Parenting is one of the most exciting, challenging, joyful and exhausting times in a person’s life. The adjustment to bringing home a new member of the family is a time typically filled with big emotions and learning to understand one another in this new space together. Even if you’ve read all the books, taken all…
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Updated 11.16.2022 Birthways continues to ensure the highest standards of care and safety in providing in-person support to expectant and new families. We use standard and pathogen specific precautions to prevent the transmission of any infectious illness, including COVID-19 and its variants. Since the beginning of this pandemic our founder, Karen Laing, has played an…
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Contributed by Birthways Doulas As the partner to an expectant person, you are having your own experiences of pregnancy, preparation, birth and early parenting. While the focus during this time of growing your family is typically on the expectant person, it is very common for the partner to have their own questions, concerns, worries or…
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Birthways has welcomed thousands of babies and their parents over the last years. Our aim is simple: to empower, inform and support families so that the rough edges of the transition into parenthood be softened by kindness, compassion and nonjudgmental care. We believe in and work towards creating peaceful beginnings for all babies and parents…
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Who should we worry about? It’s not our babies. Coronavirus, also known as “SARS-CoV-2” is a viral pathogen that causes the respiratory infection “COVID-19” and it’s impacted hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. It has certain characteristics that are leading to its rapid spread and that lead us to take these precautions that have impacted…
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If you’re expecting a baby, there’s a lot on your mind as you plan for ways to have a healthy pregnancy and get off to a great start. When the world adds stressors and worries about possible pandemics, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. We share tips from past pandemic situations (H1N1) and what we are…
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It is a commonly held view that meditation is a way to shut off the pressures of your world or of your own mind, but this is not an accurate impression. Meditation is neither shutting things out or off. It is seeing things clearly and deliberately positioning yourself differently in relationship to them. —Jon Kabat-Zinn…
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Registering and then attending your first childbirth preparation class is often a significant, “this is really happening” moment. You’re reminded that the fetus that is kicking you and pushing against your ribs and bladder will actually want to come out of your body and that this will require a bit of coordinated effort. Partners are…
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Preparing for Birth It’s been over 25 years since I began working in maternity care advocacy and I’ve seen significant change including an increased awareness of choices, growth within health care systems, resistance within health care systems, and meaningful initiatives such as the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative. Some take hold while others come and go.…
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Newborns cycle through 6 states of consciousness—2 are sleep states and 4 are waking states. Observing the external signs of these behavioral states, parents can learn how to understand and align with their baby’s needs and facilitate moving between the states, also known as regulation. These states are organized around a few key factors: Baby’s…
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