Pregnant in a Pandemic: Tips and Silver Linings

It’s an intense time to be giving birth right now due to COVID-19.  If you are pregnant or home with a newborn, you will definitely want to listen in to this episode.

Taylor and Darcy share some ways to feel more empowered and in control during your pregnancy, labor and the first weeks home with your baby. 

Taylor shares tips for pregnancy and birth that are especially helpful right now.  Darcy talks about things you can do while pregnant to prepare for your maternity leave while social distancing. 

And, the doulas also share some silver linings!  There are many things that they are seeing in their work with families right now that are very positive.

Sign up for the free online Navigating Childbirth & Early Postpartum during COVID-19 they mentioned here:

https://mailchi.mp/45548ba35f4d/free-virtual-childbirth-education-series

Online Yoga for Birth workshop for couples with Darcy:

https://doverdoula.com/prenatal-yoga

Here are links to the guided meditation apps Taylor mentions:

https://insighttimer.com/

https://expectful.com/

https://www.gentlebirth.com/app

Virtual Postpartum Doula Support with Darcy

https://doverdoula.com/virtual-postpartum-doula-support

Today, Darcy is chatting with long time friend and fellow postpartum doula, Krista Maltais.  Krista has been a doula for 14 years, and is now also a DONA Postpartum Doula Trainer as well.  Darcy and Krista bond over their love of their work supporting new mothers.  They also share their history of working together to build awareness of postpartum doulas in their community.  In this episode, they discuss the importance of finding other doulas for support and focusing on collaboration over competition. If you’ve ever considered being a doula, then this episode is for YOU!

Listen in as these two mothers and doulas chat all things from motherhood to having their dream jobs of supporting mothers and building a successful and fulfilling doula business.

Episode Breakdown:

• How they met
• What made Krista become a postpartum doula
• The interesting journey of becoming a postpartum doula before motherhood and how that changed after motherhood.
• Postpartum hormones and the power of speaking in short sentences. 
• The Imposter Syndrome - Being a Doula without being a Parent 
• Boundary setting in motherhood 
• How to effectively ask for help
• The power of a postpartum doula for a family - a non judgmental, trusted resource with no family baggage.
• Training other postpartum doulas - All new parents need support
• The struggle of being a parent in today's culture
• Implementing business strategies to find clients - The Postpartum Doula Academy
• Is becoming a Doula right for you?
• The power of making your own schedule
• DONA - Becoming a Postpartum Doula
• How to find Krista’s Postpartum Doula Trainings
• Relief Parenting Center 
• Importance of in person mom connections - mom groups

Key Takeaway: If you’re feeling called to becoming a doula, follow that call! It takes time BUT if it's something that is pulling you, explore it and connect with people.  Take the training and know that families need your help!

Your Birth Your Worth Podcast

Website: https://www.yourbirthyourworthpodcast.com/

Darcy Sauers

Website: http://www.thedouladarcy.com/doulas

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedouladarcy/

Krista Maltais

Website: https://www.reliefparenting.com/

https://www.reliefparenting.com/doula-training

https://www.dona.org/

Darcy is on the podcast today having a discussion with Dr. Kat about the mental health issues surrounding pregnancy and post partum. Katayune Kaeni, Psy.D. PMH-C, is a psychologist certified in perinatal mental health and the creator and host of the Mom & Mind Podcast. She was drawn to this specialty after going through Postpartum Depression, Postpartum Anxiety and Postpartum OCD with her first child.  Dr. Kat supports mothers and families in her private practice in Southern California. She is a trainer and board member for Postpartum Support International. Dr. Kat offers training and education and advocacy in perinatal mental health to her to local community and worldwide.  Dr. Kat is available for perinatal psychotherapy clients throughout California through online sessions. www.drkaeni.com

In today’s episode, Darcy and Dr. Kat discuss how social media is making moms feel inadequate and that they’re parenting wrong, the impact of women’s hormones during pregnancy as it relates to mental health, the lack of planning around birth and being self aware of your emotions so you can seek help before post partum anxiety or depression kicks in.

Key Takeaway: Plan for how you want your birth and post partum to play out. But, also plan for the unexpected. Planning for the unexpected will give you the emotional support and a guide to follow when things don’t go the way you hoped.

Highlights:

• The effect of social media on new moms
• Feeling inadequate
• Hormones affecting anxiety, stress and depression during pregnancy
• The lack of planning around birth that leads to post partum stress
• The stigma around cesarean births
• Talking to someone and telling your birth story
• Accepting the way your birth plays out
• Seeking help and guidance from a counselor vs. a psychiatrist
• Traumatic birth experiences

Your Birth Your Worth Podcast

Website: https://www.yourbirthyourworthpodcast.com/

Darcy Sauers

Website: http://www.thedouladarcy.com/

https://www.thirdtrimesterthrive.com/

Blog: http://www.thedouladarcy.com/blog/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedouladarcy/

Dr. Kat

Website: http://www.momandmind.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MomandMindPodcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/momandmind/

Today, Darcy is solocasting about the lack of community surrounding breastfeeding. Women in our country are struggling with beastfeeding because they haven’t been taught how to beastfeed by the women in their communities, i.e. their mothers, grandmas, cousins, aunts etc.. This causes a lot of guilt and shame in new moms. In this episode Darcy sets out to destigmatize breastfeeding for new moms and provides some resources and tips to ease your breastfeeding journey.

Key Takeaway: We need to build stronger communities to support new moms in their breastfeeding journey.

Highlights:

• It’s ok to not know how to do everything as a new mom
• The lack of community surrounding breastfeeding
• The Myth that breastfeeding is simple
• DONA – Doulas Of North America

Your Birth Your Worth Podcast

Website: https://www.yourbirthyourworthpodcast.com/

Darcy Sauers

Website: http://www.thedouladarcy.com

Third Trimester Thrive: https://www.thirdtrimesterthrive.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedouladarcy/

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19871113&id=8cstAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7AIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6685%2C4248073&hl=en&fbclid=IwAR18ChJYRr4UckRedEwxhSv23Cnh1sWriH_LD5YVSi0WOscM9UX0gvsnIKQ

The Doula Darcy's On Demand Postpartum Doula Support:

www.thedouladarcy.com

www.doulamatch.net

www.dona.org

In today’s episode, Taylor offers her 5 steps to overcoming and managing your VBAC fears. After seeing the popularity of the previous VBAC episodes, Taylor decided to devote an entire episode to make sure you all felt prepared when planning your next VBAC. We seem to forget that it is absolutely normal to get scared sometimes. It’s necessary for our evolution and personal development to experience fear and anxiety after/before stressful situations. That being said, we do have a responsibility to process this pain it in order to manage it and eventually grow from it. Giving yourself permission to take the time to face these fears is no simple feat though. It takes time, love, and patience to step into those thoughts. But, by following Taylor’s steps, you can begin your journey to start working on those fears, eventually breaking them down, and reclaiming the joy associated with giving birth.

In this episode, Taylor will focus on how to process your VBAC fears, how to manage them, and how to create your own “Rallying Team.”

Key Takeaway: When fear starts to infiltrate into our thinking, the first instinct is to push it down and out of sight. The problem is, when we do that, that fear isn’t being processed and will continue to bubble up unexpectantly in our day to day lives. By getting honest with our fears, taking the time to identify and process the reasons behind it, we can actually start to overcome this particular fear. Our minds need information, support, validation, and closure into order to truly eradicate certain fears that dominate our thinking. It doesn’t necessarily mean it goes away permanently, but you do have the tools to manage them accordingly, and not let it control your life.

Highlights:

• Revisit episodes 4 and 11 for previous VBAC episodes
• What is a VBAC clarity session?
• Fear is reasonable and there to tell you something.
• Uncover and explore your fear
• Recognize those physical changes that happens when fear creeps in
• What effect is this fear having on your life?
• Information to address fear- processing the past and moving forward
• Perceived risk of VBACs
• Share your story safely
• Create a “Rallying Team”
• Identifying potentially triggers and sharing them with your team
• Make a plan for triggers
• Use the template!

Your Birth Your Worth Podcast

Website: https://www.yourbirthyourworthpodcast.com/

Taylor Davis

Website: http://yourvbacdoula.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taylordavisdoula/

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yourvbacjourney/

PDF template: http://yourvbacdoula.com/yourvbacfears

VBAC Clarity Sessions with Taylor: https://yourvbacdoula.com/vbacmentorship/

Taylor's Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yourvbacjourney/

ICAN: http://www.ican-online.org/

5 Steps to Hiring your Best VBAC Provider: https://yourvbacdoula.com/vbacprovider/

Template for planning to manage VBAC Fears: https://yourvbacdoula.com/vbacfears/

ICAN

Ican-online.org

Today, Darcy welcomes Kimberly Johnson to the show. Kimberly is the author of the book “The Fourth Trimester”. The book is a holistic guide that offers practical advice to support women through postpartum healing on the physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual levels—and provides women with a roadmap to this very important transition that can last from a few months to a few years.

In this conversation and her work, Kimberly draws from her vast professional experience as a doula, postpartum consultant, yoga teacher, body worker, and women’s health care advocate, and from the healing traditions of Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, and herbalism.

In this episode you will hear about the importance of healing and calming the nervous system during the postpartum period, what Somatics is and how we can heal our bodies during postpartum.

Key Takeaway: During the postpartum period, it’s essential to be surrounded by “wise women” to support you

Highlights:

• Why new moms today are living in a state of hyper-vigilance
• Your baby is reflecting your nervous system back to you
• Birth is a rite of passage and transition for women and needs to be treated as such
• When we are anxious, our minds capture information that supports our inward thinking
• The body is weakened, and you must repair
• Reflecting on your birth: How do you feel about it?
• Somatics: mind and body telling two different stories.
• Our Biology is our biography
• Anxiety is an unresolved flight response
• The opposite of trauma is resilience, wholeness, and freedom.
• Activating Your Inner Jaguar: embodied consent, healthy boundaries, understanding of nervous system

Your Birth Your Worth Podcast

Website: https://www.yourbirthyourworthpodcast.com/

Darcy Sauers

Website: http://www.thedouladarcy.com/

https://www.thirdtrimesterthrive.com/

Blog: http://www.thedouladarcy.com/blog/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedouladarcy/

Kimberly Ann Johnson

Instagram: @magamamas
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/magamamacom/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Trimester-Postpartum-Balancing-Restoring/dp/1611804000

Activating Your Inner Jaguar: https://www.magamama.com/jaguar

Taylor and Darcy are back together today, discussing breastfeeding. They both share some personal stories about their breastfeeding journeys. They discuss the benefits of breastfeeding, pumping, the guilt and shame surrounding the choice to either breastfeed or not. They share tips for breastfeeding as well. It’s important to remember that your personal journey through breastfeeding is uniquely your own and the choices you make surrounding your baby and breastfeeding don’t make you a good or bad parent.

Key Takeaway: Your worth isn’t determined by the details of your breastfeeding journey.

Highlights:

• Struggling getting the baby to latch on
• Getting your partner on board with breastfeeding
• Breastfeeding is natural, but it has to be learned
• Pumping
• The guilt and shame surrounding breastfeeding or choosing not to
• The benefits of breastfeeding for the baby
• The benefits of breastfeeding for mom
• Breastfeeding and pain
• The magic hour
• Supply and demand, the more the baby is on the breast, the more milk you will produce
• Hiring a lactation specialist is worth every penny
• Using breastfeeding apps

Your Birth Your Worth Podcast

Website: https://www.yourbirthyourworthpodcast.com/

Darcy Sauers

Website: http://www.thedouladarcy.com/

https://www.thirdtrimesterthrive.com/

Blog: http://www.thedouladarcy.com/blog/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedouladarcy/

Taylor Davis

Website: http://yourvbacdoula.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taylordavisdoula/

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yourvbacjourney/

In today’s episode, Darcy welcomes Kasey Mathews who gave birth to a baby girl at only 25 weeks in 2010 to the show. Kasey is also a book writing coach, transformational life coach, and author. In her book “Preemie: Lessons in Love, Life and Motherhood” Kasey talks candidly about how her seemingly perfect life was disrupted when she went into labor four months early, delivering her one-pound, eleven-ounce daughter, Andie. In this riveting, honest, and often humorous memoir, Preemie chronicles the journey of one tiny baby’s tenacious struggle to hold on to life and the mother who ultimately grew with her.

In this episode you’ll hear Darcy and Kasey discuss the journey of having a premature baby, how Kasey navigated the stress of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit during Andie’s time there, and how we can all settle into the love to overcome fear.

Key Takeaway: The stress that comes along with having a preemie is intense and long-lasting. This stress can often translate into delayed bonding with our preemie infants. Fear sometimes distracts us from the infinite love and power we have inside ourselves. Once we understand our fear and recognize it comes from a place of love and security, we can surrender and release.

Highlights:

• Moms of preemies need extra care and NICUs need to put more emphasis on the family unit.
• “These things don’t happen to me”
• When birth plans go awry
• Kasey’s premature birth and the birth announcement
• Reclaiming your birth in nontraditional ways
• What is it like inside the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)?
• Preemie Magic
• The dimmer and the quieter the better!
• What is the the 4th Trimester? And what does that mean for the baby?
• Overcoming trauma and fear to surrender in to love

Your Birth Your Worth Podcast

Website: https://www.yourbirthyourworthpodcast.com/

Darcy Sauers

Website: http://www.thedouladarcy.com/

https://www.thirdtrimesterthrive.com/

Blog: http://www.thedouladarcy.com/blog/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedouladarcy/

Kasey Mathews

Website: http://kaseymathews.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaseymathews/

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/kaseymathewsmagic/

Blog: http://kaseymathews.com/awaken-magic-blog/

Book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Preemie-Lessons-Love-Life-Motherhood/dp/1578264235/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1466627337&sr=8-4&keywords=Preemie+book

In today’s episode, Darcy welcomes Sheila Kamara Hay to show. As the founder of Ecstatic Birth, Sheila empowers women around the globe to understand and honor their feminine flow and locate their fierce feminine power while they birth their babies. Sheila trains birth practitioners and expectant moms around the globe to integrate the most holistic birthing tool, pleasure, in birth preparation and support. Whether you are birthing a baby or your soul’s work, birth is a journey to be thoroughly enjoyed, rather than endured. Sheila is passionate about reclaiming and honoring birth as a sacred rite of passage.

Today you will hear Shelia talk about what exactly an Ecstatic Birth is, how you can achieve one, and why rejecting fear and channeling pleasure instead might just change your life forever.

Key Takeaway: When women connect to their bodies and allow themselves to feel deep, spiritual pleasure, they can unlock an incredibly powerful channel of self-love, gratitude, and empowerment. Honoring your feminine power and your sacred sexuality can allow your body to better transcend the pains of labor and birth and shape your postpartum experience for the better.

Highlights:

• Why there is a stigma about enjoying your birth?
• The Ecstatic Revolution of women’s
• The gifts and possibilities of birth
• Sheila’s birthing experience and the reclamation of her body
• Learning to connect to your body and opening channels of pleasure consciously
• Honoring your Sacred Sexuality
• Immerse yourself in the community, stories, and images of positive pleasurable birth experiences
• Understanding you’ve been raised in a fear-based culture
• How to switch your mindset for the future

Your Birth Your Worth Podcast

Website: https://www.yourbirthyourworthpodcast.com/

Darcy Sauers

Website: http://www.thedouladarcy.com/

https://www.thirdtrimesterthrive.com/

Blog: http://www.thedouladarcy.com/blog/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedouladarcy/

Sheila Kamara Hay

Website: https://ecstatic-birth.com/

Instagram: https://twitter.com/EcstaticBirth

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EcstaticBirth/

Instagram: @ecstaticbirth

How deeply does the patriarchy affect parents, the birthing process, and postpartum? In this episode, Taylor and Darcy sit down and discuss how patriarchal mindsets are ingrained within society and how it is harming pregnant women. This topic recently came to light as the media has become increasingly critical over Meghan Markle’s pregnancy, the choices surrounding her birth, outfit choices, nail polish colors, and more. This critical view of pregnancy is also reflected in how the medical industry looks down upon doulas, midwives, and birthing parents who choose to have home births. These attitudes and aggressions show how women are distrusted and questioned throughout the birthing process. Unfortunately, pregnant parents are often seen only as vessels and their wellbeing isn’t taken into account. One reason why these mindsets have become so ingrained may be due to the patriarchy trying to seize power that women naturally have to bring forth and nurture children.

Key Takeaway: We live in a patriarchal society that views birthing parents as vessels who are only valuable when bringing a child into the world. These sentiments are echoed through hypercritical attitudes, aggressions, and judgements towards pregnant women that insinuate that their choices shouldn’t be trusted.

Highlights:

• Recently, the media has been hypercritical over Meghan Markle’s pregnancy by criticizing her nail polish, outfit choices, weight gain, birthing choices, and more.
• This criticism ties into how our society tries to control and influence women, the birthing process, and postpartum.
• Within our patriarchal society, it’s almost as if you become an object that anyone is allowed to touch, judge, and comment on. This is echoed in the actions of people who touch your belly without consent or tell you that you’re parenting choices are wrong.
• When you become pregnant, it feels as though you suddenly aren’t trusted to make decisions about yourself. This mindset treats women as if they are just vessels and their only value comes from the child they are carrying.
• This can also be seen in the way that women are treated postpartum, as they feel as though they don’t matter anymore and their support network shifts from worrying about them to worrying about the child.
• Postpartum depression can be connected to hormones but adoptive parents and fathers also experience postpartum symptoms, depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders.
• The key to thriving postpartum is to avoid isolating yourself and creating a community and support network.
• Patriarchal mindsets were created in order to seize the power that women naturally have to bring forth life and nurture their children.

Your Birth Your Worth Podcast

Website: https://www.yourbirthyourworthpodcast.com/

Other resources mentioned:

Birthing & Postpartum Plans: https://www.yourbirthyourworthpodcast.com/plan/

History of Midwives: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2582410/

Taylor Davis

Website: http://yourvbacdoula.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taylordavisdoula/

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yourvbacjourney/

Darcy Sauers

Website: https://www.thirdtrimesterthrive.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedouladarcy/