Heartful Plan Doula Services

05/22/2022

⁉️DID YOU KNOW⁉️

The placenta is an organ, a temporary fetal organ that begins developing from the blastocyst shortly after implantation.

The placenta plays a critical role in facilitating nutrient, gas and waste exchange between the physically separate maternal and fetal circulations, and is an important endocrine organ producing hormones that regulate both maternal and fetal physiology during pregnancy.

✨FUN FACT✨

According to PNAS in May 2013, a study determined that the paternal genes dominate in the placenta.

Magic. Pure magic.

Did you take a photo of your placenta?
I’ll share mine in my IG stories.

05/22/2022

That’s your body. That’s your baby.

This is what I softly chanted as I supported my friend as she birthed the most beautiful little boy into the world this week.

It was the *GREATEST* honor to be chosen as her doula for a *SECOND* time. (swipe left to see our first postpartum pic together in 2019)

The sheer strength Mama ‘M’ brings to her labor & deliveries will never cease to amaze me. Women will never cease to amaze me.

I’m slowly diving back into the role I have loved more than any other and this precious family was the absolute best way to dive back in.

08/21/2020

Crying REAL tears over here!!!!

04/20/2020

So excited to offer our local Mamas another quality option for their births. You deserve ALL the options ❤️🙌🏼

04/07/2020

This is a prime example of how manipulative the media can be. Let me point out some facts.

1. This mother had 2 underlying conditions that are known for causing preterm labor (hypertension and diabetes).

2. This baby was born at 22 weeks gestation. The media refuses to acknowledge a baby aborted at this gestational as a baby. Now that it’s fits their coronavirus narrative it’s a newborn? (I believe every human is a baby at conception, but the media hypocrisy here is just so incredible).

3. The article states that this baby was “over 3 months premature”. 22 weeks weeks and 28 weeks are a VAST difference. This baby was OVER 4 months early.

4. Louisiana has some of the worst maternal/fetal outcomes, including a high rate of preterm labor.

5. “In some cases, 22 week newborns can survive under normal circumstances”. FALSE. If a 22 week newborn survives, it is rare and it is due to one of the most difficult, in depth efforts by a medical team to keep that baby alive.

6. This baby does not have COVID-19 results back. They stated that if the baby tests negative, they are still going to count it at a COVID-19 death.

7. They actually referred to the 6 week old baby in Connecticut who died from a traggic suffocation by the caregiver. Pay attention to the language the media uses. A death “linked to” corona could literally mean someone died in a car crash and later tested positive. That term holds no value and it used to manipulate.

8. Do you know that almost every virus or bacterial infection increases the risk of preterm labor? This is not new. It is not unique to COVID-19.

I could go on and on. The bottom line is that this mother, for whatever reason, lost her baby and the media is using her grief to instill fear into every mom and pregnant woman in America. Just like the Connecticut case. This is a shame. Her sweet baby is used to fit a fear narrative when the article itself proves we have zero proof of the actual cause. From reading even this most biased article, I can think of at least 6 reasons why this preterm labor occurred that is not COVID-19. Read with discernment and logic, friends.

The media SHOULD have a responsibility of keeping the people equipped with factual information, and this pandemic has proved to me that it certainly does not. It thrives and feeds on fear and emotion. Don’t be a victim.

Post credit: Larissa Dacus

A newborn baby was added to the growing list of Baton Rouge coronavirus deaths Monday — one of the youngest lives lost amid the global pandemic — after her mother

03/31/2020

“In response to some private hospitals’ decision to bar partners, New York will order all hospitals to allow partners in delivery rooms, despite the coronavirus risk.”

🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

It is quite literally the most extreme, borderline barbaric, restriction I have seen to date. Don’t come at me about this either, you won’t change my mind.

As someone who has both given birth and worked hand in hand with women that have given birth I know first hand just how many risks there are and my husband was never one of them. The number of janitors + food service + house keeping + medical students + nurses + doctors that come in and out of that room at any given time pose 100x’s more of a risk as they walk in and out of EVERY room and touch every corner of that hospital.

Slow clap for you, New York!

Stay home. Stay safe. Stay the hell out of our birth plan.

In response to some private hospitals’ decision to bar partners, New York will order all hospitals to allow partners in delivery rooms, despite the coronavirus risk.

03/27/2020

✊🏻❤️

As we all struggle to adapt to our changing circumstances during the Covid-19 pandemic, we are looking for ways to empower and support women virtually through "The Business of..." platforms. The new hospital restrictions banning partners and doulas during labor broke our hearts. For women birthing in hospitals, the idea of not having any labor support is frightening and unprecedented. Equally unimaginable is the fact that nurses and care givers lack adequate personal protection equipment, putting their own health at risk.

In order to support expecting parents during this pandemic, we are streaming "The Business of Being Born" and the "More Business of Being Born" series FOR FREE from our website: www.thebusinessof.life

01/21/2020

Wow! Thanks, Earthley, for this comprehensive piece on epidurals. I’ve had one birth with an epidural, and no one warned me of any risk in doing so until I did my own independent research. My unmedicated births were my best births, by FAR🙌🏻The further I got away from intervention, the better my births have been.

Text below from Earthley:

These days, around 70% of women get epidurals when they're in labor, and that number has been increasing steadily for years. But do women really know is in the epidural...or the potential risks they face?

Regardless of what any woman chooses, she deserves full, complete informed choice.

Most epidurals are a combination of two drugs: bupivacaine and fentanyl. The medication does cross the placenta and get to the baby, but the effects on babies aren't well-studied. Some old studies show that babies were a bit irritable or "difficult" in the first few days after birth, and that this affected bonding and maternal perception of motherhood, but there aren't more recent studies to confirm or deny this.

Maternal risks are more clear. There's an increased risk of both instrument-assisted delivery and caesarean delivery. Plus, many women develop fevers, low blood pressure, dizziness, nausea, and may have slightly longer labors. Babies are more likely to be malpositioned.

Of course, in some cases, moms can get exhausted or tense from pain, and an epidural might be what allows them to keep laboring and deliver successfully.

There are different blends of pain medications and different amounts given, and lower levels of pain medications -- sometimes referred to as "walking epidurals" -- seem to have fewer risks for mom with good outcomes for mom and baby.

If you are considering an epidural, ask questions about what kind of medication you would be given, the dose, and how much control you would have over it. Explore non-drug options as well.

Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25040829
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4718011/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279567/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3417963/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3106379/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25126704
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4921713/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7238154
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4335561/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5136389/

https://www.facebook.com/749122528556667/posts/1812307572238152/?d=n

12/10/2019

😭🙌

Changing the world, one life-giving moment at a time.

Thank you.

12/06/2019

Thoughts? Did you delay cord clamping?

Delay cord clamping👇🏻👇🏻

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ Committee on Obstetric Practice makes the following recommendations regarding the timing of umbilical cord clamping after birth:

• In term infants, delayed umbilical cord clamping increases hemoglobin levels at birth and improves iron stores in the first several months of life, which may have a favorable effect on developmental outcomes.

• Delayed umbilical cord clamping is associated with significant neonatal benefits in preterm infants, including improved transitional circulation, better establishment of red blood cell volume, decreased need for blood transfusion, and lower incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis and intraventricular hemorrhage.

• Given the benefits to most newborns and concordant with other professional organizations, the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists now recommends a delay in umbilical cord clamping in vigorous term and preterm infants for at least 30–60 seconds after birth.

• Delayed umbilical cord clamping does not increase the risk of postpartum hemorrhage.