MotherWorks Birth Services

03/24/2023

Periods! Hormones! Hair! Breasts! What’s normal? What’s NOT normal? Are y… Elizabeth Streeter needs your support for Empower Her at Alcoa Intermediate School

06/24/2022

06/12/2022

Welcome! If you are looking for birth doula services near Knoxville, TN, please visit my website. Availability is limited, so contact me early for details!

07/26/2020

Did anyone warn you about fundal massages? No one warned me and when my nurse did the first one, I was like, "what is this fresh hell??" 😂😱⁠
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So what is a fundal massage anyways? ⁠
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It is when your OB, midwife or nurse vigorously rubs down on your fundus (the top of your uterus) after your baby is born to cause your uterus to contract and clamp down on where your placenta was attached so you don't bleed out. They do this every 15 minutes or so for the first couple of hours until your bleeding is slowed down.⁠
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Now you know.

07/01/2020

Delivering soon? I pressed paused on taking clients when we were unsure of doulas in deliveries with COVID- but WE ARE BACK! I have one spot in both July and August ready to fill. Let’s talk!

Providing certified (ICEA) childbirth education and doula services for families of the Knoxville area.

04/14/2020

One month ago, I was 38 weeks pregnant, full of anxiety, anger and fear. Hospital protocols were changing daily. Visitors were banned. Laboring women could only have one person with them. This isn't what I pictured delivering my third baby would look like.

Two weeks later, my husband and I walked into labor and delivery and were handed masks. We were told to wear those any time any one entered our room. The nurses were always masked, as was the doctor. This was my third baby and the whole process was so different than the other two.

During my first two deliveries we had guests in and out while I labored and more guests after delivery. There were no masks. No scary protocols. It was a celebration and everyone was invited.

This time, it was just my husband and I. The room was quiet. No chaos of visitors. The conversations were just him and I. Just the two of us for the first time in six and a half years.

I'm just going to say it: delivering during the pandemic was a blessing in disguise.

We delivered with quiet hallways in a quiet room filled with just the three of us. We welcomed this baby with no expectations of people rushing in during skin-to-skin. We established nursing without having to wear an awkward nursing cover.

It was just us and our little guy. It was perfect.

Twenty-four hours later we returned home. Due to social distancing, there were no visitors and no school. There was no early morning school drop offs or mid-day school pick ups. There was no "panic cleaning" for visitors. There was no schedule and low expectations.

Our girls have been able to bond with their little brother all day, everyday. Having no schedule with a newborn has been dreamy. We are all sleeping, nursing, and bonding with no interruptions. There's no pressure to get out of the house. There's no reason to try to squeeze into pre-pregnancy clothes.

If you are a pregnant momma set to deliver during all the chaos of the world right now, rest easy. Take a deep breath. While this is probably not how you imagined your delivery, find the blessing through this mess.

Enjoy this break from real life, snuggle up with your newborn and enjoy every last minute of the newborn stage. Too soon, that teeny tiny baby won't be teeny tiny anymore.

To read more from Stephanie: https://knoxvillemoms.com/author/slancaster/

12/24/2019

Birth is raw- even for my Savior. And on that glorious night, Mother worked.

Every year, we stop to celebrate a birth. The birth of Jesus. And we do it in the most unusual ways - with ugly sweater parties, excessive consumption, frenzied shopping trips, and a long list of impossible expectations.

But when I think about the birth of Jesus, I’m reminded of all the hundreds of births I’ve documented.

I imagine Mary first noticing contractions. A dull cramping that came every 15 minutes or so. And then as the day or night progressed, they grew closer, stronger, until she could no longer pretend this wasn’t happening.

Was she alone? Did Joseph support her? Had she seen birth before? Did she know what to expect? Were they prepared with supplies? Was she worried about bleeding too much? Had she lost a mother, or a friend to childbirth? Did she feel alone?

So many questions, and yet we do know this. Mary did it. Mary birthed her baby into the world. And while I can’t confirm it, I’m confident that just like all births…there was fear, there was longing, there was doubt, there was despair…and then there was joy.

And so when I think of the nativity scene, there is so much about it that I want to change.

Instead of a clothed Mary and Joseph marveling at an angelic babe in makeshift manger…I see an unclothed Mary, with a squirmy baby pressed up against her breasts. I see vernix on her cheek and blood dripping down her leg. I see the ecstasy of birth - the joy that bursts forth after pain and fear and deep, deep longing. And I see Joseph taking it all in - amazed and perhaps startled by what he had just witnessed.

But still at the center of it all, is a naked woman, covered in blood and bodily fluids.

You see, we’ve sanitized the Christmas story to the point that it’s lost it’s power. Overtaken by capitalism and patriarchy, we’ve lost sight of the heart of this story.

The female body (with all it’s cycles and breasts and hormones and blood) grew, sustained, and birthed the divine. Oh holy night.

12/18/2019

Let’s talk about endometriosis... 1 in 10 women suffer unbearable pain, unfathomably heavy periods, infertility, exhaustion, and the list goes on. If we could SEE it, would we treat them differently???

These painful-looking snaps give a glimpse into life with the condition.

11/15/2019

🎉 Congratulations to October’s Cord Blood Banking Sweepstakes Winner, Elizabeth I.! Know someone who's expecting? Tag them and let them know how they can enter to win our monthly sweepstakes for FREE cord blood banking! www.cryo-cell.com/sweepstakes

11/05/2019

Let’s share our stories in the comments!⠀
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