Birthing Motherhood

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there 🤍

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas out there 🤍💐

Mother’s Day Weekend Sale! 🌼

We are giving you $30 off our Comfort Measures for Labor Online Class (now only $50!) ➡️ https://www.birthingmotherhood.ca/course/comfortmeasuresforlabor

Plus 40% off our Etsy Shop Educational Handouts ➡️ https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/BirthingMotherhood

This sale will last the entire weekend 🤍

Bringing new life into the world is not just about the physical act of birth, but a chance to tap into the limitless strength within us.

Let's embrace the opportunity to transcend and rise above our limits.

Pregnancy apps are so fun to look at, especially if you’re a first time parent…but don’t let them put fear and doubt into you.

That’s right…this one is not a myth! There have been many studies done on this superfood and it’s effects on labor.

Swipe for recipe ideas!

*make sure you ask your care provider for individual recommendations. Do not consume if you have gestational diabetes.

That last month of pregnancy can feel long & dreadful. Here are 3 things you can do to prepare for birth & keep busy.

🤍Visit a Chiropractor: Often recommended throughout your entire pregnancy to make sure your pelvis is aligned for birth and ligaments are released. This allows baby to get into the most optimal position by relieving any restrictions. Studies show length of labor can also be reduced by 25%.

🤍 Practice Breathing & Visualization: Practice makes perfect. Preparing your mind before labor will help make coping with discomfort a lot easier. Training your mind and getting those breathing techniques under your belt are some of the most important factors in reducing fear, tension & pain

🤍 Prepare Meals for Postpartum: Your future self will thank you! Prep up some warm meals in the crockpot to heat up in those first few weeks. Our biggest tip when having a home birth is to prepare for your first meal after birth. Something warm with high protein & carbohydrates to refuel the body.

Enrollment is open now for our Comfort Measures for Labor Class!

https://www.birthingmotherhood.ca/course/comfortmeasuresforlabor

Sign up & start learning right away. This 2.5 hour online class is for you if you want to learn how to have a more positive, comfortable labor experience.

What you will learn:

☑️ Shifting your mindset for a more positive labor experience

☑️ Reducing fear & boosting confidence

☑️ Reducing pain without pharmaceuticals

☑️ Working with your body & hormones

☑️ Building your labor comfort toolbox for all stages of labor

☑️ Techniques for your partner to support you

& much more!

This class also includes an 11 page handout, 16 printable affirmation cards and 2 guided meditation tracks as well as access to our private Facebook group.

What are you waiting for? Enroll today! 🤍

https://www.birthingmotherhood.ca/course/comfortmeasuresforlabor

A FREE resource for starting your preparation for one of the biggest moments of your life. This 4 page PDF contains everything you need to pack in your hospital bag and/or to prepare at home if you are planning a home birth!

Download your hospital bag checklist & home birth prep checklist here 👇🏻
https://www.birthingmotherhood.ca/freechecklist

Happy World Doula Day!

Tag your favourite Doula in the comments 🤍

Comfort Measures for Labor Handouts are now available on Etsy

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1398318494/

These are the handouts that will be provided to participants in our Comfort Measures for Labor Course (that we are currently finishing up editing right now 🎉). We have made them available for purchase for childbirth educators, doulas and other birth workers to edit in Canva to make it your own and give out to clients!

This package of handouts contains the following topics:
🤍 Fear, Tension & Pain
🤍 Primal Instincts & Hormones
🤍 Comfort Tools
🤍 Breathing & Relaxation Techniques
🤍 Birth Ball & Peanut Ball

Hello 2023 ✨ don’t forget to prioritize yourself this year outside of being a mom / parent 🤍

What are your New Years Resolutions? 👇🏻

#2023

The transition phase of labor can leave you begging for relief. It is a time where we want to throw in the towel, testing all of our limits as humans and birthing mothers. It also means we are close to the end and close to meeting this little person we have created and carried. It shows us our true powers and capabilities proving that we can make it through anything.

What else would you add? 😂👻

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas out there (& mamas to be/ mamas waiting to be moms) 🤍💐

Founded by Black Mamas Matter Alliance, Black Maternal Health Week is a week dedicated to educating and advocating for Black Mamas when it comes to sexual, maternal and reproductive healthcare.

Black women are more likely to face poor maternal health outcomes and receive lower quality of health care.

In fact, it is still believed to this day that Black people do not feel as much pain. Therefore they are not provided as much pain relief and medication as White people.

Birthing Motherhood believes that every woman, regardless of their race, deserves the right to the highest quality of care and support for themselves and their families.

Visit: blackmamasmatter.org/bmhw if you would like to learn more 🤍

When your toddler is having a meltdown, your newborn wants to nurse and you finally just sat down to eat dinner…we don’t get warm meals or warm coffees anymore 🤪

Many women who are admitted to the hospital in labor are told not to eat or drink anything but little sips of water and ice chips.

The reason behind this is because women giving birth in the 1940’s were at greater risk of aspiration (meaning if you vomit, your stomach contents can go into the airway which causes breathing problems, infection and sometimes death) due to the safety of general anesthesia. We know that medical advances have been made since then and anesthesia is a lot safer than it was.

Typically when labor picks up, women are less likely to want to eat something, but food is also fuel! We know that in labor, a women needs energy, otherwise she will be fatigued and that leads to birth interventions. Meeting your needs in labor is one way to keep it progressing.

What do the studies say?
(Info gathered from Evidence Based Birth)
🥨 women reported more stress and pain due to restricted fluid intake (Manizheh & Leila, 2009)
🥨 there is no harm or benefit to eating/drinking during labor (Sigata et al. 2013)
🥨 low-risk labouring people, including those with epidurals, have the right to choose whether or not they would like to eat or drink during labor (Manizheh & Leila, 2009)
🥨 those with a difficult to manage airway, eclampsia, pre-eclampsia, a BMI of 40 or more and those who receive IV opioids may lower their risk of aspiration by fasting during labor

The WHO and Society of Obsetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada recommend that low-risk birthing people eat or drink as they desire during labor.

Evidence Based Birth has a handout on all these studies if you would like more information!

Let us know in the comments if you were told not to eat or drink and how it affected your birth experience! ⬇️

Making this quote our mission statement 🤍

A birth plan is a great tool to use when communicating your wishes and values around your birth with your care providers. It also helps out your partner or support person to know what your wishes are so you don’t need to communicate them while laboring!

Here are 5 things to include in your birth plan 👇🏻

✨ How you want the atmosphere of the room | this can play a huge roll in the release of hormones during labor like oxytocin & melatonin

✨Informed consent | it is so important to be fully informed of the risks and benefits of any procedure before it is done. It also allows you to be an active participant in your medical care.

✨ How you would like to labor | freedom of movement, intermittent monitoring, directed or instinctual pushing etc. ( you will learn about all your options in my Birth Basics class)

✨ Your requests if your birth doesn’t go “to plan” which it typically doesn’t go to plan! That’s why we like to call it birth wishes or birth preferences. We can’t predict what will happen during the labor / delivery process

✨ Newborn care/ choices | do you want baby to receive a vitamin K injection, eye ointment (which isn’t a common practice anymore), Golden Hour etc.

To make it easier I have included all of this and more in my printable birth plan template on Etsy!
www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1166411023

April is C-Section awareness month | A C-section is the most performed surgery in Canada!

It may be a major surgery but it is still a birth. Planned or unplanned, your birth story can still be as beautiful as a normal physiological birth.

C-section or “belly birth” mamas are rockstars. It is the only surgery that opens up 6 layers and is also the only surgery where you are expected to be up, moving and functional afterwards (aka taking care of another human AND yourself, initiating breastfeeding etc).

We will be talking more about belly births on this page and there is a lesson included in my Birth Basics course.

Need a template to write your birth plan? we've got you. Don't know what to pack in your hospital bag? we've got you. Need some affirmation cards to get you through labor? yup....we've got you.

We also sell educational handouts that we give out in birth classes just in case you don't have the time or funds to take a full class but you want to know your options!

Special Facebook promo for Etsy printables!
Shop now & enter the code: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/BirthingMotherhood?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

this is not an April fools joke…yup, your cervix really does go from the size of a cheerio to the size of a bagel! Isn’t that amazing!?

A question that gets asked often is, will I feel my cervix start to dilate before I go into labor? The answer is NO! A lot of women (especially second pregnancies) can walk around for weeks up to labor, not knowing they are 3 cm and others will not reach this point until they are actually in labor.

The only way to really know how much your cervix is dilated is to have a cervix check by your care provider (post about this coming later on)

BIRTH PLAN TEMPLATE, HOSPITAL BAG CHECKLIST & EDUCATIONAL HANDOUTS || now available for digital download to print at home on Etsy! 🤍

https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/BirthingMotherhood?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

Hi! I’m Lexie 👋🏻 mama of two, soon to be wifey and the face behind Birthing Motherhood!

I LOVE pregnancy and birth. Even before I had my babies I was constantly researching about the whole process. I couldn’t wait to experience it for myself.

I had my daughter at the Arbour Birth Center in May 2020 and I had my son at home in the water, November 2021. I was so thankful to have such positive birth experiences. I put that down to being prepared, knowing my options and having the support I needed to make my birth visions come true.

After a few months of contemplating, I enrolled in schooling to become a certified childbirth educator. I felt like it was my calling to share my knowledge and empower other women to have positive birth experiences as well.

I hope you will learn a lot from my page and my courses that I will be releasing soon! 🤍