Cherished Birth

Just a little fiddle leaf fig glow up 😍

A little boy was impatient to make his arrival this week coming in an hour long labor.

7lb 12oz baby girl born this morning.

Getting caught up on our baby announcements.

Last night, we welcomed another baby girl into this world.

Mercy Eizenga is one of our staff midwives at Cherished Birth. Mercy is starting a homebirth practice here in Tyler. She offers both home and office appointments. More information about Mercy:

Mercy Eizenga LM, CPM is the head midwife and owner of Comforts of Home Midwifery. Mercy was first exposed to homebirth when she witnessed the birth of her little brother at the age of 7. Her interest in natural childbirth grew with the birth of her first child and then attending Bradley Natural Childbirth classes with a friend a year and a half later. Attending her first birth as a doula verified that she was called to be a midwife. Mercy attended the Association of Texas Midwives Training Program and completed an apprenticeship with what is now the Corpus Christi Birth Center. She holds a Texas state license, is listed with the state of Oklahoma, and holds her Certified Professional Midwife with the North American Registry of Midwives.

Mercy is the mother of 3 awesome boys. As the result of her own birth experiences, Mercy is passionate about Vaginal Births After Cesareans (VBACs). In her spare time, Mercy enjoys knitting or crocheting gifts for her family, reading from her burgeoning library, binging on Netflix, and hanging out with her family.

You can find out more at the links listed in the comments.

Sarah Friberg is one of the midwives at Cherished Birth. After the birth center closes, Sarah will continue to take on clients through her homebirth practice in Pittsburgh, TX. More information on Sarah:
I was first exposed to midwifery when I was 3 years old, when my mom chose a midwife and homebirth for her fifth pregnancy. I felt God’s call on my life to midwifery at the age of 17, at a medical missions’ conference. In 2005, I attended my niece’s homebirth with a local midwife, and felt God’s call again on my heart. I joined the Association of Texas Midwives Midwifery Training Program, and began my midwifery apprenticeship in April 2008 at a busy freestanding birth center here in East Texas. After completing all requirements for licensure by the North American Registry of Midwives, I became a Licensed Midwife by the state of Texas, and also became a Certified Professional Midwife, in 2011. I began my own home birth practice, and continued working for the birth center. I left the birth center in August of 2014, after giving birth to my first child. I still have my own home birth practice based out of Pittsburg, Texas, and am thrilled to be part of the Cherished Birth team! I believe that birth is a normal physiological process. Birth is not a disease or an illness that requires medical treatment, as long as the woman is healthy, and pregnancy remains low-risk. I also believe that in most cases, it requires little to no intervention. My goal is to provide evidenced based care, and share the best information with clients so that they can make informed decisions. I prefer a holistic approach to midwifery, and with my family.
You can find out more about Sarah and her practice at the link in comments.

9lb baby boy born en caul this morning.

3 more beautiful babies joined the Cherished Birth family this week.

Our storm of babies has all the midwives hopping today.

Well, the time has come for a formal announcement. Cherished Birth will be closing our doors by the end of the year. This decision will not affect any clients currently receiving care, but we are not accepting any new clients.

We have been blessed and honored to care for over 200 families in our 4 years. Each of you have made us proud, touched our hearts, and taught us more about life and midwifery care. Many of you have become life-long friends.

We've also had a hand in training 5 other midwives, in various stages of their apprenticeships. It's so exciting to see these women serving their communities and offering safe, supportive, evidence-based care.

We love you all. We wish you the very best, and will hold you in our hearts as we take time to focus on our own little families.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Today is International Day of the Midwife. How did a midwife help you?

Beautiful daytime birth!

Today wraps up Cesarean Awareness Month. While we strive to give our clients the birth that they want, sometimes Csections are necessary. We support you through the process and love to help women seeking a Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC) for their next go round.

Are you interested in placenta encapsulation? Midwife Mercy does encapsulation for the birth center, Tyler, and much of East Texas. Check out her website for more information.

Benefits of Placenta Encapsulation - Tyler Placenta Encapsulation What Is Placenta Encapsulation and the Benefits of Postpartum Placenta Consumption? Placenta encapsulation is the process in which capsules are created from the placenta after birth, by dehydrating and grinding the placenta into a microfine powder, then packing the powder tightly into gel capsules f...

When your client already knows what you are going to say.

Midwife Melena was testing out our yoga chair turned birth stool during appointments the other day.

Tuesday one of our clients came for her 6 week postpartum visit and brought us this yummy treat. Thanks!

Have you met the newest midwife to the Cherished Birth team? Mercy joined our team 6 weeks ago. She has been a licensed midwife for 12 years and recently moved to Tyler from the DFW area.

Cherished Mamas...I know MANY of y’all have seen the benefits of lunging in birthing time!

The Lunge opens the midpelvis. It is a good technique to be used in labor during a contraction, for:

1) Helping an occiput posterior baby rotate or descend
2) Helping an asynclitic baby descend
3) Overcoming a stall in active labor

Learn more: http://bit.ly/SpBL

One of our precious clients brought us the BEST lunch from Downtown D'Lites today! Kilgore folks, y’all check out their potato soup 😍

Huge THANK YOU to East Texas Orofacial Myology, Nathan Hughes Family Dentistry, and Tad Morgan, DDS for helping us stock the birth center with face masks! We’re doing all we can to keep our clients and ourselves safe and healthy during these crazy times.

“For most people, your individual health level of worry should be minimal.

HOWEVER, I’ve also been saying that the governmental/institutional/health expert level of worry is all hands on deck.

Why? Besides the human aspect of anyone’s death being a tragedy, we experts are also freaking out because of numbers.

Because we’re expecting 40-70% of the world population to get sick, even if only 0.6% die from COVID-19, that’s still millions of people. In the U.S. alone, the CDC’s predictions are that between 200,000 and 1.7 Million Americans will die from this.”

Pediatrician: No Coronavirus Break Playdates. Here's Why. Looking ahead to more weeks at home during the outbreak can feel pretty bleak. But with coronavirus, playdates indoors are not the solution.