Years ago, I attended the birth of a good friend as her doula. We weren’t as close of friends then, but that experience solidified things. We had met at Imbolc (or Groundhog Day to those who celebrate the Bill Murray Wheel of the Year instead of the Celtic Wheel of the Year), and then her baby came at the end of August. We’d done some prenatal appointments in the pool at the place where I was living at the time. Obviously, we became very, very good friends after the big adventure of her birth.
Her birth was long. Her baby made a long weekend of it. On Friday night, as we were wrapping up my partner’s birthday pool party, she called me. She was so excited. She was like, yeah, I think I felt a contraction. I think something’s happening.
If you’re a birth worker, you know that it could still be like a week. You really gotta be coy with labor, pretend you don’t see labor looking at you from across the party.
I was like, Girl, go to sleep.
Anyways, the next day. Her water broke. They wanted her to come in right away. We waited a bit. I drove out to her farm and we did some stretches and releases, to try and stir things up. If you’re not birth-y, here’s context: once your water breaks, the baby’s no longer in a sealed, sterile environment. The birth canal has lots of normal healthy bacteria, but they’re not normal and healthy up in there with all that nourishing water and sensitive smooth muscle of the uterus. It’s an infection risk to have your water broken for a while. So anyways.
We spent a long weekend at the hospital. This was ok. Each contraction we breathed through. In between, we giggled, her partner DJ’d (beautifully!) I remember listening to “A Stick a Stone” and talking about how it’s like sung in every language. We became a really solid team. We were vibing and grooving, and I thought, in our flow, and getting somewhere.
I was so invested in her emotional journey. Because we were friends. It was my journey too. We spent all this time doing all this work, and stalled at the 5cm mark: halfway there, but actually not even active labor. It was just so discouraging, hours passing, each contraction a suspension in time, breath slow in, breath slow out. Hours of work, witnessing pain, witnessing hard work, and working hard myself. And then boom, 5 cm again. Soooooo disheartening.
I guess I mentioned Groundhog’s Day earlier, you can see where my head was at.
I knew some about physiologic birth. I knew that each person’s unique body and history, tension patterns, ligaments, and resting position of muscle affected the bones and played a role in the mystery of the whole process. I just didn’t know what to do when, and it was so frustrating. I knew there was something I could do to help, but I just didn’t know what it was. I just knew a couple of basic moves, and we were cycling through them kinda willy-nilly.
I was on the spinning babies website on my phone, (and babe let me tell you that joint is NOT optimized for mobile, if anyone is a web designer please, for all our sake, pitch them a redo) and it’s like massive amounts of information, scrolling, context, background, anecdotes, contraindications. My sleep-deprived, probably food-deprived head was SPINNING.
I had been a yoga teacher since 2017. I knew how the muscles worked together with the bones. I’d been a birth worker since 2015. I knew the physiologic process of birth, what dominoes stack and fall: prostaglandins, hormones, baby’s cardinal movements.
I just didn’t know how to put it all together.
I wasn’t like, pissed. But I felt like something was just out of sight, and I wanted it.
This baby came Monday morning. It was honestly such a beautiful birth. She was an absolute rock star: half-delirious, so so so so strong. Worth every squeezed hip, every tear shed. Obviously.
But immediately after- ok no, after I went home and slept, and then went in for a bunch of overnight shifts at my job at the time- but pretty quickly after- I was signed up to a new training that I was super hyped up about, called Body Ready Method.
The Method is the brainchild of a brilliant exercise scientist, Lindsay McCoy, who was raised by an OB and an L&D nurse and thought she could resist the pull of birth work. Went into exercise science and then, after her first, terrible birth, realized she had to become a doula and combine her skill sets to revolutionize the scene.
It was honestly the best, still unsurpassed online training I’ve ever taken. One of the main staff members of the org is based in Saudi Arabia, and just showed up on every Zoom in her full burka. The tech support person was in South America. The training was full of midwives, chiro’s, OBs, massage therapists, prenatal yoga teachers, pilates, you name it. and lots and lots of doulas. It slapped. I learned so much, and the learning was so embodied and fun.
Shortly after finishing, I got my dream nursing job on L&D. One that I, sort of wistfully, can’t quit, even though before that I wanted to completely quit nursing (burnout’s a bitch) and do my own thing. So I get to use a lot of the skills in labor, day after day after day.
But the prenatal prep piece is so crucial, so this summer I’m bringing that back in, working with pregnant folks 1-1 to create a simple, custom routine to move their unique + brilliant body towards the alignment that supports a more comfortable pregnancy, smoother birth, and easier recovery.
Craniosacral
You can sign up for Craniosacral therapy- my healing arts practice that uses a series of gentle holds to gently support releases in fascia and nervous system health- Booking is Here!
And Introducing, Prenatal Playground
I’m introducing a new offer into the ecosystem of my work. It’s called Prenatal Playground, and I’m launching a beta version this July. It’s a 1-1 postural alignment assessment, and simple, customized movement recommendations, combined with ongoing support, troubleshooting, reminders, and reassessment. It’s going to a be a ton of fun and I’m offering a $50 referral bonus, if you have a friend or fam you think would be an excellent fit! I’m looking for people who will actually do the moves. It’s ok if they need reminders! And they don’t need movement experience. But I want that follow-through. The referral bonus is because I’d love to keep it in my network, so I can really get incredible feedback on how to iron out any kinks and make this program work excellently. It’s virtual, so open to people in any location. Please email if you have questions about it! Or send me a DM on IG.
For Birthworker Buds
Body Ready Method is actually enrolling their training again right now, it’s early bird pricing for the next three days. I think I have a discount code so holler at me if you need that.
Extra Random Thoughts
Free million-dollar (baby) idea: pregnancy-specific aqua aerobics. I really think this could take off. It needs the right personality (Looking at you, Brooke Trout Paulus). Maybe I should just do it, but I’m sort of a black cat or a toaster or something when it comes to water. Maybe Global Warming will convince me bc ya girl is overheating.
What’s going to be the summer jam this year? (speaking of million dollar baby)
If anyone knows what to do about the news, please let me know!
Doing the Artist’s Way with a couple of friends and Gnarniacs. Learning about cringe. If you are making art or anything creative, you need to get your cringe reps in, and I hate that for us.
Blindboy talked about it too. I’m really sorry that I’m not sorry for how obsessed with Blindboy I am. My partner is super tired of hearing about him. But it must be said.
My new friend Liz convinced me to take my Magnesium Calm powder again with her mineral talks while we floated on the river. I’ve been feeling disillulu with minerals honestly solely because everything feels like Instagram-ified pseudoscience vibes these days. But minerals are big and my permaculture teacher back in like 2007 (?!?) was teaching me that the soil is super depleted of magnesium and so even foods considered rich in it, just ain’t. Surely nothing’s gotten worse in any way since 2007, right?