The Birth Center of Charlottesville

19/08/2023

No matter how you feed your little, you are absolutely amazing! ❤

(📸 )

05/02/2023

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php/?fbid=632670105534463

“Can I come to see your baby?”
Words that caused my heart to sink
For, of course I want to see you,
But I’m weary and I stink.
It’s been days since I got dressed
and there’s chaos everywhere.
Dirty dishes overflowing,
and there’s breast milk in my hair.
I’m really in survival mode.
I can’t tell the nights from days.
My life has been uprooted
in oh so many ways.
My head feels like exploding
and I’m trying to just BE.
Yes, I’ve gained this new addition,
but I’ve lost a piece of ME.
A new love has engulfed me
and transformed my every being:
A love that, all at once,
is so constricting, and so freeing.
So, please, dear ones, I ask of you
to just give me some time
to navigate this new terrain
that’s really so sublime.
And, soon, I’ll have you visit:
I can’t wait for you to meet.
But, right now all I can manage
is to feed, sleep, and repeat.

Maria Tempany (Therhymingone)
Image by Arynlindsey

09/08/2022

For the past year and a half we have been working to change the outdated and dangerous law in VA that restricts Licensed Midwives from carrying and administering standard medication.
Part of our campaign to change the law is to share real stories with legislators involving VA families that have suffered due to the barriers this law has created. These stories could highlight financial barriers, safety issues, or general unnecessary hoops you have had to jump through in order to have a safe pregnancy, birth, and newborn.

The medications we are seeking include, but are not limited to, Rhogam, Oxygen, Pitocin, misoprostol, lidocaine, Vit K, erythromycin, and IV fluids/antibiotics.

Please consider sharing your story so we can make birth safer for all Virginia families AND Licensed Midwives. We can be reached at virginiamidwives@gmail.com

08/08/2022

Maternity care deserts are areas where there is limited or no access to maternity health care services. According to a 2020 report published by the March of Dimes, 47% of Virginia counties are Maternity Care Deserts (March of Dimes, 2020)

Licensed Midwives in Virginia are restricted from administering medications that are within their scope of practice. Virginia is one of only two states that license midwives, yet restrict them from accessing these medications. Providers should be able to work within their full scope of practice. Virginia Midwives for Safe Community Births is a group of Virginia Licensed Midwives, freestanding Birth Centers, and consumers interested in improving community birth by updating Virginia's outdated midwifery law prohibiting Licensed Midwives from being able to possess and administer medications that make community birth safe.

Learn more and join the conversation: https://www.virginiamidwife.org/

05/08/2022

25/07/2022

New moms often want to know if what they’re experiencing in the postpartum period is in the range of “normal.” Here is a chart to help distinguish what is less likely a cause for concern, and when you should seek outside support. Reach out if you need help! www.guidedhopecounseling.com
(Original post source: Ramonita O'Maille https://www.facebook.com/arenewedmomma)

20/07/2022

Midwives are not ‘doctors helpers’… they are highly skilled professionals, having done a three or four year degree course, or an 18 month conversion course from nursing and they specialise in physiological birth. They are experts in normality. They know how to recognise and facilitate it. Midwives can also quickly recognise if a birth is moving away from normality, and have the skills to help bring it back in line.

Many women think that by paying a huge amount of money for an obstetrician to look after their pregnancy and birth, they’ll have the best care. But while obstetricians are highly specialised in birth, their real expertise is dealing with emergencies. And they are absolutely amazing at that. I am exceptionally grateful that the life saving skills of obstetricians are available when they’re needed.

The thing is though, if your main experience of birth is dealing with emergencies, then you’re probably not going to view birth as a completely natural, normal, incredible part of life...

So when choosing your care it’s good to keep that in mind. If you want to have a normal physiological birth, and are considering an obstetrician, you might want to ask them what their caesarean rate is, and how often they have actually supported physiological births.

If you have a healthy, normal pregnancy, and want to have a normal, physiological birth, then that’s what (particularly home birth/independent/midwife led unit) midwives specialise in, and they do an absolutely incredible job. ❤️