Maggie Storm - Birth & Postpartum Doula Clarence Valley Region

Little update!
It's been a while since I've posted in this space and in-between posts my family and I have had some big changes.
We left Newcastle at the start of the year and have landed up in Northern NSW. It's taken us a little while to find our feet and I feel like I'm building my birth business back up from scratch but I have already met some incredible birth workers and mamas in the local area. I am now servicing the areas around Yamba, Grafton, Illuka, Ballina and Coffs Harbour.
Please reach out if you are looking for birth or postpartum support, would love to connect

Mama Blessing Magic ✨
Celebrating ~ blessing ~ honouring pregnancy and birth as a divine rite of passage by coming together to share and witness each other in circle.
This beautiful mama will be transcending into the birth realm to bring her fifth and final baby down to earth in a few weeks time.
Yesterday we came together in full devotion to her and her unborn child.
Showering her with love and support, reminding her of the wisdom and power she carries within.
Acknowledging her incredible vessel that has housed and birthed multiple beings.
Imprinting her belly with colours of the earth and special blessings and words from our heart.
Reminding her that we are her village and are here to hold and support her.
Honouring the deep transformation and rebirth that is about to unfold.
We love you .
It’s an honour to watch your body and being bloom with new life. 💗🌸✨

15 Cool Facts About Breastfeeding

1. Human milk boosts a baby’s immune system big time—helping baby fight viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections, including:
Respiratory tract infections
Ear infections
Bacterial meningitis
Pneumonia
Urinary tract infections
Infant diarrhea
Common colds and flus

2. Breastfeeding can actually reduce baby’s risk of disease later in life, including:
Type I and II diabetes
Hodgkin’s disease
Leukemia
Obesity
High blood pressure
High cholesterol levels
Crohn’s disease
Ulcerative colitis
Asthma
Eczema

3. Breastfeeding reduces mama’s risk of ovarian and breast cancer, heart disease, and osteoporosis. The longer she breastfeeds, the higher the benefit. In fact, a woman who breastfeeds for 8 years has nearly a 0% risk of breast cancer.

Get this—breastfeeding a baby girl actually reduces her lifetime risk of breast cancer by 25%.

4. Breastfeeding saves a family approximately $2 to 4 thousand dollars annually (compared to cost of formula).

5. Breastfeeding helps mama heal faster in the postpartum, helping her uterus return to pre-pregnancy size faster and lowering overall postpartum blood loss.

6. Breastfeeding can help mama return to her pre-baby weight. It takes 1000 calories a day on average to produce breast milk. Women are advised to consume an extra 500 calories a day, and the body dips into reserves it built up in pregnancy to make the rest (it’s important to consume those extra calories or the body actually goes into “starvation mode” and holds onto the reserves).

7. Producing breast milk consumes 25% of the body’s energy; the brain only uses 20% by comparison.

8. On average, babies remove 67% of the milk mama has available—they eat until fullness, not until the breast is emptied.

9. Almost 75% of all moms produce more milk in their right breast, whether they are right- or left- handed.

10. Mama’s body is constantly making the perfect milk for baby. Milk changes its nutritional profile as baby grows (milk made for a 3 month old is different than for a 9 month old). Milk can even change day to day—for example, water content may increase during times of hot weather and baby-sickness to provide extra hydration.

11. Human milk contains substances that promote sleep and calmness in babies (who doesn’t love that?) Breastfeeding also calms mama and helps her bond to baby.

12. Breastfed infants are at lower risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

13. Mama’s breasts can detect even a one degree fluctuation in baby’s body temperature and adjust accordingly to heat up or cool down baby as needed. This is one reason skin-to-skin contact in the early days is so crucial.

14. Breastfeeding reduces baby’s risk of cavities later on and may lower the chance they will need braces as kids.

15. Breastfeeding mamas sleep on average 45 minutes more a night, compared to those who formula feed.

http://healthfoundationsbirthcenter.com/2013/11/19/15-cool-facts-about-breastfeeding/

Photo- Woman nursing two babies, Alaska.
Date: [ca. 1903-1908]
Photographer/Illustrator: Lomen Brothers, Nome, Alaska / Dobbs, B.B.

Oh, SO so good.

Cuddle your little ones. Cuddle your not-so-little ones. Hold your babies. Tousle hair. Sing the lullabies. Read aloud to your 12 year old. Leave notes in the lunchbox.

Love ferociously. Connect as often as you can.

This is all a recipe for secure, independent little beings. ❤️

via Emily Holdaway of Raising Ziggy
Graphic by Tracy of Raised Good

For anyone birthing with Belmont group practice in Newcastle. Some new measures have been put in place, please read.

‘Lactators’

Way to go.

Way to exclude women who don’t know what lactating means.

Way to dehumanise women.

Way to reduce the wonder, joy and importance of a beautiful mother-infant breastfeeding dyad down to a nothing.

So woke.

Well done.

🤮🤮🤮

We know sometimes breastfeeding doesn’t work or go as planned. That’s ok. We fully support initiatives to help get breastfeeding underway and established. Heck, we’ve used them and can attest to their benefit.

This post is about recognising that lactation is only the process of producing milk, that’s only one side of a relationship. That’s not the end of the story.

A breastfeeding relationship between mother and child is symbiotic. It is offensive and discriminatory to call mother’s ‘lactaters’. We are so much more than that.

Mother and baby breastfeeding is promoted via skin to skin contact. When breastfeeding, mothers provide eye contact and verbal cues. Our bodies do provide tailored milk to address infant needs, based on that dyad.

The dyad is one place where attachment starts and breastmilk recalibration of supply occurs.

Removing mother and baby from the discussion is not ok. It’s not just about producing milk.

Please take a second to sign this! Labouring women in Victoria are being declined access to use of water when birthing. Anyone who has had the opportunity of using water will know that it is one of the best options for natural pain relief. This is outrageous. 😢

https://www.change.org/p/ranzcog-and-safer-care-victoria-allow-victorian-women-to-use-water-for-pain-relief-in-birth?recruiter=1141149088&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_abi&recruited_by_id=7d41fa80-ddb0-11ea-9aa0-4db382cb1813&utm_content=fht-24067952-en-au%3A0

Sign the Petition Allow Victorian women to use water for pain relief in birth

Anyone relate? 😂

Accurate. 😂 Agree??!

{Comic by Hedger Humor}

https://www.change.org/p/victorian-government-change-to-victoria-s-maternity-restrictions-due-to-coronavirus?recruiter=8955503&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_abi&utm_term=psf_combo_share_abi&recruited_by_id=bafbe060-fa76-012f-837f-40401bfb750c&utm_content=fht-23646179-en-au%3A2

Sign the Petition Change to Victoria's Maternity restrictions due to Coronavirus

Postpartum food package going out the door yesterday for a beautiful mama friend 🧡

- Vegetable shepherds pie
- Oat, banana, choc chip cookies
- Pumpkin, red lentil soup
- Golden turmeric milk

Nourishing, nurturing and caring for new mamas is what my postpartum work is all about.✨

Postpartum is forever ✨
Please reach out to enquire about my postpartum care packages and how I can support you and your family through the days ~ weeks ~ months ~ years post birth. X

This is Why Families Choose to Bedshare - Raised Good Bedsharing can be one of the greatest blessings of parenthood. When I started I had no idea what to expect. So, I asked my community to share their stories.

Postpartum doula visits ✨~ they look different every time.

On this particular visit big sis was home so I had an extra little helper for the day.

Mama set me up with expressed breast milk for when bub woke up and in between I pottered around the house and tended to a few things.

I folded up two baskets of washing, cleaned the kitchen, filled the dishwasher, brought over a home cooked meal and a nourishing turmeric elixir, did some craft with big sis, played outside in the sunshine, fed bub when he woke up and then put him in the carrier and headed off to the park for a play.

In the mean time mum had a nice hot shower, ate a hot meal and then jumped into bed for a solid three hours of sleep knowing that her babies were totally safe and happy to be with me.

I love serving families through my postpartum work. There is something so special about being welcomed into their little bubble 💛

Prepping for a postpartum session tonight for a beautiful new mama that has just returned home from hospital after the birth of her second child.

Each one of my visits is unique and different but all visits are mostly centered around the below triangle by 💓

I’ll be arriving later in the evening tonight for an overnight stay so dinner will be sorted but I’ll make sure I have something delicious and warm on the stove for breakfast in the morning and will also organise some food for tomorrows lunch and dinner.

Having nourishing, warm food on hand for a new Mama is an absolute must in the early weeks.

If your visiting a new mama... don’t forget to bring her a meal that’s been made with a whole lot of love. 🍲

👏 👏 👏

Going live tonight on instagram with my friend Katie Holohan from Raising Healthful Kids. Join us at 8.00pm 🧡

We’re somewhat conditioned to a glorified version of being the glowing new Mama, a blissful and radiant time of life- this initiation into Motherhood.
We hear statements like ‘the most cherished time’, ‘the precious infant years’ and ‘the newborn bubble’ that idealise and cushion the reality of this extremely demanding time.

Postpartum can be all of that, and I wish for EVERY Mama that it simply was, however for a lot of Mama’s (the majority), the physical and emotional journey into Motherhood will take it’s toll for many years to come (up to 8-10 years postpartum).
It is estimated that up to 80% of postpartum women experience at minimum, a sense of ‘the baby blues’; With many women also reporting memory changes, lethargy, thyroid imbalances, skin disturbances and a general sense of physical or mental fatigue in the postpartum years.

Physiologically you’ve selflessly flowed your essential nutrients in order to nourish your growing babe, your brain has shrunk to accomodate for your baby’s needs and radically ready you for the hyper-vigilance of parenthood; and hormonally, nutritionally and emotionally you’ve embarked into a deep journey.

An under-supported YOU in this space, is a heavy pack Mama, that wasn’t all yours to bear.

So please join me ( ) and these three inspirational Mama’s in this FREE deep dive into education, support and empowerment for ‘The Postpartum Series’, inspiring women like YOU, to turn these statistics around.
~
EVENT #1: Pregnancy + Postpartum Awareness
IG LIVE: THURSDAY MAY 14, 8:00pm AEST
Introducing , Mama and Pregnancy + Infant Loss Warrior.
~
EVENT #2: Birthing Empowerment
IG LIVE SUNDAY MAY 17, 8:00pm AEST
Introducing , Mama and Pregnancy + Postpartum Doula.
~
EVENT #3: Raising Babies & Children.
IG LIVE MONDAY MAY 18, 8:00pm AEST
Introducing , Mama and Pregnancy + Postpartum Doula.
~
EVENT #4: Live, Online Mama’s Circle
with & for collective healing and Q&A.
Pre-register with your email (via dm or currently via the Q box in the story slides).
~
Join us Mama 💜 It’s your time.

Repost from

Please take two minutes to sign this. The push for more options and the continuity of care surrounding birthing women and their families. 💗

Join the push for community based continuity of midwifery care! Australian women currently have limited access to pregnancy, birth and postnatal services within their communities, outside the hospital. This is particularly concerning considering the current COVID-19 pandemic, where they must enter a hospital for all of their care putting themselves and their bab...

Happy Mothers Day Mamas

Birthing mamas... It is not too late to start lobbying to have your support people by your side during birth.
Remember this is your birth!
Your birth matters and your care is essential!
Head over to 2Life Doula to read her words about the exemption that has been put in place in order for her to support her doula clients in hospital during this time. With the support of her clients she went to great lengths to make this happen 🙌
If anyone needs help with this please contact me directly or book in for one of my distance doula sessions and together we can map out a plan!

Photo captured by look at this epic birth team supporting mama through each surge!

Mamatoto support! Community coming together to support mothers and birthing women through this time.

Hygieia Health Ltd have been listening to pregnant women, birthing women and women post-partum, during this global pandemic. In response to the emerging needs of these women, Hygieia Health has created a Hotline. The Hotline is serviced by Birth Workers (including midwives, doulas, birth keepers, mothers) from around Australia. This is a ‘woman to woman’ volunteer support service.
The Hotline is open from 6am-10pm to speak with a Birth worker. Birth workers will provide non-urgent pregnancy, birth and post-partum support and advice to women who call, based on the Birth Worker’s knowledge and skill set, working from the premise of the professional ethos Birth Workers are educated in.
Another Hotline is open from 10pm-6am to speak with a Midwife. Midwives will provide more urgent pregnancy, birth and post-partum support and advice to women who call, based on the Midwives knowledge and skill set, working from the premise of the professional ethos Midwives are educated in.
We have been listening and we are answering your call.
For any questions, please contact Frederique Van Poppel at [email protected].
HOTLINE: 0482 468 007 – with Birth workers open 6am-10pm daily AEST
HOTLINE: 0467 470 901 – with Midwives open 10pm-6am daily AEST

I could have never imagined I would get to where I’m at now in my motherhood journey. It feels like a lifetime ago I left my maidenhood behind. When your deep in the early throws of motherhood, the demand is real. The tiredness is real. The love is real. The feeling of it’s all too much, will I come out the other side. I’m just here to remind you that yes you will. Everyone tells you the years will fly and to enjoy every moment whilst your babies are little and overly dependant on you. When people used to say that to me I would just nod and smile and try not to cry about the fact that I was so tired from my child being awake every hour the night before. Alas here I am now with an almost two and a half year old who absolutely blows my mind daily. A child that sleeps through the night (I can finally say I’m getting at least 8 hours of solid sleep a night), a child that’s out of nappies after two years of cleaning pooey cloth nappies, a child that loves food after two whole years of nourishing him with my breastmilk, a child I can have a conversation with, a child that loves to read books, a child that prefers to go for a scooter ride instead of sit in the pram. Some times I honestly never thought I would see these days and now I’m here begging my baby for cuddles and wanting to have another. These are the days. The most rewarding years of my life. ✨

Chez les Himbas de Namibie en Afrique australe, la date de naissance d’un enfant est fixée, non pas au moment de sa venue au monde, ni à celui de sa conception, mais bien plus tôt: depuis le jour où l’enfant est pensé dans l’esprit de sa mère .
Quand une femme décide qu’elle va avoir un enfant, elle s’installe et se repose sous un arbre, et elle écoute jusqu’à ce qu’elle puisse entendre la chanson de l’enfant qui veut naître. Et après qu’elle a entendu la chanson de cet enfant, elle revient à l’homme qui sera le père de l’enfant pour lui enseigner ce chant. Et puis, quand ils font l’amour pour concevoir physiquement l’enfant, ils chantent le chant de l’enfant, afin de l’inviter.
Lorsque la mère est enceinte, elle enseigne le chant de cet enfant aux sages-femmes et aux femmes aînées du village. Si bien que, quand l’enfant naît, les vieilles femmes et les gens autour de lui chantent sa chanson pour l’accueillir.
Au fur et à mesure que l’enfant grandit, les autres villageois apprennent sa chanson. Si bien que si l’enfant tombe, ou se fait mal, il se trouve toujours quelqu’un pour le relever et lui chanter sa chanson. De même, si l’enfant fait quelque chose de merveilleux, ou traverse avec succès les rites de passage, les gens du village lui chantent sa chanson pour l’honorer.
Dans la tribu, il y a une autre occasion où les villageois chantent pour l’enfant. Si, à n’importe quel moment au cours de sa vie, la personne commet un crime ou un acte social aberrant, l’individu est appelé au centre du village et les gens de la communauté forment un cercle autour de lui. Puis ils chantent sa chanson. La tribu reconnaît que la correction d’un comportement antisocial ne passe pas par la punition, c’est par l’amour et le rappel de l’identité. Lorsque vous reconnaissez votre propre chanson, vous n’avez pas envie ou besoin de faire quoi que ce soit qui nuirait à l’autre.
Et en va de même ainsi à travers leur vie. Dans le mariage, les chansons sont chantées, ensemble. Et quand, devenu vieux, cet enfant est couché dans son lit, prêt à mourir, tous les villageois connaissent sa chanson, et ils chantent, pour la dernière fois, sa chanson. »

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/20/health/home-birth-guidelines-coronavirus-wellness/index.html

Home birth all the way! Pregnant mamas if you are wanting to explore your options and learn more about home birth please reach out. I would love to chat with you about all the wonderful things that come with birthing in the comfort of your own home 💛

What you need to have a safe home birth For pregnant women considering a home birth, the American Academy of Pediatrics has updated its guidelines with everything that should be in place to ensure the safety and well-being of both mother and baby.

A common myth is that a doula replaces the birthing persons partner or husband in the birth space... this is not true whatsoever. This photo is the perfect representation of a partner, mother and doula dyad. Each person tending to a valuable role as the powerful birth process unfolds. A doula is there to lighten the load so your partner can be exactly where you need him/her to be. They got you from the front, I’ll help to ease the pains in your back. There is no way we can expect our partner to be everything for us during labour. We are only human and we need to eat, drink, go to the toilet, get fresh air etc. More hands make light work, the mother is our centre focus and together we support her by lending our hands and our hearts where they are needed the most all the while supporting and holding space for each other.

So if you had your partner as well as a doula present at your birth I would love to know how they both worked together to support you best?

Look at mamas abdomen contracting in this photo!! A woman’s body is a force of nature 🙌

If anyone knows who this photographer is please credit!

Sign sign sign. Women need more access to different types of birth care! 🙏

Sign the Petition Crisis response for birth: get women and newborns out of the Coronavirus transmission zone