I am accepting a limited number of new counseling clients.

Are you concerned about an upcoming birth?

Do you have unresolved feelings about a previous birth?

Birth is a peak life event. It has power and challenges. Our society is not wonderful in its support of woman empowered birth. It forgets that the mom holds the baby. Her engagement, comfort, presence and power are at the center of every birth. Her well being supports the well being of the baby in a deep way.

Helping women find their path through birth requires the mom to have an open mind, flexibility and honesty with herself.

The intensity of birth, I believe, is there to inform us of the enormity of the event. The creation of life is no small deal. No matter how many births I attended—and I have been at well over 1000, it is still amazing and humbling that at the end of this intense process this new little being emerges. Creation of life is powerful and sacred.

It is not easy for mom to remain open minded when the intensity of labor occurs. Accepting of whatever your labor brings, being flexible to try different approaches to working with your labor and to be honest and dig deep when you hit a wall–to understand what might be blocking you and work through it. This is the individual path through labor.

The safety and health of the baby of course is a constant that must always be guarded. Mom holds, feeds, grows and nurtures the baby. The role of assessing and monitoring the baby throughout the pregnancy and birth, falls to the provider—midwife, family doc, OB. Mom or partner typically do not have the knowledge and training to do this. It is in the balance between the awareness of the baby’s health, and the needs of the mom’s autonomy and freedom to find her path through this very challenging time, that we see the modern conflict around birth.

Hospitals in particular have moved further away from understanding how to help moms have uncomplicated births. Their focus has fallen once again on monitoring the baby, documenting the contractions, charting cervical opening and tending to forget that there is a woman involved at all.

Birth Center and homebirth can leave some feeling anxious about being separated from occasionally needed emergency care. It can leave others more relaxed by not being in the medical environment of a hospital. These options tend toward far more focus on mom. They allow more time and embrace non-medicine based support to help mom and her labor. In non-hospital settings the responsibility of monitoring the baby falls on fewer people, usually one trained provider and a helper.  With experienced and competent providers these can be very safe choices for birth, for women who are healthy and without pregnancy complications.

Individualized Birth Counseling

I offer focused exploration and counseling to support an upcoming birth or process a past birth.

This is a time to explore your thoughts, fears and concerns related to birth. Perhaps you want to have a positive birth with your current pregnancy and you have concerns. Maybe you had a difficult birth and it is weighing on your heart and soul.

We can meet, in person or on zoom, and explore your concerns. Your needs are unique, your path forward will unfold as we explore your concerns.

Who can benefit from this work?

If, when you think about your upcoming birth, you feel a flush of anxiety and fear, I can help you. Help you find you calm place of certainty. The place where you can work from to let your labor unfold. The place where you can know how to move forward towards the birth of your child.

 I am a Midwife having attended births for 20 year, caring for over a thousand women. Over this time, it became very clear to me that the fears, worry and traumas of our lives can have a deep impact on how we birth. Often these concerns, if not resolved, results in difficult labors.

Some women have significant anxiety and fear surrounding their thoughts about labor and birth. Fear has a huge impact on your ability to relax and trust the birth process. Working through this before labor can have a hugely positive impact on your birth.

If your personal image of yourself has difficulty including “mother” you may have a hard time letting your body go to have the baby that will make you a mother. Working through this before your birth can make a huge difference.

If loss, abandonment, trauma or abuse has touched your life then having a baby may be challenging for you. Letting go into the intensity of birth may be hard. Working on your concerns before labor can be very helpful to bring you to the birth experience that you want.

Having had difficult prior birth experiences: induction, cesarean birth, or significant birth complication —all of these can have a impact on your subsequent labors. The how and why of that impact can be explored and worked through. The more you work it through, the less impact it has on your daily life and your subsequent births.

Generally the impact caused by all these challenges is not good. I see women’s bodies shutting down, not going into labor. Labor stalling. The results are increased rates of induction, labor augmentation (Pitocin drips) and cesarean deliveries. The saddest impact is a women’s loss of the experience of the birth that she desires.

Deep Healing is Possible

Looking at your past and letting go into the present. Letting yourself be cared for is one of the deepest healings we can have. Again and again I have helped women move through their past experiences. Whether you are feeling general anxiety or specific concerns with your first birth or wanting to heal from difficulties from a prior birth, I can help you work through these concerns.

Find your healing

All sessions are 50 minutes in length they can be in person at my office or on line via Zoom. Please note insurance does not cover this care. The cost is $100 cash/check $105 credit cards.