Peaceful Beginnings Midwifery Service

05/31/2024

This is such exciting news! Lactation support free of charge for Plain families.

Today I am so pumped to announce that beginning Monday, June 3, we will be partnering with the Community Health Clinic in Shipshewana to offer lactation & feeding support at no cost for patients there. We will be joining a team of other amazing professionals to meet so many needs in our Plain community, including medical care, occupational therapy, dietetics, and more. What an honor it is to be able to support these families!

If you don’t know about the CHC and the work they do in our community, you should check them out.

10/26/2022

Mind. Blown.

09/29/2022

❤ BIRTH FACT ❤
Newborn term babies that go through an uncomplicated birth into an environment that is dark, quiet and calm will initially go through the Quiet Alert State.

This state of alertness will usually last for the first hour after birth as the baby is calm, awake, alert and taking in his surroundings.

All of his attention and energy is focused on seeing and hearing everything around him, especially his mother’s and father’s voice and faces.

This is the perfect time to bond with your newborn. It is the perfect time to cuddle and speak to your baby. Holding your baby's face close to yours will allow him to see you and study your face.

This is a time not to miss or to waste with “hospital routine”. That can wait. This is a precious time to be together uninterrupted.

If the newborn remains close to his mother during this first hour, the Quiet Alert State can last even longer. ❤

Photo courtesy of 📸

07/30/2022

Are you planning a Home or Birth Center birth? Are you looking for a birth education class that focuses specifically on out of hospital birth? Well you’re in luck! Community Birth Education is offered bi-monthly at Sacred Journey Midwifery in Goshen Indiana.

If you’re due in:
NOVEMEMBER
DECEMBER
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
MARCH
Then we have a class for you! Contact Rachel at RachelCunninghamDoula@gmail.com to register for our September, November or January series. It’s never too early to be informed!

07/21/2022

Absolutely ❤

04/20/2022

THE KEY INGREDIENT IS TIME

Do you know that your uterus cramps after birth and ejects blood into your baby? This cannot happen if the cord is cut.

Mother Nature's design is perfect for transforming your baby into an air breathing creature. This transformation is in fact called a Transition, but like all transitions the key ingredient is time - time for the placenta to release the rest of the baby's blood back to him.

The effects of premature cord clamping on our babies are not detectable right away - and this has allowed doctors and even midwives to continue this practice without challenge. (I was in fact taught to do immediate cord clamping due to a misguided belief that it prevented hemorrhaging). Research continues to prove that the baby deprived of blood is at risk for harm, and this is only evident later because you cannot test for cognition on a newborn. The way to get an Intact Birth as parents is to know and to demand they wait. Much of what we clinicians do to help your baby breathe when needed, can be done without immediate clamping.

The science is all there. The question around cord cutting is not "where is the evidence", but "why is this happening?" More-than-you-can-read compilation of research available at
http://www.nature.com/jp/journal/v37/n2/full/jp2016151a.html

04/13/2022

I had the honor of attending a beautiful birth recently. Well, all births are beautiful. Even when loud, raw, and chaotic. This birth was so peaceful and quiet. Can you believe Marissa Rae Photography has never photographed a birth before?!