Childbirth Education Promotes Partnership

A quality childbirth education class can help you have a more symbiotic relationship with your chosen birthing location.

In Finding Nemo, Marlin explains to his son Nemo that rubbing his body on the sea anemone that is their home helps make sure that the anemone won’t sting them when they go in and out of its tentacles. The anemone usually stings its prey before devouring it, but has a symbiotic (friendly) relationship with the clown fish that uses the anemone as their home. The clown fish get protected from other predators and the anemone gets some essential nutrients from the clown fish, all because they come together to change each others’ skin microbiome (read more science-y stuff here). What does this all have to do with learning about giving birth to human babies in childbirth education courses? I’ll tell you three ways!

1. Expectations

Knowing what to expect, especially from something that could sting you, really helps you be more satisfied with the process. Going into birth without knowing what to expect can set you up to get shocked by all the things that can and do happen. No matter where you are planning to give birth, setting your own expectations for how things could go is going to help you be better at going with the flow of birth. Taking a quality childbirth education course helps you and your partner work together better on the big day, and helps you partner with your provider because you anticipate what is coming next. Being knowledgeable about the process eases anxiety for some people too, and that’s a great thing.

2. Needs

The clown fish and anemone each give something needed to each other in their partnership; it benefits them both. Understanding the needs that you will have in labor and how the people around you can help meet them is part of any great childbirth education class. How do you like to be touched during stressful times if at all? How do you communicate your needs to your partner when you can’t speak? What are the needs of your hospital/birth center/birth team when you arrive as far as paperwork, blood work, exams, etc? Knowing before you go or before your team arrives to your house for your delivery, helps everyone be on the same page. The better the understanding of needs for everyone in the room, the better the partnership. An excellent childbirth education course can help everyone get their needs met when it comes to the big day, and even afterwards

3. Learn from Others’ Experience

How do clown fish learn to rub themselves on the anemone to not get stung? They learn from other fishes experience. (Though clearly someone had to be the first fish to figure this out and also first human to give birth, but I think you get what I’m trying to say here.) Certified childbirth educators are experienced not only in teaching childbirth education, but also in adult learning principles and techniques. Having taught both children and adults, I can say that without a doubt, they are NOT the same! Learning from an experienced and independent childbirth educator means that their content is not only evidence-based but they can also teach you about ALL the options, even those that aren’t as common (or even offered) in different birthing locations or with different providers.

When you are expecting a baby, taking a quality childbirth education course is a real must. Taking a childbirth education class promotes a lovely symbiotic relationship & helps you know who to navigate the twists and turns of labor and delivery together. In 2024, the Doula Group of Evansville will be offering in-person childbirth education courses again!! I’ll be announcing dates soon, so be on the lookout!!

#ExpectingEVV Giveaway!

There are few things that I honestly love more than a great massage, and a FREE massage is even better. We’re giving away a prenatal massage to one lucky pregnant person near Evansville. If you are currently pregnant and living within driving distance of Evansville, IN, this giveaway is for you! The other awesome point of this giveaway is to help expecting parents in and around Evansville connect via social media. We want to help put the social back in social media & to help expecting parents feel less lonely too. Sound interesting? Read below for the rules to enter!

Why Massage?

Self-care is incredibly important all the time, but especially when you are pregnant. Growing another human is hard on your body, and not just because of the kicks to the internal organs. Massage is an excellent way to not only care for your body, but also to help turn your mind away from your worries and the demands of your life. Massage can help you connect with your body and the present moment too. The benefits of a massage with a skilled practitioner for a pregnant body are honestly phenomenal. We’re giving away one 60 minute prenatal massage with the marvelous Christina Renock (who also happens to be one of our amazing postpartum doulas). Christina has been practicing massage therapy for 10 years! This massage is an $80 value & you could get it for FREE just by entering our giveaway!

How to Enter

Follow us on Instagram
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Post a picture or reel of yourself on Instagram using: #ExpectingEVV

Complete these 3 steps by 7am Central on Thursday 8/31/23. We will have a live drawing to select the winner on Friday 9/1/23 on Instagram.

Ideas

-show off your bump
-show us your favorite place in Evansville
-pregnancy announcement
-favorite place to shop for clothes & baby things

Get creative! We are so excited to connect with all the amazing expecting families in our area & hope you are too.

P.S. If you are a previous client, we are also doing a special private giveaway just for you! Check your email for more details.

Know Better, Do Better

When I was pregnant the first time, I was completely overwhelmed by the process that seemed to be shrouded in mystery. No, not the birth part, that I could find good information about. The great unknowns of how to find a provider, navigating where to go, what to ask, & evaluating my options were the real frustration for me. I did seriously look at the person doing my intake forms with me and say, “this is really confusing, and I’m a graduate student! I can’t even imagine how confusing this system would be for someone with less resources!” No, a doula can’t help you figure out your insurance, BUT here are 3 ways that doulas help demystify things for you:

We’ve Been There!

Yes, most of us have kids and have been there personally, but we’ve ALL been there professionally. As a team, if someone hasn’t been to a birthing location before, we fill each other in on all the details. It’s important to know which door to go to in the middle of the night or if you as the doula are going to be allowed into the triage room with your client. Our experience helps demystify the specifics with each other, but also with our clients. One thing that we focus on during our 2nd prenatal visit with our birth doula clients is discussing logistics. When should you call your doula? Where will we meet up when you’re in labor? All our birth doula clients also get postpartum planning sessions, to try to get your brain thinking about life with a newborn. Having been there, we know how important it is to have a roadmap for when things get foggy. We also know that talking about options and preferences helps take away the mystery and get you started thinking about resources and questions.

Resources Galore

Even if you have great questions, that doesn’t always mean you know where to ask them. Sharing local resources and connections are things that doulas do. I remember being a first time parent and struggling with lactation and not knowing who was knowledgeable enough to help me. Feeding resources are just one place that doulas can help point you in the right direction. This may not sound like a big deal, but doulas make having those resource lists for you a priority so that you don’t have to go searching. We don’t have an opinion about how you do things either, which as a new parent is pretty priceless really.

We hold YOU!

As you’re navigating your life that’s shifted 30 different ways since you got pregnant, your doula holds you. We remind you that shifting is normal and help you find your way forward. This is the kind of demystifying that you don’t often appreciate until it happens to you. Validating your feelings and helping you know that you’re not alone is what having a doula on your team does for you. We remind you that you don’t have to have it all figured out and that pausing in the unknown is ok too. My doula held me as I wrestled with all the options, my doula not only gave me the information to come to my own understanding and decisions, but also the space to do so without pressure. That was so helpful for me, and I know our clients really appreciate it.

How we work

If you’re interested in talking about having a doula for your birth or postpartum team (or both), we’d love to talk to you. You can use this link to schedule a FREE 30 minute call to talk about your needs and who on our team might be a good fit to work with you. We’d love to demystify the doula process for you too.

Don’t Worry, Be Picky

Choosing a care provider that fits isn’t always easy.

After the shock of the positive pregnancy test wears off a little bit, one of the first things you will need to decide is WHO you are going to have as your care provider for this pregnancy and birth. If you’re like me, you start by asking your friends who they used for their pregnancies, and then you make an appointment. Other people make an appointment with their usual GYN and leave it at that. Here are a few things you want to think about when you’re choosing a provider:

Does their idea of birth align with yours?

All providers have ideas about birth based on their training and experience (both professional and personal btw). Generally, OBs are watching to make sure nothing goes wrong and midwives are watching to make sure everything goes right. While that may not sound like a huge difference, I urge you to think about what their expectations might be with each of those approaches. OBs are generally looking to DO something to help while midwives are looking to NOT have to do anything to help. This is a really broad generalization, but an important distinction when you’re thinking about the kind of care that you’re looking for, and the same answer isn’t right for everyone. Think about your specific situation and how you’d like to approach birth. Research has shown, that the provider you choose can make a difference in how your baby comes out in case you didn’t know that already. Here are a few things you might want to know your provider’s attitude about:

Weight Gain: What limits do they have for you? When do they get concerned about baby’s weight in utero?
Ultrasound: How many & when? Why?
Induction: When? Why? How?
Questions: When & where can you ask them? How long are usual appointments?
Schedule: How often are you on call? Who do you share call with? Surgery days?

Location AND Provider Matter

Many times your insurance will dictate which hospital or group of providers they will cover. Look at some of the stats for the location where you’re planning to delivery. You won’t be able to look at provider specific data, but you can definitely ask potential providers their cesarean and episiotomy rates by the way. What about their induction rates? All of these things add up to the way that pregnancy and birth are handled at an institutional level. Is birth handled like an emergency no matter what? Is the staff trained in trauma-informed care? What does it look like to arrive in labor and to go through triage? Can you get a tour before the big day? You’ll have plenty of unexpected things to navigate during your pregnancy and birth, but the location and your treatment shouldn’t honestly be one of them. What are their policies about eating and drinking during labor? What kind of pain relief options do they have? Is anesthesia on site at all times? Do they support VBAC?

This can all seem really overwhelming, especially to first time parents that haven’t ever had to deal with any of these questions. Maybe you’re still trying to figure out how YOU feel about these things before you even can have an opinion about how your provider does. That’s ok, seriously. As doulas, we want you to feel ready to make these decisions. We want to give you all the information you might need to figure out how YOU want to approach pregnancy and birth without any bias. This is one of the reasons we highly recommend a quality childbirth education course for everyone by the way.

Not the vibe?

Finally, it needs to be said that if a provider isn’t the right fit for you, then it’s ok to move on and find someone else. You have NO OBLIGATION to stay with a provider just because you’ve established care or even because you’ve been seeing them since you were a teenager for GYN services. Chances are, they’re so busy they may not even realize you’ve stopped coming to them. Also of note: YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO SWITCH AT ANY TIME, including during labor. You are under ZERO obligation to be cared for by anyone who is not the right fit. You have the right to fire them on the spot and ask for someone else, yes, seriously…including your nurse btw. While that might sound scary, so is being cared for by someone you don’t trust during labor and delivery! You’re the boss applesauce, and if anyone in your space makes you feel anything other than that, you can make a change at any time!

Choosing a provider doesn’t have to be overwhelming. This is one of the things we cover in our FREE E-Book: Getting Started. We also talk about this stuff with all of our clients. Even if you have a limited pool to choose from, we can talk to you about our experiences with different providers. Yes, we do have a list of providers we won’t work with too, and we’re happy to tell you who they are if you ask! You deserve the best, no matter what your skin color, income, or insurance situation is. Demanding better options and hitting the bad providers in the pocketbook is the only way we’re going to make change here, clearly.

Insider Information

Doulas have the inside scoop on local options without any of the insider bias and protections.

As a doula who has been working here since 2014, I’ve learned quite a bit of insider information that can be really helpful in several situations for expecting families. I recently had a great conversation with a nurse friend who was bemoaning the fact that because she works at a specific facility, she can’t warn people about specific provider habits or tell them all the things that she wishes she could because of policy. My reply, “I do that!” As doulas we are employed by our clients, therefore we answer to them. We get to say the quiet part that hospital employees might know but can’t say out loud, and that’s a pretty valuable service that doulas can offer. Here are three ways that we use that type of insider information with our outside voices.

Provider Selection

Have you ever wondered if your provider is the one driving up the episiotomy rate? The biggest issue I see is a lack of transparency regarding individual practice statistics. Until that issue gets solved, we doulas are happy to tell you what we’ve seen with our clients’ providers. Since 2014, we’ve had the privilege to be able to see most of the providers in our service area catch babies. That means that we know which ones like to pull the old bait and switch–telling you what you want to hear your whole pregnancy and switching gears to their agenda at the end, so late that you don’t even feel like you have a choice to switch to another provider. We know which providers deal well with push back and which ones don’t. We know which ones love to help you have a great experience in the OR and which ones will talk about sports ignoring all of your wishes. Wondering if your pediatrician is going to judge you for exclusively pumping or using a supplementary nursing system? We can tell you that! If you’re looking for a provider, don’t ask your friends or some random group of strangers on the internet all of whom probably only have experience with one or two providers max; ask a group of doulas who’ve actually seen them work and can talk to you about those experiences.

Policy vs Evidence

In case you don’t know, there are a TON of maternity care policies and practices that aren’t based on the scientific evidence at all. As doulas, we can not only tell you what the policies are, but we can also remind you that a hospital policy is not the law. In case nobody has ever told you: you cannot be arrested for drinking water during labor. We work for you, and know that not only is this type of policy not based on the latest scientific evidence or statements from organizations like the American Society of Anesthesiology, but also that it is cruel. We’ll remind you that you are the boss of your own body and you get to make all the decisions regarding what goes in and how things come out too. That’s doesn’t always make us popular, but it does make our clients happy.

Reporting

Whenever we repeat stories of medical mistreatment, we often hear the refrain, “oh I hope they will report them.” It’s pretty hard to report behavior if you don’t know how to do the actual reporting. Not only will we doulas help point out bad behavior, but we’ll help you know how to report it if that is something that you want to pursue. Seriously, we know what to do and will be happy to help you write the correct letters and deliver them to the correct people to help make sure people are held responsible. Reporting obstetric violence is really important to us by the way, and even if the information is supposedly publicly available, we know that finding it can be challenging and especially overwhelming when you have a new baby.

One of the benefits of being a doula is that we get this insider perspective without having any of the bias that comes from being employed by the facility or providers that we work with regularly. We’re employed by our clients. That kind of freedom comes with all the usual self-employment caveats, but it also means that we’re free to say the quiet part out loud. We’re free to talk about our experiences and let people know about which providers we wouldn’t send our worst enemy to versus who we’d let catch our babies. (Yes, there are a few locally that I’d still let do that.) That essence of doula service, the outsider with insider knowledge, is KEY to why we’re such a valuable part of your team!

Approved Doulas: Kentucky Medicaid

Hey there friends in the Bluegrass state! We are now part of Humana’s healthy Horizons Kentucky Medicaid doula program!! This is seriously exciting news, as we know doula services so often aren’t affordable for the people who really need them most. This is part of the value added benefits of this program, and we’re really excited to be part of this initiative.

What does this mean?

If you have Kentucky Medicaid through Humana, then you can hire one of our doulas and they will pay us! We had an awesome meeting with the team at Humana who walked us through the entire Healthy Horizon program and how it all works. Honestly, I was pretty impressed by the resources included in their program for expecting parents.

This program covers both birth and postpartum doula services too, which might be what had my jaw on the floor to be honest. We love that birth doulas are getting so much love right now, but know that the value of postpartum doulas is also imperative for new families. Through this plan, you can actually get 4 visits with a postpartum doula, even if you don’t employ a birth doula at all. That’s HUGE! That also includes miscarriage support by the way. Your doula can even speak to your care manager if you give them permission, so coordinating care is even more well rounded.

How do we make it happen?

If you are planning to deliver in Owensboro, Henderson, or Madisonville and are part of the Humana Healthy Horizons program, we’re here to help you! Contact your care coordinator to find us on the referral list. That’s it! Once you hire us, you get all same exact benefits of ALL our clients including access to our online client classroom, 24/7 unlimited virtual support from your doula, and all that jazz.

We’re new to this, but soo excited to be able to offer these services. We got very excited a few years ago when Indiana passes a bill to provide doula services to Medicaid recipients, but then they pulled the funding in a committee meeting. Way to go Kentucky for putting your money where it is most needed to combat maternal mortality and morbidity!!

Coming Soon?

We hope Indiana will get its act together so we can start offering more services like this to our expecting families here in Hoosier-land too. We’re working to also get added to Anthem’s Kentucky Medicaid program and to Tri-Care too for our military families. We know doula services aren’t in everyone’s budget, and we’re really excited to see more recognition of the value of doula services regardless of someone’s ability to pay.

For now: Kentucky, we’re ready to serve you!

The Latest Local Maternity Statistics

Statistics reflect the culture of a hospital and the institutional priorities. What has changed here since 2017?

Anyone who has met me can tell you that I’m a huge fan of data! Words and images can hide a multitude of things, and opinions can be influenced by those too. But basing ideas and approaches to things on DATA is honestly my jam. Seriously, I get very excited about this stuff. Every year, Leapfrog Group publishes data they collect from hospital surveys about standards of practice. They measure all kinds of things, but naturally as a doula I’m the most excited to learn about the maternity care statistics. I’ve been collecting this information for our area hospitals since 2017, which is exciting because we’re definitely seeing some changes in the data. If you’d like to read my previous posts, you can do so here, here, and here. Please note, I did not collect the 2019 statistics because they were published in April 2020, and well, you all remember that year right? Without further fanfare, here are the 3 data points I’m always interested in seeing for our local hospitals.

Episiotomy

data from https://ratings.leapfroggroup.org/

I’m REALLY excited to see the episiotomy rate in serious decline because the evidence has been telling us they aren’t an evidence based routine procedure since the late 1980s!! It shouldn’t take this long to change, but at least it is changing. Don’t take my word for it, this paper concluded that, “Our systematic review finds no health benefits from episiotomy,” in 2005. Despite that scientific fact that has been repeatedly proven, as a doula in 2021 I heard a provider at a local hospital say that cutting an episiotomy would help prevent my client from “tearing too much.” I’m not naming names here, but I will if you call me. I have heard that the hospital this doctor works at requires all their physicians to provide explanation for every episiotomy they cut, so this particular doctor must be quite busy with those reports.

Early Elective Induction

Defined as scheduled cesarean sections or induction of labor prior to 39 weeks gestation without a medical reason, early elective induction can happen for a lot of reasons, but there are definite consequences to it. Here is what the picture looks like in our local facilities:

Hospital Goal: 5% or less	2017	2018	2020	2021
The Women’s Hospital Newburgh, IN	1.4%	1.7%	6.8%	4.1%
Ascension St. Vincent Evansville	2.1%	.8%	0%	0%
Owensboro Health	2.1%	1.4%	.7%	1.6%
Memorial Hospital & Healthcare Center Jasper, IN	–	0%	5.9%	6.3%
Daviess Community Hospital Washington, IN	–	1.9%	0%	Declined
Deaconess Henderson Hospital	–	2.4%	0%	0.0%
Good Samaritan Hospital Vincennes, IN	–	–	4%	0%

Local Statistics for Early Elective Induction

Cesarean Rates: what everyone really wants to know

Before you look at this chart, I want you to know what the data is telling us. An NSTV Cesarean is defined as first-time low-risk mothers giving birth to a single baby at full-term in the head-down position delivering their baby by C-section. Hospitals should have a rate of C-sections of 23.6% or less according to Leapfrog Group. Some people will argue that this rate should be 10% according to the WHO, but honestly that isn’t true. So what does this data tell you then? This chart shows you how many people pregnant for the first time with a low-risk pregnancy with one head down baby delivered their baby via cesarean surgery. This is also retrospective data, so it really isn’t predictive of the future or exactly what will happen to you either, but it does at least give you an idea of the culture of a place and what their staff sees.

The actual NSTV Cesarean Rates for 2021 are as follows:

36.6% Ascension St. Vincent
30.5% Deaconess Henderson
28.9% Owensboro Regional Health
24.5% Deaconess The Women’s Hospital
17.6% Good Samaritan
17.5% Memorial Hospital in Jasper
Daviess Community Hospital declined the survey this year.

What I Wish We Knew

As a doula, I always try to make sure my clients have the best most up-to-date information about their decisions. There is of course such a thing as having too much information, but I don’t think we’re anywhere near that right now with regards to choosing providers and birthing locations. These numbers honestly hide sooo much in the aggregated hospital data. How do I know what my provider’s rates specifically are for these things? They know them, but I have yet to find any providers willing to share that information readily with us. In fact, I’ve encountered a bunch of providers willing to say they don’t know them, when they get monthly reports from the hospital about their own statistics. What are they hiding & why? Why isn’t that information made public so that we can make more informed choices? I’d love to know about VBAC rates, induction rates, & percentage of high-risk vs low-risk deliveries. What about NICU admissions percentages and average length of stay in the NICU? Are there numbers you wish you could see when deciding on a provider and birthing location?

I’m going to keep watching to see how and if things change. I’m going to keep asking questions, as annoying as they might be. I’m a data geek after all. Transparency helps build accountability. Accountability can help push change and improvements. We’re all about improving the way things are done in our area, because seriously it is past time.

Want more? Sign up for our FREE Biweekly Newsletter.

Welcome New Birth Doula Clara Strong!!!

We are soo very excited to welcome another passionate birth doula to our team: Clara Strong!! Clara comes very highly recommended from some really awesome people I know personally here in Evansville, and I’m not even sure she was looking to join the team already. Clara had been through her birth doula training when she set up a meeting with me to talk about the birth scene here locally. She has such a calming presence and laid back sense of humor, which honestly is one of my favorite combinations of personality traits when it comes to doulas. She’s had some great personal experience with birth here locally, and is excited to get started serving expecting families. She’s excited to join a team full of science-loving, anti-racist, LGBTQIA+ accomplices too, and that made my heart happy as a human too.

Clara Strong, birth doula

A Little About Clara:

Clara is a birth doula working toward full DONA certification. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and an MFA in creative writing. She is passionate about reproductive justice and is committed to empowering all kinds of families. She lives on the West side of Evansville with her husband, their two small children, the family dog, and a passel of chickens and geese.

(Side note: I may have shuddered when Clara told me about all the birds at her house and then promised to never come over.)

Don’t you just love that when I asked for pictures to share that Clara sent me one with a changing table & pack-n-play in the background?!?!

In Her Own Words

Why did you want to become a birth doula?

I have always been obsessed with all things birth– it was my favorite part of growing up on a farm!– but it wasn’t until after I learned how pervasive birth trauma is that I decided to become a birth doula.

What is your favorite thing about living in Evansville?

My favorite thing to do in Evansville is get tacos from La Campirana (seriously, they catered my wedding) and comb the racks of our local thrift stores for hidden treasure.

Where would we find you on a typical Saturday?

On a regular Saturday, I am probably fighting back weeds in my vegetable garden, or watching movies while snuggled up with my kids on the couch.

Want to talk to Clara??

Clara is available to start taking clients with due dates after 8/12/22! The first 3 clients will get a 50% discount on Clara’s birth doula fees as she tries to get going toward her certification. Contact us today if you’re interested in chatting with Clara to see if she’d be a good fit to have on your birth team.

Hiring a Doula

We know that the decision to hire a doula can be a BIG one for many families. Maybe you’ve been thinking about it for a long time and trying to decide if adding a doula to your team is something you want to do. Maybe hiring a doula for your birth isn’t really that important to you, but planning to have help around the house and someone to ask all the questions postpartum would be nice. We know hiring a doula is a big investment, but we also know that doulas help not only improve outcomes, but also improve parental stress levels, mental health, & overall confidence.

How does it work?

We have 2 types of doulas on our team: Birth doulas & Postpartum doulas. (One of our doulas does both, for those families that want that continuity of care too.) Our manager, Hillary, talks to every person who inquires about doula services to see what they are looking for and match them with a doula on our team who will be a good fit for that family. She’s kind of like a doula match maker that way. The family then gets to interview the doula to decide if they’d like to work with that doula. Once you make the decision to hire your doula, then we send you a digital contract & invoice. You pay a deposit to reserve your time on your doula’s calendar, sign the contract, & then get access to our online client classroom filled with resources and information for you.

Every doula in the group is mentored by Hillary, who has been a doula here in Evansville, IN since 2014. She’s served at more than 200 births and has been invited to speak about doulas at both our local Evansville hospitals. At this point, she takes less clients so that she can run the business side of things for our group including all the emails, contracts, invoices, website, social media, bookkeeping, outreach, etc. Clients interact with her as the primary point of contact, but then move to interacting with their specific doula for birth and postpartum services.

Birth Doulas

Our birth doulas are phenomenal! Their experience ranges from brand new to very experienced, and they set their own prices. Each and every birth doula client gets two prenatal meetings to get to know their doula, to talk about birth planning & logistics, to practice comfort techniques, & more. Birth doulas are there with you for the big birthing day to help with all the things like movement, deciding when to go to the hospital, handing you things you didn’t ask for yet, suggesting positions, offering information about options, and so much more. After baby is born, birth doulas typically stay for 1-2 hours to help with the initial feeding and bonding time before they skedaddle out of there to give you time alone as a family. Your birth doula will come visit you once more after baby is born to check on you, talk about how things went, and offer any resources that you might need at that time. We might even bring you a little present too. Hiring a doula means you not only have someone to text with random questions throughout your pregnancy, but you also have someone to walk with you for the journey from expecting to beginning. All of our birth doula clients will also be getting a postpartum planning session with one of our postpartum doulas.

Postpartum Doulas

If everyone knew about postpartum doulas, then honestly EVERYONE would hire one! Postpartum doulas come for 3-4 hour daytime shifts to help you with light housework that might be piling up because you’re busy taking care of your new human. They answer questions without any judgement & help with resources if you’re concerned that something isn’t normal. They hold the baby while you shower and help with meal planning too. Postpartum doulas help the family as a whole to transition to having a new baby in the house, because postpartum can be challenging for everyone. So whether you would like an in-home postpartum massage, help with meal planning & grocery orders, someone to look at your surgical scar or help you off the couch, then one of our postpartum doulas would be happy to help. We currently have one postpartum doula who is also able to do overnight shifts for families that would like help throughout the night for feedings & baby care too, so feel free to inquire if that is something you are interested in learning more about. Postpartum doulas are a little big magic and also *ahem* one of the BEST gifts you can get for your friend who already has everything they need for baby and could just use some extra TLC in those first weeks at home.

Don’t Wait

If you’re thinking about hiring a doula, don’t wait! We have an awesome team that is pretty flexible in being able to accommodate all schedules, but sometimes we really do ALL get booked up. July-October are the most busy times of year for us, so definitely reach out early if your due date falls in that range. (In case you’re wondering, September is the most popular birth month in the United States for several reasons.) As I write this, it is June 2022, & we’ve started booking clients into February 2023 already!

Hiring a doula takes some courage, and we know that. We also know that hiring a doula can help the entire process of bringing a new baby into the world feel much more personal and cozy when you have a doula by your side. We’re here to help you navigate it all like a tour guide who’s been down this path many times before. If that sounds like something you’d be interested in exploring, then hiring a doula might be right for you. Reach out to us if you’re interested. You can even see some great videos of our doulas on our YouTube channel before you reach out too!

AND, if hiring a doula isn’t in your comfort zone, we really do try to put out a lot of FREE content on our Instagram & Facebook pages too. Find us there! We have a FREE e-book available here on our website, as well as lots of free blog posts, including this perennial favorite about how to have a good conversation about induction with your provider. Oh yeah, and we do placenta encapsulation too if that is something you want to explore. We want to be a one stop shop for helping expecting families in the tri-state area.

Welcome Our Newest Doula: Andi Conkright!!

We love growing our team to be able to serve more clients & Andi is honestly just the perfect addition.

New doulas have the BEST energy about them. They are ready to take on the world and help their clients have the best birth possible. There’s nothing like the passion of a new doula either, and when I met Andi for the first time, it was so very clear that she is a great doula in the making! She has the easiest most gentle smile and navigated me peppering her with questions with grace and poise. Though she’s young, she’s prepared and so very thoughtful in her approach to clients already. I was really impressed by her, and I invited her to join the team on the spot!

In Her Words

“I am a trained birth doula currently working on full certification. I was born in Evansville and returned to be closer to family after spending a couple of years living on the coast in Florida. My pregnancy and the birth of my daughter in 2021 inspired my journey to becoming a doula and made me fall in love with the miracle of life. I am passionate about holistic health and look forward to integrating that into my practices as a doula when applicable. “

Why did you want to become a birth doula?

I became a doula because the birth of my child proved to be the most powerful and impactful experience in my life. There is so much to learn about pregnancy and birth, and so many options that birthing people don’t even realize they have. It is so important to me to support and inform every birthing person to help them have an empowered birth.

Andi Conkwright, Birth Doula

What do you love about living in Evansville?

What I like the most about Evansville is the growing diversity and individuality. Different communities are expanding and thriving. I feel as though we are all becoming more aware and accepting of one another.

Where can we find you on a regular Saturday?

If i’m lucky my partner and I will go out hunting for mushrooms in the morning- something we love to do together. I’ll then spend my day with my daughter, exploring and laughing and loving.

Andi is a new birth doula who is looking forward to serving clients starting NOW! If you are expecting in Evansville, Newburgh, Owensboro, Jasper, Vincennes, Washington, or Henderson, she’d LOVE to talk to you about birth doula services. Don’t let the newness dissuade you, Andi has a team of 9 other doulas behind her helping her navigate all the twists and turns that she’ll be helping her clients navigate. Our team not only helps back each other up in case we need someone to step in on our behalf, but also is behind the scenes encouraging one another, answering questions, bringing each other supplies/food, and all kinds of other things you’ll never see. Andi will be on the list of approved doulas at The Women’s Hospital soon as well, just like all our other doulas! As we support our clients, so we also support each other. It’s a pretty great set up really.

Andi Conkwright, Birth Doula

So reach out today if you’d like to talk to Andi about doula services. She’ll surely wow you with her sweetness and knowledge about birth! Welcome to the team Andi. We’re so glad you’re here to help us serve more families in the tri-state!