Kristen Schell Birth Services

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Jackson, MI
Kristen Schell Birth Services

I am a certified Birth & Postpartum Doula, Photographer and Childbirth Educator based in Jackson, MI and serves Southeast Michigan.

01/29/2026

8 years ago. I was in labor at a birth center with back labor getting lots of counter pressure from my amazing husband and sister (out of frame). Many hours later, at the hospital - my kiddo was born. Happy birth day to me. Happy birthday to Ryan :)

Time to do what I always do on his birthday, show him his birth story book and tell him about the labor, birth and the immediate postpartum. The expected and unexpected events. The multitudes of emotions that happened on that day. ❤ You can feel many things at once even if they contradict each other at times.

This birth was one of the steps that inspired me to be a doula later.

Photo Credit: Jesse Renee Photography

01/27/2026

And your "best" looks different everyday. And that is okay. ❤

01/26/2026

Labor gowns. Did you bring your own or wear what the hospital provided?

If you do decide to get a labor gown, you'll want one that will allow for easy access for skin-to-skin time after baby is born, access to back if you decide to get an epidural, a flap for the front if you get continuous monitoring (to make it easier for the nurses to make adjustments), comfortable, soft, and easy to wash afterwards. I like it multipurpose. Have the gown be comfortable that you'll want to wear it again postpartum too!

01/22/2026

Here are the dates for the next EBB Childbirth Classes - they include online video, a workbook and weekly meetings.

I have asked families if I should teach this in 4 weeks - they said "Noooo! It's a lot of information to process so having [the class] over 6 weeks made it more manageable. It's the perfect length."

Classes can be covered by FSA/HSA. Access is important to me so there's always 2 scholarship spots per cohort. The Jan 6 classes cohort will have ASL Interpretation!
More information and/or to sign up for them go to kristenschellbirth.com/classes

01/21/2026

Another happy review from a family. ❤

01/19/2026

Laboring in water is amazing. Waterbirths generally happen at homebirths or birth centers. There's one hospital in Michigan that is supportive of on-purpose water birth (if low-risk and receiving care from midwife practice) - and that is University of Michigan Women's Hospital in Ann Arbor. Those tubs are huge!

This birth was at a birth center and it was my first birth where I witnessed a water birth. I've been to births where moms wanted a water birth but it didn't always play out that way. Their body them to get out of the tub to do different positions so they got "land birth."

01/16/2026

This is a technique that you can use with a shawl, rebozo, bedsheet, or towel called "shake the apple tree." You wrap the sheet over their butt then hold on both ends like you see in the picture then you shake gentle back and forth. It helps relax the muscles in the pelvic floor muscles and around that area to make more space for baby to wiggle down. I like doing this trick when baby is in the mid pelvis or in the outlet.

The husband is doing the "shake the apple" tree method on his wife at the suggestion of the midwife's assistant. The doula is giving support to her friend (and also shadowed me for this birth).

01/14/2026

Baby shoes. You don't need them. At least the ones that are structured. They are just for looks.

They aren't walking most of their babyhood so...it's okay, you don't need them. I actually just got like fleece booties thing with a velcro straps because I was tired of the dang socks falling off. Those were great!

It actually did help strengthen their feet muscles and balancing skills for they DO start walking.

What did you have on your baby registry that you realized that you actually never used them or didn't need? Share in the comments to help the other new parents out!

01/12/2026

Sometimes we have to pivot. If birth doesn't go as expected. We always weight the benefits and risk in our decision making. If a situation arises where it's safer for baby to be born via cesarean birth do it. Birth can still be beautiful even when it's not what you envisioned in your mind. Meeting your baby for the first time regardless of the journey to get there is beautiful and special.

I love it when hospitals are supportive of doula support in the operating room so that I can continue to support families even if plans change.

Hospitals that were supportive of me in the OR in the past were: Henry Ford Jackson Hospital, University of Michigan Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital, Sparrow Hospital (Lansing), Bronson Hospital (Kalamazoo), St. Joe Regional Medical Hospital (South Bend), and Corewell Health Lakeland Hospital (St. Joe & Niles).

There's still hospitals in Michigan that is not supportive of doula support in the OR (Me and other doulas are currently working on a project to hopefully change that) which is a disservice to families who would have benefited from doula support during cesarean births. In the last couples of years, I'm starting to see some hospitals starting to change their policy to allow doula support in the operating room which IS AMAZING. Let's keep going this direction please!

01/09/2026

In case you didn't know... I actually take a lot more birth photography photos of families than I post. I only share photos that I have permission to share. Some families don't want to share their photo gallery because of [insert reasons] or they rather keep it private. Birth IS personal. So I honor whatever requests the family has. Some families are okay with SOME photos being shared but not all.

Either way, I think birth photograph photos are powerful. I do know that they have the potential to change the narrative about birth - whether it's to be shared with the world, or just to the people YOU choose to share the photos with.

01/07/2026

The thing about labor is you can't make your best decision if you don't feel safe. Our bodies are smart. If we don't feels safe, it will impact the labor progress. It can even stop or slow down labor. So surround yourself with a great birth team - supportive & respectful providers (nurse, OB, midwife, etc), loving supporting partner, a doula (wink wink) and walk into the birth space with knowledge of the birth process and variation of normal, and knowing that plans can change and that's okay. It's important that you trust someone in the room - your partner, doula or friend will advocacy well for you while you're in laborland.

01/07/2026

I tried two different caption glasses to see how they are! They are pretty cool but there's some design and tech issues as expected with new technology! I'm hoping that they'll get better and better and I'll try again in a few years! I tried AirCaps and Captify glasses. The ones I'm wearing in this one is Captify Myvw version. I would love to use caption glasses for when I support clients for cesearan births (everyone is wearing masks) and for teaching in-person childbirth classes (big groups can be challenging sometimes)

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Jackson, MI
49201-49204

Website

http://kristenschellbirth.com/

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01/29/2026

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