Being and Born

12/23/2025

Birth is a threshold, not a transaction.
You deserve care that honors that truth.

My 2026 calendar is open for home birth families. ❤️

12/21/2025

Did you know? A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of the impact of midwifery continuity of care found significant impacts on labor, birth, and maternal/infant outcomes. Birthing parents were more likely to birth vaginally and after 37 weeks gestation, and less likely to have a cesarean, episiotomy, or induction of labor.

Consider what continuity of care looks like in your community, alongside access to midwifery care. How might you support clients in your community in advocating for greater continuity where it’s an option for them?

You can learn more about the review here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2025.105300

12/16/2025

The phone has been ringing like crazy lately! If you’re dreaming of a home birth in 2026, book a discovery call. Space is very limited ✨

12/16/2025

Before birth is ever a physical event, it is a returning.
A settling.
A drawing-in toward the holy center of yourself.

This work has always been about presence — about the warm room, the quiet listening, the sacred pause before we rush to measure or check or assess.

Presence is the first medicine.
It is what steadies the nervous system, what gives your baby a field of safety, what allows you to breathe differently, softer, deeper.

When women ask me what midwifery care feels like, I tell them this:
“It feels like someone holding a light as you walk toward your becoming.”

If you’re stepping into this path for 2026, I’m here.
Let’s walk it slowly, together.

12/15/2025

There is a kind of care that doesn’t rush you.

A kind that draws you close, warms the room, and lets your shoulders drop an inch lower.

That’s the heart of midwifery at Being & Born.

Clinical excellence, sacred presence, sovereign birth - held in quiet, steady hands.

If you are pregnant and longing for care that feels like coming home, my calendar is booking for Summer and Fall 2026 due dates.

12/04/2025

Place of birth matters more than most people have been led to believe.

The new Sidery et al. (2025) paper reminds us once again that when women are well screened, well supported, and attended by skilled midwives, homebirth produces excellent outcomes. Not “good for a niche group.” Not “acceptable under certain conditions.”

Excellent outcomes.

Physiological birth thrives in environments that protect it. Privacy, familiarity, and continuity of midwifery care are not luxuries. They are clinical conditions. This is not ideology.

Publicly funded homebirth programs exist because the evidence demanded it. They work because midwives work, and because women continue to push for maternity care that respects autonomy rather than managing labour through surveillance and interruption.

If you want to see homebirth protected and expanded in Queensland, become a Homebirth Queensland member today.

There are two pathways. Become a Community Member and join a statewide network that shapes advocacy, voting, and collective decision-making. Or join as a Birth Worker Member and gain access to professional support groups, reduced rates on events, and our lending library of books and resources, along with opportunities to be listed in our community directory.

We welcome families, students, midwives, doulas, and all birth workers who share the vision of genuine birth choice in Queensland.

11/11/2025

11/10/2025

Hello lovelies 💗 I’m back from my two-ish week fall break.

I traveled up to Vermont to welcome my littlest nibling, Frankie, and visited with family.

I wish I could say I did something exciting or fancy or took lots of pictures of interesting things but really I spent my time doing the most mundane ordinary things - and resting, and reading, and not checking my email/phone/messages unless it was a dire emergency.

My brain feels uncluttered and unpressured after giving it a bit of space. Delightful 🙂

Tomorrow is my first day back in the office visiting mamas and I cannot wait to see you all!!

10/15/2025

It may be October, but in midwife-world we’re already thinking about summer!! ☀️ Delmarva mamas dreaming of a home birth—here’s what’s open for Spring and Summer due dates:

• March: 2 spots
• April: 2 spots
• May: 4 spots
• June: 2 spots
• July: closed for vacation
• August: 4 spots (after 8/21 only)

I keep my calendar intentionally small so your care is unhurried, relational, and clinically excellent. Your birth. Your story. My guidance. Our partnership.

If you’re healthy, dreaming of a powerful birth story, and in Maryland (Worcester/Wicomico/Somerset/Dorchester/Talbot counties) or Delaware (Sussex county) or the Virginia (ESVA), start with a discovery call. All care begins with an application and risk screening.

📍 Being & Born Midwifery — clinical care, sacred space, sovereign birth.

09/17/2025

The natural term for humans to breastfeed is anywhere between 2 and 7+ years. Some babies stop earlier, some carry on for longer.

Many cultures around the world breastfeed to natural term, including many women in the Western world. This age range is only surprising in cultures that interrupt breastfeeding, often without realising it or knowing which norms are biological and which are cultural.

The concentration of fats and proteins increase as a baby grows into a toddler, along with increased levels of antibacterial and antiviral components such as lysozyme, which is an anti-inflammatory, and destroys bacteria.

Lysozyme increases in concentration from about 6 months old, when babies become more mobile and everything (toys, sand, cats biscuits?) goes straight in the mouth, and keeps increasing after the first year.

The concentration of Lactoferrin also increases over time. Lactoferrin inhibits the growth of some cancerous cells. It also binds to the iron in our baby’s body, preventing it from being available to harmful microorganisms that need iron to survive. Lactoferrin also kills the bacteria strep mutans, a cause of tooth decay and cavities.

Our body’s immune system takes around 6 years to become fully mature, so the support of the protective factors in breastmilk until our immune system can fully function on its own seems play a part in the timescale of natural term weaning too.

Longer term breastfeeding is also associated with reduced risk of diseases for mothers, including breast cancer.

We acknowledge that many mothers find it difficult to establish breastfeeding in the first place, that is a multi-layered investment on the part of a mother and that natural term feeding might not feel like, or be, a possibility for many.

We're not here to tell anyone what to do.

We also acknowledge that lack of information about our biology contributes to lack of support for mothers when they want to establish, or continue, breastfeeding, but cannot find the help they need from people who understand why it matters, or what is normal.

More at https://human-milk.com/pages/science-of-breastmilk

09/17/2025

Neonatal male circumcision in the U.S. has fallen over the past decade and now sits below 50%, a cross-sectional study indicated.

"These findings align with prior trends and reflect sociodemographic changes and evolving cultural, clinical, and policy landscapes," researchers wrote.

Read more: https://www.medpagetoday.com/pediatrics/generalpediatrics/117464

09/15/2025