• Begin your pregnancy with a free early pregnancy class covering exercise, nutrition and birthing options.

• Later we offer an objective, thorough 8-week childbirth education class in the last trimester. The class will emphasize:
  • good nutrition and ways to stay low risk
  • understanding how your body works and working with it in labor
  • communication skills to enhance your experience
  • husband and/or loved ones participation skills
  • choices that keep you involved in the labor process
  • variations of labor and ways to handle unexpected situations
  • breastfeeding and newborn issues

• Also available are a sibling class, grandparents class, adopting parents class and a 1-day refresher course for subsequent pregnancies.

• All of our instructors are experienced, certified educators with many years of working with birthing families.

Doulas have been doing birth work for many centuries. They were not always called doulas, but a look in anthropology or any ancient art form reveals the presence of more than one woman assisting the laboring mother. We can assume that one of the women present was the midwife or physician. The other(s) have come to offer the kind of support women have needed through the ages, physical comfort, encouragement, a caring look and information on what the new mother can expect.

• A doula usually sees the pregnant woman and her partner or family before the baby is born to better know the woman and her family. During this time she will also try to understand what the woman would like from her birth experience. She will answer questions and help the woman get the information she needs to make good decisions. At the prenatal visits(s) the doula will demonstrate and discuss ways she may be helpful during the birth.
• Once the birth has begun, the doula meets the laboring woman at her birthplace and then stays with her until a couple of hours after the baby is born. A doula completes the picture of the birth team. In all cases, a doula does not take the place of any other member of the birth team, she only offers non-medical support for the new family where she is needed. She assesses each birth separately and finds the areas where she can best serve the woman and her family. Sometimes she is the primary support person and sometimes she offers a break to the coach or some insight from her experiences and the training she has completed.

• recognizes childbirth as a key life experience that the mother will always remember...
• understands the physiology of birth and the emotional needs of a woman in labor...
• assists the woman and her partner in preparing for and carrying out their plans for the birth...
• stays by the side of the laboring woman throughout the entire labor...
• provides emotional support, physical comfort measures, and an objective viewpoint, as well as helping the woman get the information she needs to make good decisions...
• facilitates communication between the laboring woman, her partner, and clinical care providers...
• perceives her role as one who is nurturing and protecting the woman?s memory of her birth experience.

• Easing concerns of initial parenting roles
• 1-day class on new baby basics
• Infant feeding information
• Light laundry
• House tidying
• Light grocery shopping
• Cook 1 nutritious meal per day
• Care for older children

• One Minute Comfort Measures for the Caring but Busy Nurse

• The Nurse and the Doula, Exploring Common Goals

• Pain Relief Without Pain Medication

• Encouraging Words: The Impact of the Caregivers Choice of Words on the Pregnant and Laboring Woman

• Trusting Birth: How to Keep Birth Normal