Bella Luna Birth Services

11/06/2020

Hi folks! In an attempt to streamline my social media work, I will be de-commissioning this page shortly. Hop over to Rochester Midwifery Birth and Wellness and join my page there for great info and cute baby pics!

07/11/2020

Ok folks- shareathon challenge! I challenge you to share the MN Black Birth initiative- an initiative to make evidence based culturally matched pregnancy care accessible to Black families in Minnesota. Please share on your social media platforms today!

SHARE-A-THON
Will you share this on your social media platforms today?

One-time donation: https://paypal.me/pools/c/8qvjnHdIHb
Ongoing monthly donations: www.patreon.com/MNBlackHomeBirthInitiative

mage description:
Black and white text on a blue background reads, “BIRTH WORKERS FOR BLACK LIVES. MAKE HOME BIRTH ACCESSIBLE FOR ALL. The MN Black Home Birth Initiative is fighting racial health disparities by increasing access to safe, culturally competent, community centered midwifery care for Black families by allocating funds to cover home birth fees.
You can help
DONATE: Sponser a family’s home birth fees on a one-time or monthly basis
SHARE: With your friends, colleagues, groups, and birth/midwifery organizations
ENGAGE: Organizations that benefit from the current model of inaccessibility and encourage them to give back
metro home birth.com/black-home-birth-initiative”

03/25/2020

Hi folks-

With the unprecedented events around the covid - 19 outbreak in our global communities, many birthing families are rethinking their options and choices around pregnancy care and childbirth. It is important that these choices are made not out of fear, but from an informed postition of what homebirth has to offer, and what risks are involved in both out of hospital and hospital birth at this time.

This is an incredibly difficult time to be pregnant. I am here to talk with any birthing person who is wants to talk about options or just needs someone to listen. I am also taking late transfers of care on a case by case basis. Additonally, I can provide routine prenatal and postpartum care for families planning to birth in the hospital but wanting to avoid any additional clinic time. I am also a clinical herbalist and can offer herbal allies to help with immunity boosting and lung stregthening at this critical moment.

Please feel free to reach out if you have questions, or even if you just need to talk, 6514248059 or meg@winonabirth.com. We are all in this together, and the only way we will get through is together!

02/10/2020

Homebirth families! Tell the public why you chose homebirth!

What drives women in America to have babies at home rather than in a hospital or birth center?

02/03/2020

01/06/2020

Midwives create great results!

A new study that includes data from 11 Pacific Northwest hospitals, shows that women with low-risk pregnancies who were cared for by a midwife, left the hospital with fewer complications.

12/31/2019

2019 has been a great year for my practice- epxanding services across Southern MN and Western WI, working with amazing families and students, and meeting new midwives in the area! Looking forward to all the bellies, babies and joy in 2020!

🙊

11/29/2019

These bodies gave life, and that's nothing to be ashamed of. A shoutout to all the women sharing images of their postpartum bodies.

11/25/2019

"When you give birth, prepare to leave your dignity at the door"

NO! Just no.

Birth can be dignified. Birth doesn't have to be awful, traumatic and dehumanising. It's most certainly not shameful.

I've seen plenty of birthing women vomit, poo, sob, scream, groan and roar their way through labour. I have seen plenty of nudity, I've seen tousled hair and messy makeup, I've seen blood and sweat and tears. I have seen doctors and midwives perform examinations and stitch women up.

Never have I thought these things make birth "undignified" - they are simply RAW and POWERFUL in the most vulnerable way.

No, what makes a difference to how "dignified" or "undignified" birth is, is not the woman or the act of birth itself.

What makes a difference is how that woman is treated.

I see dignity when I see a midwife gently hold a mother's hair back as she vomits with each contraction, or places a cool wash cloth on her forehead.

I see dignity in the way a partner lovingly caresses their partner's back, or holds her face in their hands, or kisses her tenderly on her forehead.

I see dignity in the way a care provider quietly introduces themselves, and gently speaks to a woman between contractions, asking her permission for any checks/monitoring to be carried out and respecting her wishes.

I see dignity in the knowing glances and brief smiles between birth attendants as a mama powerfully roars and grunts her way through those final contractions, knowing baby is near.

I see dignity in the way a midwife or doula discreetly removes any poo (totally normal, people!!) as the baby makes room to be born, much of the time with the mama not even realising.

I see dignity when an anaesthetist whispers in a mama's ear, reassuring her that she hasn't failed.

I see dignity in the way the theatre room is quiet as baby is born, so that the first voices the baby hears are that of their parents.

I see dignity, when the woman is treated with respect, when she is treated as a human and not merely a "vessel".

So, do not expect us to lay down our dignity at the door. Instead, TREAT us with dignity and respect - blood, sweat, tears, poo, nudity and all. No matter how or where we birth. Allow us to be simultaneously vulnerable and powerful, and DIGNIFIED.