try to recommend those who I know, like, or the folks in this birth industry I respect like.

DFW Birth Centers

Fort Worth Birth Center

Origins Birth Centers, both Fort Worth & Dallas

Gentle Beginnings

Grapevine Birth Center

The Nest Birth Center 

Allen Birth Center

Kueo Birth Center

Birth & Wellness Center of Arlington (Offering a discount for late transfers)

* Most of the birth center midwives also offer home birth as an option as well.

Midwives

DFW Midwife Collective, Susan Taylor & Amanda Prouty

Ordinary Miracles Childbirth Services, Jamie Hinton

Magnolia Midwifery

Danielle Hogan- Holistic Midwifery Care

Barefoot Midwifery, Cori Lively

Late Transfers & Birth Photography

I know this sudden planning can be stressful and a strain on the pocket book. If you feel a birth story is a must during the challenging and uncertain time, Birth & Life Photography is there for you.

Birth Center & Home Birth Sessions booked for late-transfer due dates* from April 18th to June 1st will receive a discount of $200 on their Birth Story. You do not need to pay in full by your due date; your payments can extend past your birth date with product ownership delivered after the final payment.

And as always, and most importantly during this time, Birth & Life Photography always continues the story with a family meet & greet session at no additional cost, so you can still have those precious moments where your children can meet their new sibling.

*Dates subject to availability

Click here to find out more information about our all-inclusive birth story package and everything that is included at the following link.

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A Midwife’s Guide to Nutrition During Pregnancy

A balanced diet is important to support good health throughout your life. However, when you become pregnant, a healthy diet is even more crucial. The foods that you consume are the baby’s primary source for nutrients. This is a Midwife’s Guide to Nutrition During Pregnancy. 


It may take a little bit of effort to eat healthy foods during your pregnancy, but the benefits to both you and the baby are well worth the trouble. If you are pregnant and you have not been maintaining a healthy diet, it is time to change your bad habits and do what is best for you and the developing baby.


Before you ever become pregnant is the best time to start eating all the right foods. When you practice a healthy diet before your pregnancy, you are laying the proper foundation to ensure that you and the baby will both have all of the important nutrients that you need to stay healthy. If you have plans to become pregnant, you should discuss nutrition with your health care provider.

 

Basic Nutrition

Even if you are not currently pregnant, your diet needs to include an adequate amount of carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, proteins, and fat. When you become pregnant, the amount of these nutrients that you need will increase.


A few of the most important nutrients include:
• Calcium to help baby build strong teeth and bones
• Iron to help red blood cells carry oxygen to baby
• Vitamin A to help baby form healthy eyesight and skin, in addition to aiding in bone growth
• Vitamin C to ensure baby’s teeth, gums, and bones are healthy; as well as helping your body with the absorption of iron
• Vitamin D to help baby build strong teeth and bones
• Vitamin B6 for the formation of red blood cells, which help the body use carbohydrates, fat, and protein
• Vitamin B12 is necessary for the formation of red blood cells and helps maintain the nervous system
• Folate is important in the production of protein and blood, in addition to helping with some enzyme function


Try eating a variety of different foods in the recommended amounts from basic food groups. This is the best way to make sure that you and baby are getting all of the important nutrients that you need in order to remain healthy throughout your surrogacy journey. 

 

Additional Nutrients

Once you become pregnant, it is important to increase the amount of folate and iron that you consume in your regular diet. In order to get the additional nutrients that you need during this crucial time, prenatal vitamins are recommended for most pregnant women.
Prenatal vitamins are supplements that contain the recommended daily amount of the vitamins and minerals that are necessary for a healthy pregnancy. This includes copper, zinc, minerals, folate, as well as vitamins A, C, and D. Your health care provider should be able to provide you with information specific to your needs, as taking some minerals and vitamins in excess may be harmful during pregnancy. In our Midwife’s Guide to Nutrition During a Surrogacy Pregnancy, we recommend a whole food based prenatal vitamin. Another key factor in maintaining good health during your pregnancy is water intake. We recommend drinking at least one gallon of water per day; and more during those hot summer months. Staying hydrated decreases swelling, constipation, urinary tract infections, and preterm labor. As well, it increases energy, aids in digestion, and softens the skin. If you are not currently drinking enough water, we suggest increasing your intake each week until you reach your goal amount.

 

Hydration

Another key factor in maintaining good health during your pregnancy is water intake. We recommend drinking at least one gallon of water per day; and more during those hot summer months. Staying hydrated decreases swelling, constipation, urinary tract infections, and preterm labor. As well, it increases energy, aids in digestion, and softens the skin. If you are not currently drinking enough water, we suggest increasing your intake each week until you reach your goal amount. We find carrying an insulated water bottle with you is the best way to ensure you reach those water intake goals. 

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And These Are the Days of Our Midwife Lives

Beautiful Beginnings Birth and Women’s Center currently staffs one professional midwife and her three students. A question that often comes up is, “What is it like to be a midwife?” We are asked this by clients, their families, and some who are looking to decide if this career path would be right for them. We have decided to get real with you about what our lives truly look like. Our midwife path leads us out of the hospital, attending births in a birth center and in the homes of our clients. (There are two types of midwives: nurse-midwives who operate under the supervision of a physician, often in the hospital, and professional midwives, ones who do not have hospital privileges. We are the latter.) There are many reasons that one would choose to become a midwife, but a general theme seems to come up. Someone who becomes a midwife believes in birth, trusts birth, and wants to support her clients to experience birth. Most think that living as a midwife is a glamourous lifestyle, after all, we are always surrounded by cute babies and the miracle of life. While this is true, this life is not without its’ hardships. We live a life full of sacrifice and suffering, but also, satisfaction.

Sacrifice seems to be at the core of our very existence. Our clients’ needs often come before our own needs, our families, and our friends. Midwives choose to have open communication with clients, always accessible by phone and never using an answering service. This means that we may be in the middle of a shower, getting our hair done, or a relaxing massage when the phone rings, but no matter what we are doing, we stop to answer that call. That call could be something as innocent as an insurance question, or it could be a first-time mother whose baby is not waking to eat and is losing weight. Whatever we were in the process of doing, it all must stop as we counsel a client through her needs. Our husbands are accustomed to our leaving in the middle of the night for a client in labor and having no idea when we will return. We miss out on special times with them too. Imagine being in the middle of your anniversary dinner, stopping to answer a call, and having to run out the door because the client is sure they will deliver that instant. When you arrive at the clients’ home, you find that she is only having gas pains and not true contractions. You come home to find your husband asleep. You wouldn’t change it for the world though, because that mom that you went to attend can now relax knowing that she and her baby are safe and can rest through the night. All of the staff at Beautiful Beginnings have our own children and we are willing to miss our own child’s birthday to attend yours. Our friends are used to us accepting an invitation to an event with the caveat of “unless someone goes into labor.” Friends have learned to ask if we are “off-call” before they ask us to partake in a bottle of wine. We have to weigh purchasing tickets to the zoo or amusement park carefully, knowing that we may be there thirty minutes before we have to leave and attend to a client. We can never truly commit to anything in life, knowing that we must be ready to jump in the car and vanish from our own lives for an undetermined amount of time. We do not make promises to our friends and family, only to our clients, that we will be there to support them whenever they need us.

Not only do we invite our clients into our free time, but we also carry them in our minds and hearts at all times. Your worries become our worries and we truly think of you all the time. When we have a client suffering, we are suffering with her. It is always our desire to provide a client with the birth that she desires, a birth surrounded by those that love her and care for her, peacefully and quietly, as she births her baby into loving hands. However, reality tells us that not all births go as planned. Some days we have to transfer a client to the hospital for her and her baby’s safety. As we dial the phone to complete the transfer, our hearts are breaking for her disappointment in her birth. Yes, it is needed. Yes, it is often life-saving. But we do share in the suffering. Even a birth that seems to be progressing smoothly does not ever let us rest easy. In the seconds between the birth of your baby and your baby’s first breath, you will find that your midwife is also holding her breath, willing the baby to initiate that first cry and fill their precious body with sweet oxygen. It is gut-wrenching when we must make the call to provide assistance to a baby who is a little delayed in that transition. We are trained and skilled, but that does not mean that we are not human and that we are not feeling every second of that clock just like you are. We calmly go through the motions, we restore peace, calm, and life to the room, and then, later, in our private time, we have a little cry over the tenseness of the moment. And not often, but occasionally, we suffer alongside the strongest of women as they process the fact that the life that are carrying no longer has a beating heart and we cry with them. The most we can do is love them and offer our strength through this time. It is said that a midwife must have the hands of a lady, the eyes of a hawk, and the heart of a lion. These traits are tested and refined at every birth.

So far, you must be thinking, ‘Why would anyone ever do this?’ This leads us to the satisfaction that comes when everything goes as planned, the births that end in a new mother glowing with pride over her baby, but also over what she has endured and overcome. We have seen a first-time mother who labored over a period of days lose faith in herself, but her partner had the will and the strength to hold her hand and get her through. That day we didn’t just attend the birth of a baby, but also the birth of a strongly bonded family. We have been able to witness the birth of a rainbow baby, a baby conceived after miscarriage, a baby that has been desperately hoped for. The love that fills the room when a mother delivers her second child and the older sibling gets to hold their sibling for the first time. The fire in the eyes of a VBAC mother after her first vaginal birth as she triumphantly exclaims, “My body really could do it!” The mother who comes into our care very late, after being told by a physician that her baby will be too big to deliver vaginally, and yet, here she is, cradling her child in her own bed, none the worse for wear. The foreign woman who travels across continents to have the birth that she desires, and no matter the fact that verbal communication is next to impossible, the international language of love and care transcends all. These are the moments that we live for, the moments that we thrive, the moments that make all the sacrifice and suffering worth it in the end. These are the women that we serve, women just like you, looking for a different experience, a birth the way it was intended to be.

The life of a midwife is not without struggles, but it is our life, and we couldn’t imagine it any other way. We want to thank each and every one of our clients who have trusted us and honored us by allowing us into their birthing space.

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Doulas Rock!

I hired a midwife, do I really need a doula too?
Yes! Yes! Yes! Midwives and doulas play two different roles during birth. Having both makes for a well rounded birth team.
Here’s the thing, midwives are there to ensure you and baby are safe. Absolutely, they’ll hold your hand and say words of encouragement, but at the end of the day (or birth) their biggest priority is making sure baby and mom are healthy.
A doula, on the other hand is there for you. She’s trained in comfort measures. She knows all the things to do to make a mom feel comfortable and relaxed. She knows positions and “tricks” to help with pain management. She may use essential oils, massage, take a few photos, grab you food and water, engage dad in the birth….she may even fix your hair (if, like me, you have wild birth curls). Her only job is to be there for you. She’ll be like having your best friend, sister, or mother there. But, unlike most well meaning relatives, she’s extremely knowledgeable about birth.
Here’s another difference. In most cases your midwife will want to head to your house or have you come in to the birth center when you’re well in to active labor. And that’s when you’ll really want her there; when the action is happening! Problem is, many moms have long early labors. Early labors that feel a whole lot like active labor and you need more support. (I’m one of those moms!) That is when having a doula is so wonderful. She will bring a calming presence and “bag of tricks” that can actually help you get that sleep your midwife keeps telling you you need, but you can’t seem to get…. And, you do need that sleep. I promise. 🙂
As a doula, I’ve been asked, “if I have a doula does that mean my hubby won’t be involved?” The answer is no. Unless he wants to take a back seat and you and he have planned for that. A doula will either encourage and guide hubby in helping his wife through child birth or she will fill in for him, if wanted.
We’re blessed in DFW to not only have so many talented midwives, but to also have so many amazing doulas. You pair the two and you’ll have an awesome birth experience!!
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