The Birthing Tree

11/28/2023

DFW followers: What an amazing resource for the local community.

From our co-founder, Nicole Havrilla:

Eleven years ago my family had just moved back to the Fort Worth area. We were pregnant with our second child and I was trying to navigate the medical community to find a new OBGYN. I started cramping at 9 weeks and knew I was in trouble. You see, I was a long distance patient of Dr. Thomas Hilgers out of Omaha NE – I NEED NaProTECHNOLOGY help to carry my babies to full term. If I don’t receive progesterone support in early pregnancy I will miscarry. As I saw a new provider, and explained my history with my first pregnancy, and pleaded with her to just draw my blood and see if the cramping was due to low progesterone … she stopped, looked at me and said “Dear you have never had a miscarriage. All this progesterone talk from your out of town doctor is unnecessary. We would let you miscarry the pregnancy as a diagnostic tool, and then worry about all this at a later time. I’m not going to draw your blood today”

While this is shocking, its actually standard of care, and I knew to keep looking for help. I ended up seeking a midwife who immediately drew my blood and sent it to Omaha. The very next day the Omaha lab called and said your levels are ½ of what we expected, and you are in danger of miscarrying the pregnancy, we need you to double your progesterone supplement immediately”. And we did. And 48hrs later all the cramping went away, and 8 months later little Alice arrived. We would not have the four children we have today without the help of physicians trained in NaProTECHNOLOGY

Consider donating today. Donations will continue to help us grow and hire new doctors, see more patients and never turn anyone away.

https://fortworth.igivecatholic.org/organizations/wholelife-authentic-care

12/04/2021

❤️

06/30/2021

👏👏👏👏👏 Posted • This TikTok video depicting medical professionals dancing to the OR for a c-section after the birthing person has been pushing for three hours is absolutely unacceptable, and it is this exact birth culture that ICAN exists to disrupt.

Why is this so wrong?
1. If baby and parent are otherwise stable, pushing time limits are not medically indicated.
2. There was no emergency here or they wouldn’t be dancing.
3. It callously disregards the feelings of that birthing person who worked so hard to push the baby out and was forced to stop.
4. Birth trauma is much more likely to occur when the person giving birth doesn’t feel heard, listened to, or in charge of decision-making.
5. Cesareans are major surgery with increased short-term risk, particularly for the birthing person.
6. Long-term health conditions are associated with this surgery, including Placenta Accreta, which also carries risk for future babies.
7. Surgery of any kind is painful, requires extended recovery, and is never a joke.
8. Appropriating Black culture and music — particularly to joke about birth when Black folks suffer medical racism and disproportionately bad birth outcomes — on TikTok is racist.

Please follow ICAN and become a member to help us dismantle the birth culture that made anyone think this video was okay.

04/07/2021

11/17/2020

🤣🤣🤣

10/01/2020

You know what I’d love to see more of?

Midwives and OBGYNs who encourage mama to reach down and catch her own baby.

Let mama’s hands be the first hands on her child.