Matrescence by Diana

12/16/2025

😭😂

12/15/2025

❄️Winter is upon us❄️

We have now entered the season where I take very limited (if any) Minnesota clients due to the potential for hazardous road conditions on 94, and typically limit my Wisconsin clients to a 30 mile radius unless there are special circumstances.

Gratefully I did not have anyone go into labor on me during the recent snowstorm or arctic blast 🥶 But there’s still time lol

And of course summer brings tornado weather so pick your poison!

If you are on my winter roster and outside my usual radius, rest assured I will do all I can to safely make it to your birth— and if inclement weather prevents me from traveling or making it to you in a timely fashion, I work with THE very best backups in both states.

How did you all survive the recent weather?!

I found the snowstorm so beautiful but really struggle in subzero temps - especially with our poor short haired dog, who treasures outdoor play in all seasons, but cannot tolerate extreme cold 😩

12/08/2025

Client’s first birth was a long and grueling hospitalization due to that classic combination of PROM & GBS. She did battle with a posterior baby, painful antibiotics and all the unpleasant after-effects that come with that — but did come away with a vaginal birth.

We talked about how this birth would likely be much more efficient thanks to all the hard work her body did to pave the path last time. We talked about how her water probably would not break first again, tips for managing early labor at home, and how sometimes in subsequent births prodromal labor can make it very hard to know when to go in.

And that’s exactly what happened.

Days of grueling start/stop labor, starting the car to go in because contractions were sooo painful and consistent….

And then it would disappear. Client would be left wondering if she’d feel this uncomfortable forever 😩

We talked about getting clearance from her providers for a sleep aide, about how a bath can either make it stop or smoke out the real thing, about staying nourished and hydrated.

We talked about how her body was laboring this labor a little bit each day rather than all at once, and how it would probably be fast once it kicked in fully.

All pregnancy, Dad had a sixth sense December 4th would be this baby’s day.

That morning, while driving by the hospital, he saw a rainbow peeking through the otherwise gray and gloomy sky. An odd sight in the dead of winter 🤔

But he was right.

At midnight on December 5th, they called me. Client was admitted and 7cm!

Not long after, I joined them — and only four hours later, with far less pushing and antibiotics than the first time, client was holding their second daughter— who came out so perfect, at the exact same gestation as their first.

When they shared this baby’s name, chosen in memory of dad’s late grandmother…

We all realized that it is actually a name that is strongly associated with a rainbow🌈 How cool is that?

Please join me in celebrating this beautiful family. The lead-up was incredibly trying….but the timing was meant to be! Congratulations 🥰

12/05/2025

Cozy prenatal visit with a repeat client tonight❄️ hope everyone is keeping warm!

12/02/2025

*Doulas everywhere frantically getting ready*

The 12th and final Full Moon of 2025 will occur on December 4th at 4:14 PM MST. This is known as the Cold Moon due to the cold weather of winter setting in. This particular moon is a Supermoon as the moon is at its closest point to Earth in its orbit, hence it looks a little larger than an average Full Moon.

12/02/2025

Unpopular opinion: People without a diagnosis can absolutely experience a diabetic pregnancy. Diagnostic thresholds represent crisis level illness, and do NOT mean that people who manage to pass their GTT are healthy. I always encourage clients who are showing warning signs currently or in their birth history to take a PREVENTIVE approach and treat themselves as diabetic to give themselves the best chance of the outcome they want. This includes not only preferred maternal outcomes (e.g. vaginal birth vs. cesarean, spontaneous labor vs. induction) but ALSO protecting a good neonatal outcome, as babies born to diabetics are at risk of a number of serious problems beyond just hypoglycemia, macrosomia and shoulder dystocia. IMO subclinical situations are actually some of the *most* concerning because they are not being managed.

Once gestational diabetes, always gestational diabetes? Maternal and neonatal outcomes of pregnancies with gestational diabetes preceding nongestational diabetes pregnancy: a retrospective cohort study https://ow.ly/iZ5J50XAxJL

11/30/2025

Sometimes we spend all pregnancy worrying…

🤔About a hemorrhage

🤔 If we’ve chosen the right provider or birth place

🤔 About what labor will be like

🤔 If we’ll make it to the hospital coming from so far up north

🤔 About whether labor will hurt as much as last time

🤔 About all the possible things that could go wrong

🤔 About a surprise diagnosis of GBS

……………………………………………………………………………

And then this birth is so….

🌀Perfect

🌀Fast

🌀Simple

🌀Manageable

🌀Functional

🌀And well timed

That we walk into the hospital after a leisurely car ride of “The Office,” convinced we’re showing up early….

😮and have a baby not long thereafter😮

‼️before there is time to get in the tub
‼️or have a single dose of antibiotic
‼️or the doula arrives (I’m not ashamed to say it)
‼️or it ever gets as hard as it did last time

11/30/2025

Lazy post! Doulas may not have a brick + mortar store to patronize (I’m still gonna shout out TruLiving Birth Center tho 😅)

BUT there are things you can do that *cost nothing* to boost our work in the community!

🤸🏽If you’ve been meaning to leave a review I have:
🔹a Google Business page https://g.co/kgs/xb92doj
🔹a “Recommend” tab here on FB
🔹a DoulaMatch profile https://doulamatch.net/testimonial/26441

🤸🏽If you’d like to vote in the Volume One “Best of the Chippewa Valley” poll, you can do that here: https://volumeone.org/bestof/563/questions/17164-best-doula

🤸🏽If you’d like to submit one of your birth photos to be featured on my page, you can text or email!

🤸🏽Or if you’re me you can write your birth story and share any photos with a tag to your doula (mine was Birth Made Beautiful ~ Kara Jo Prestrud!)

Here’s to each and every one of you, I am blessed to do this work with so many amazing families. Hope you all are having a safe & cozy holiday ❄️ Stay warm!

11/26/2025

I'm scared that I'm starting to forget. All the earlier incarnations of you that I thought I never could.

The crawling you. The cruising you. The obsessed with pots and pans, you. The you where every other word is perfectly mispronounced.

Is motherhood just a state of constant nostalgia? Of looking back, whilst moving forward. Or do we get to stay still, for a bit, at some point?

I see a photo from just a few months earlier and am floored by how much you've changed. How much we both have.

How is it possible to have lived through so many different and distinct epochs in just three years.

So I write them all down. In an attempt to stop that old thief called time. And hope that the words on a page are enough to capture and retain the feeling. To do it justice without romanticizing.

Because there's plenty I'd like to forget too.

I guess the important things...stay.

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Art by: https://www.instagram.com/jackiedoucetteart?igsh=MWJueWMxYjg3NW1uNg==

Words: Mother Truths

Words taken from: 'Lessons: Reflections on Early Motherhood'
Available to buy worldwide: http://linktr.ee/mother_truths

11/25/2025

A big YES to outpatient cervical ripening, Spinning Babies and better childbirth ed. My hometown (area) of Rochester NY is featured in this article!

Financial and social incentives can nudge doctors away from the operating room.

11/21/2025

The annual Volume One “Best of the Chippewa Valley” poll is open…thank you to whoever put me into this! Always makes me feel very official😅

If you are planning to vote, the link is below 👇🏼 FYI you have to “create an account” to complete the process.

https://volumeone.org/bestof/563/questions/17164-best-doula

You can also vote for your favorite midwife and birth center!

{PS— these are the glasses I am still missing, so if anyone sees them please lmk}