All About That Birth • Doula Services

Whether you’re due next month or you just peed on a pregnancy test, it’s never too early or too late to hire a doula! BUT we are on call 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after your due date… so our calendars fill up fast.

I’m officially on call for my first 2 births since Wil was born! So if you ask me to do something, my typical response will be “…unless I’m at a birth!”

Wondering how a doula could support you and your partner? Message me!

Happy International Home Birth Day!

I’m so thankful I got to be apart of this group of women. I used to say “I wish every woman got the experience of having a home birth” but the moment I had him, I finally realized not every woman wants that experience. Some women feel safer at a hospital, or know that they want an epidural or other meds that can’t be given at home, or have a medical reason that doesn’t make them a good candidate for a home birth. So, now my wish is that you feel supported to have the birth experience that YOU want, where you want it. And if you want to have a home birth, just know that you aren’t crazy for wanting that. The world may lead you to believe that you’re nuts for not having a baby in the hospital, but I’m here to say it can be done and it can be amazing💚

Thank you to my midwife Natalia for taking on this profession. I know it’s not easy being on call and it’s even less easy dealing with all the hoops that out of hospital providers have to go through. But I am so so thankful for the care I received and how different of an experience it was compared to my previous provider.

Happy last day of World Doula Week!

Appreciation post for all support people during birth: doulas, nurses, friends, family, partners, and my dude-la Rory💚

I couldn’t have had Monroe without him. He supported me throughout all stages of labor 0 to 10cm… and then we called our doula! I didn’t know our induction would go that fast! (I mean, I was 42 weeks and 5 days pregnant lol!) and by “fast” it was still 12 hours!

This second time, he was so amazing: setting up the house, buying lights for the pool, talking me down when I would cry about facing another induction, emptying the birth pool😅🤢🥹 I’m so thankful to have an amazing birth partner!

Happy World Doula Day!

March 22 was chosen because it is the spring equinox, which represents the return of fertility in many cultures.

I am so thankful for .larson …She was someone I found online when I found out I was pregnant with Monroe. She not only supported me prenatally and during birth, but she also left such an impact on me that influenced me to also become a doula! She has entrusted me to be her backup doula a few times and has lent a listening ear more times than I can count. I am so thankful for you Malissa! Thank you for holding my hand and being everything a doula should be and more!

Another special shoutout to ! A team of doulas who supported me during my second birth… 6 days ago! Ali and Ashley were on call for my birth, but second babies are sneaky and Ali ended up showing up 5 minutes after baby made their arrival! She came to provide lactation support the week after birth and followed up to see how I was doing countless times. I am so thankful for these ladies who made me feel supported this whole time.

I can’t say enough good things about doulas. I had such amazing birth experiences and I know doulas were attributed to this. If you know you will want a doula during your birth one day, there are so many ways to save and pay out of pocket if you don’t have Medicaid. And if you do have Medicaid, NYS fully funds doulas!

So, happy world doula week… I hope each of you get the birth experience you desire!💚

Do you know who the true heroes are in modern women’s healthcare? These three women paved the way for what we now know as gynecology.

Some may think I have a bias towards obstetricians. And maybe I do! When I chat with people who work in women’s healthcare, they don’t even know the history, because they aren’t taught it! Why isn’t there a class in their curriculum to learn this?

Like many doctors in the 1800s, J. Marion Sims was very interested in medical advancement and experimentation. He practiced all kinds of medicine, from dentistry to pediatrics to general surgery.

Anarcha, Betsy, and Lucy were three enslaved women who lived and worked on different plantations near Montgomery, Alabama, in the 1840s. All three women developed a painful medical condition after childbirth that caused them to lose control of their bladders and bowels.

The men who enslaved Anarcha, Betsy, and Lucy were frustrated with their condition. They wanted to find a cure, not because they cared deeply about the enslaved women, but because the women could no longer do the hard labor that would earn money for their enslavers. In 1844, all three enslavers sought the advice of doctor J. Marion Sims.

The women were experimented on for five years. They never consented to anything done to them. They were brought to the operating room naked, tied to the table, where other male doctors would watch each procedure. They weren’t given pain medication because it was believed that black women could not feel pain like white women and they feared patients could die from anesthesia. Most of Sims’ procedures were deemed failures. The women developed terrible infections and their injuries did not heal.

During Anarcha’s 30th operation, he used all of the new tools and techniques he had developed over the last four years. Her injury finally healed and she made a full recovery.

*Continued in comments*

March: Women’s History Month

Black granny midwives and their legacy of community care

In the United States, most births (>98%) take place in hospitals, with physicians, mainly obstetricians, attending. Health and safety are actually not the reason why.

Midwives attended almost all births in the American colonies, practicing from their homes and passing the skills they had brought from Britain from one woman to another informally. West African midwives who were kidnapped and enslaved in the US attended the births of both black and white women. After emancipation, African American midwives continued to practice and train others, and took care of both black and poor white women in most rural parts of the South, where they were referred to as “granny midwives.” Black granny midwives formed a class of skilled workers that provided the foundations of birth-related care in the United States for everyone.

A series of events between 1910 and 1920 set the stage for doctors to usurp the traditional role of the midwife and laid the foundation for a pathology-oriented medical model of childbirth in this country.

In 1915, Dr. Joseph DeLee, author of the most important obstetric textbook of that period, described childbirth as a pathologic process that damages both mothers and babies “often and much.” He said that if birth were properly viewed as a destructive pathology rather than as a normal function, “the midwife would be impossible even of mention.” In the first issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, DeLee proposed a sequence of interventions designed to save women from the “evils natural to labor.”

His use of sedatives, episiotomies and forceps are now known to be harmful when used routinely. How many women had to suffer because of his lack of evidence based care?

Midwives attended approximately half of all births in 1900, but less than 15% by 1935. Where midwifery declined, the incidence of mother and infant deaths from childbearing or birth injuries generally increased. There was a 41% increase in infant mortality due to birth injuries between 1915 and 1929; primarily due to obstetrical interference in birth.

Continued in comments.

What’s a Doula DO anyway??

Most people think they don’t need a doula because they have the hospital staff and their partner… but there are a lot of misconceptions in those beliefs.

Hospital staff changes every 12 hours, and sometimes they are short staffed or not as supportive as you would like. I had amazing nurses, but I did see a disconnect when my nurses changed at 7AM. They are also bound by hospital policies that are not always evidence based. A doula can help inform you of your rights with informed care.

When it comes to your partner or family member support person, they KNOW you on a personal level. They know how to support you, but they’ve never supported you during birth. If this isn’t your first birth, they’ve never supported you during THIS birth. Each birth is different and unpredictable and may need different support techniques. A doula can bridge the gap between personal and nonclinical care and SHOW your partner how they can best support you with comfort measures, emotional & mental support, inform you of your options when things may arise, and help remind you to advocate for your preferences. Your partner may need a nap because labor can last 24 hours. As your doula, I don’t leave until an hour or two after baby is born.

On call around the clock the month of your due date (2 weeks before & 2 weeks after) there’s no wonder we can only take on so few births each month!

One of my favorite pictures💚
Meeting Monroe for the first time.

Thank you .larson for capturing my favorite memory.

A birth doula does a lot during your birth to support you and your partner, but don’t forget about the prenatal care that they provide! The education and emotional support throughout pregnancy was important for us because we ended up not calling our doula until my water broke and surprise! 10cm! Everything we learned prenatally helped us get to that point.

I’ve had 3 inquiries for July! It’s not too late to hire a doula for your birth, but the sooner the better so you can find a doula you connect with that has availability and you receive all that prenatal care as well!

Childbirth Education Series
Instructed by Sarah Trimm
BS Art Education, birth doula & photographer

1: Roadmap of Labor
What does 0 to 10cm look like?
Stages of labor, what to expect, comfort measures throughout, support for partner/ support person

2: Are We Educated?
Medical & natural options
Pain management, inductions, cervical checks, failure to progress (aka wait), B.R.A.I.N. to make decisions, how to advocate for birthing person, creating a birth plan & developing preferences

3: “Making Room”
Our only job as the birthing person is to make room in our pelvis & baby’s only job during birth is to figure out how to navigate through the pelvis
Learn the cardinal movements of baby during descent down and through the pelvis, techniques to help baby, and what you can do NOW to get baby in a better position for birth

4: What to Expect in the Hospital
Triage, staff, your doctor, advocating for your birth preferences, role of doula and your support person/ partner, cervical checks & bishop score

5: Postpartum
All the things no one tells you about life after baby. Changes in your body, baby’s pediatrician appt, breastfeeding, emotions, postpartum visit, sleep, s*x etc

$150 for all 5 videos or $40 each*
-Handouts, resources and class notes emailed with each self guided class

Add ons:
-Access to 1 hour phone call to ask any questions and followup after videos & access to Sarah’s prenatal/ postpartum resource and referral list for WNY community $50
-Postpartum Box $100: products to help you transition to motherhood

*All videos included in birth support packages
Contact Sarah for more information!

🤷🏼‍♀️🥴But really…
I’m all for inductions that are medically necessary, but we have an induction epidemic happening if you didn’t know.

Being “overdue” is not reason enough for me to get induced… hence making this meme last year when I was 11 days past their guess date. There was no medical reason for an induction. Baby’s NST tests, biophysical profile (ultrasound to check fluid level), and my blood pressure all passed with flying colors!
My baby and my body were not done growing my perfectly healthy baby girl 💚
Some babies come before their due date, some babies like to be prompt and come on their due dates, and some end up needing a little pitocin 19 days after they were “due.” When I got there for my elective induction, I was informed that it was in fact elective and I had to consent to the induction because there still wasn’t any medical reason to induce.

I AM anti elective inductions. You are still pregnant because your baby needs you to be. They need you for their brains and lungs to have a few more days to grow and develop! I still wish I had waited another day or two!

BUT as a doula, I am there to educate, inform and support whatever decisions you have during pregnancy and birth. I make sure you know the benefits & risks of every intervention, and then it’s up to you to be in control of your birth💚
I had an amazing 12 hour induction from start to finish because I was informed, educated, I had tried all of the other “natural” induction methods, and at the end of it all I decided I wanted my OB to be there to catch the baby. It was a textbook induction because I wasn’t forcing my body to birth a baby at 39 weeks (the week they can start offering it!) Please don’t be coerced by anyone to be induced without all of the evidence and education. Trust your gut, and maybe it is saying to induce! Your mamas intuition is so strong before and after birth. Listen to it!💚

Did you know that we all used to be born at home?

The history of childbirth is one that would make your jaw drop.
Imagine being in the comfort of your home; it is peaceful and quiet. You are surrounded by supportive women in your life: mothers, aunts, friends who have given birth before you. You get into the tub or shower to help comfort you during intense contractions. The light is low. You listen to your body and what it needs. That might mean movement, or stillness, resting, or dancing. Those around you rub your back, squeeze your hips, caress your hair, bring you water, feed you fruit, remind you how strong you are. You are nauseous and shaky; transition is happening. You listen to your body and breathe through each contraction, bringing the baby down. Hours and hours have gone by and you finally feel the urge to push. Your body involuntarily does the most primal thing we can do as humans. It feels good to push. The fetal ejection reflex brings your baby into your arms, and as you bring your baby to your chest, skin to skin for the first time, you peer into the eyes of the most beautiful person you’ve ever seen. You lay in your bed for the most beautiful golden hours, meeting your baby earthside and finally getting to know each other. Both of you resting after you worked so hard together during birth. The women who helped support you during birth, now taking the time to clean up and bring you anything might you need.

These supportive women turned into midwives attending births. There would be some women who had attended a lot of births, had experience, and would be the ones called when someone was going into labor.

Then in the early 1900’s, men created a profession called obstetrics. They believed you shouldn’t have to feel pain during birth. So they would give women something called a Twilight Sleep. Women would wake up 3 days later, the baby had been born, and they’d wonder what had happened to them. Of course, this was only for rich women who could afford going to a hospital to birth their baby.

If you are experiencing a low risk pregnancy, you will have better birth outcomes somewhere that offers less interventions.

Today is the last day of pelvic health awareness month. Time to share my story so others don’t have to suffer like I did.

If you called your OBGYN and asked them why you have painful s*x, urinary or bowel incontinence, bladder prolapse, etc and they didn’t refer you to a pelvic floor physical therapist, or ask you about your s*x life, run for the hills and find a new provider! If you are a man, you also have a pelvic floor… just so you know! Women AND men seek PT for their pelvic floors. Let’s make this less taboo!

Three months before I became pregnant, I finally called my provider to tell them that I was having painful s*x for the last few months… Their recommendation was “Lube!”, the more natural the better, coconut oil! So I tried that.

Three months after that I called back again and said “Still having painful s*x!” Her recommendation? “More foreplay!” I mean, that sounded like the answer.

When I found out I was pregnant, I was so scared for my pelvic floor! I had finally realized I needed to see a specialist because there was something wrong with my pelvic floor… There’s no way that an internal exam should be that painful!

I made an appt with and I fell in love with Kathleen. I scared her by almost passing out during an internal exam, but she was able to help me realize that yes my pelvic floor needed physical therapy, but that I was not broken and it could be fixed! She worked with me, showing me breath work exercises and physical movements to stretch and relax the muscles in my pelvic floor… not kegels! And a few months later, I had pain free s*x for the first time in almost 2 years.

After listening to podcast about pelvic floor health, I realized I needed to share my story to hopefully help others realize that they don’t have to be pregnant or have had a baby for there to be something going on with their pelvic floor. I had issues BEFORE having a baby, and I needed to get them in check while pregnant so I didn’t have bigger issues down the road.

I highly recommend listening to the 32 min podcast here: https://evidencebasedbirth.com/pelvic-floor-health-in-pregnancy-and-postpartum-with-dr-juan-michelle-martin/

Walking into my induction like…

I was more prepared than most when it comes to pregnancy and birth. I knew what I wanted early on: a natural birth and more importantly…. no induction.

But 19 days after my guess date, lots of walking, eating one too many dates, a bunch of yoga classes, induction accupuncture, an induction massage, a few ultrasounds to check amniotic fluid, a bunch of NSTs to check the baby’s heart rate, trying to pump to stimulate labor, finally caving and having 2 membrane sweeps, and a ton of squats layer… We headed to Mercy hospital after dinner to start what I thought would be a long induction.

“Why won’t I just go into labor naturally?” The million dollar question right?

Thank goodness we have modern medicine for when we need it… but even upon admission to the hospital, I was asked if I was agreeing to an elective induction… because unless it is medically necessary, it is still considered elective. I’m thankful my pregnancy was low risk so I could advocate for myself to not get induced until after I had tried all the things to get baby out naturally. Apparently she just needed more time to grow all that hair (and her brain and lungs could develop more!)

I still don’t know what it feels like to go into labor naturally, but if I can handle those pitocin contractions, I think I can do basically anything 💪🏼

Do you want to know why I didn’t want to be induced?🤔

I like to think of any challenging thing as “HOW CAN I?” because it opens your mind to think of ways to solve instead of closing your mind to all the reasons why you can’t do something.

Budgeting is HARD. The following ideas are not downplaying the truth of that. But if you want a doula to support you and your partner in your birth, you have options!

•NYS has a Medicaid pilot program that covers doula services. Check with your health insurance to see if they cover doulas, or will cover a doula in your birth. Think of ways you can get them to cover it if their first answer is no.
•A retainer is required to book services almost everywhere, but the rest of the investment should be able to be broken up into installments over the course of the 40 weeks.
•Can you provide a service for their doula business? Maybe you could help with marketing, branding, website, or even provide personal services such as hair or massage? It doesn’t hurt to ask!
•Ask if your doula can work within your budget. Maybe they can cut out some of your prenatal visits, or maybe you don’t really need birth photography. (Yes you do, haha jk😉) Just ask! Maybe they can create a package that fits in your budget.
•Sell household items, clothes, or other items on Facebook marketplace. Those clothes don’t fit anyways🙃
•The average cost of a doula in Buffalo is $1200 out of pocket. That’s $30/week for the 40 weeks you are pregnant. Some newer doulas are $800 which is only $20/week. You aren’t pregnant yet but know you will want a doula when you are or the next time you get pregnant? Start saving now!
•I did the math on how much we spend eating out and it’s surprising. We can’t spend less than $60 every time we go out to dinner anymore. Just 20 times going out to dinner is the cost of a typical doula in Buffalo. It really is easier to budget when you look at little things like that.
•If you make a point of letting everyone know you are budgeting for a doula and would appreciate contributing to that fund, I’m sure you would receive monetary gifts at your shower!
•Reimbursement is not 100% guaranteed, but an option: https://www.holisticallyloved.com/blog/2014/9/14/insurance-paying-for-a-doula

There is no such thing as NO risk… in anything. You will either be low risk or high risk, but did you know only 15% of pregnancies are high risk? So why is there all this fear around pregnancy, labor and birth?🤔

Check out my blog to learn about pregnancy risks:
https://www.sarahtrimm.com/post/risk-associated-with-pregnancy

I am not a medical professional. Consult with your provider to determine what’s best for your care💚