By Tiffany Sostar By now, many of us may have learned that Shakespeare wrote King Lear in a plague time, Sir Isaac Newton did some of his best work during a year of quarantine and Edvard Munch continued to paint not only during, but having contracted, the Spanish Flu. Some of us follow Louise Erdrich’s advice by keeping a list …
Skin-to-Skin: A vital practice
I recently attended the Alberta Breastfeeding Committee’s conference: Infant feeding: Best practice steps for primary preventative care. Over 100 of Alberta’s health care professionals ranging from delivery room nurses to lactation consultants and doulas attended the day-long conference with two of Canada’s experts on infant feeding best practices, Marianne Brophy and Louise Dumas. Louise Dumas presented information providing substantial …
A Winter Birth
My fourth little one was born at home. She was my first home-birthed baby. My first was a c-section due to breech, my second and third (twins) were a breech hospital vbac. With baby four, we decided to go with midwives for the personal relationship and their acceptance of our desire for a natural birth. When the time came, our …
A Curve Ball
After I married my husband, I often imagined what our future would be like together. I pictured what our home life would be like. A steady stream of chaos with kids going to and fro, countless activities, gadgets littered about the yard, leaving no question to onlookers that kids were being raised there. I thought of what my husband would …
Twin Birth of Isaiah and Elijah
My pregnancy test was negative. I asked my mom what could be wrong with me as I had to pee all the time! She looked me straight in the eye and said, “It is because you are pregnant with twins.” I assured her I was not and asked for other suggestions to determine the cause of my new discomfort. She …
Choosing Caregivers
Choosing the right caregiver when you become pregnant can be overwhelming as well as difficult. In the past, financial considerations had often been the deciding factor in choosing caregivers to support you during birth. A doula may cost around $1,000. Hiring midwives used to cost around $3,500. However, midwifery services are now covered within our provincial health care insurance plan. …
Hormone Soup — Your Body’s Preparation for Birth
A woman I met once told me about an extraordinary place to visit. She spoke about it with such enthusiasm and love that I had craved knowing more about this wonderful place. When I pressed her for more details she said she could not remember much about it! The place was called Labourland, she told me, and she had …
The Placenta: An Extraordinary Organ
Often we forget about the placenta when anticipating birth. the contractions announcing its arrival after birth sometimes come as a surprise. with the medicalization of birth it became rare for women to even see their placentas. now we are remembering the many uses for this extraordinary organ and the ways we can honour and celebrate it. The placenta begins its …
By Her Side
Birth companionship is part science, part art and whole-hearted work for everyone involved. Holding the space, being present and avoiding the urge to apply a “quick fix” is hard, but very important work. As a partner, relative or friend it can be challenging to find the best ways to support a woman through her pregnancy, birth and early postpartum experiences. …
Return to Myself: a journey of healing
Our childbearing years are a time of deep vulnerability and transformation. Those who support women on this journey have their own stories and carry with them the stories of those they support as well. Often there are challenges and sometimes there is trauma. The reverberations of these experiences are felt throughout our lives. Nan Nassef, a doula and Birth Story …
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