York Doula (Chandra Stewart)

08/24/2023

Someone needs to get this super cute shirt! Maybe as a fun announcement? 😄

03/15/2023

Upcoming Event in April!!

We will be holding a class Saturday, April 1, 2023. This class will be at Cultivate Chiropractic in Norfolk, NE @ 110 N 37th St #405, Norfolk, NE 68701.

These classes are so much fun and we would love to see you there! We will talk about your options in the home and hospital birth settings, the pros and cons of all options, help your partner with hands-on comfort measures, teach about what happens during the birth process and immediately after, and talk about positions you can utilize during your labor. Feel prepared and empowered to achieve the birth you envision. Understand and know all of your options so that you can create a birth plan that feels right for you.

Some fun hands-on activities planned to keep you (and your partner) interested + take home printouts with helpful info to use during pregnancy and birth!

Come join us in Norfolk! The fee for this event is $50/couple.

Cultivate Chiropractic - Norfolk

03/06/2023

This!!! All of this.

“I Won’t Hold Your Baby

…unless you ask me to, in which case, I will snuggle and cuddle your baby as much as you want me to.

I never ask my clients if I can hold their baby. In fact, I rarely ever touch my client’s baby if I can help it. Sounds sort of like the opposite of what you might picture of a doula, right? We must all be birth crazy, baby obsessed women who just want to cover babies in kisses and love and get an emotional high from attending births?

Not this doula.

I LOVE attending births. Call me crazy, but getting those middle of the night calls is one of my favorite parts of this job. I get to listen to someone at their most vulnerable times - the excitement, the hesitation, the nervousness of the unknown. Being able to provide some comfort, reassurance and continuity of care to the people I work with is so important to me (and them!)

Rushing off in the night, quietly getting myself ready, getting in the car and heading off to their home or hospital makes me feel like I’m on a secret birth mission that nobody around me knows about. When I arrive I fall as seamlessly as I can into the rhythm of the birth and start supporting my clients in whatever way they need most.

When the baby arrives I step aside and leave room for the new parents to discover their baby. I try and grab some photos (I’m not a birth photographer though, so keep your expectations in check!) and then I only step in if my client needs me for some reason.

Why does that matter? Why won’t I ask to hold your baby? Simply because: they are yours, not mine. I want you to be able to hold your baby as close as you want, for as long as you want without anyone interrupting that time. There will be enough people coming along in the next few hours and weeks who need to take that baby out of your arms for whatever reason, and tons of friends and family who will offer help by “holding the baby”.

Instead, I want to hold you, whether that’s in my arms, in my heart or my thoughts. By supporting and “holding” you, I don’t need to hold your baby. But if you ask me to, I would LOVE to.”

Written by

08/17/2022

06/24/2022

Add at least a week to your “due date” in your head. It’s even more helpful to give that date to other people when they ask!

Due dates are really guess dates. There is some research out there that risks increase every so slightly as we gestate, but your body is smart. Trust it and release the date.

06/13/2022

I don’t even have words for this! Wow!!

Author's note:
I am working on the Multiple Gestation chapter of my upcoming book and wanted to share this sidebar on the fascinating story of the Dionne Quintuplets.

The Dionne Quintuplets were born unexpectedly in an Ontario farmhouse in 1934. Before their birth, there had been only 32 recorded cases of quintuplet deliveries, and none of these infants survived as long as 2 months. It is astonishing that they and their mother survived. Elzire Dionne, age 26, had delivered her 6 prior children at home with no prenatal care, including an impacted frank breech presentation. In May, 1934, she was approximately 29 weeks of gestation when she experienced signs and symptoms of what would today be diagnosed as severe preeclampsia (systolic blood pressure greater than 200 mmHg, proteinuria, severe pitting edema, vomiting, blurred vision, oliguria). Dr Allen Roy Dafoe evaluated Elzire and put her on strict bedrest. He did not suspect multiple gestation.
Sixteen days later, Dr Dafoe (who had been up all night with another obstetric case), was summoned to the farmhouse. He arrived to find that two babies had been born, a third was delivering, and two neighbors were serving as impromptu midwives. The last two of the quintuplets were born en caul. The placenta was single with no separation into sections and sprouted 5 cords of varying lengths (the girls were later determined to me monozygotic). Elzire had a massive postpartum hemorrhage and went into shock with “the appearance of a dying woman.” As the father “had disappeared” the doctor was required to fetch the priest for last rights, “'reluctantly leaving the midwife holding the fundus” – but upon his return Elzire’s condition was improving.
The babies, all girls, were wrapped in old napkins and bed sheeting and were placed in a basket on the corner of the bed and covered with a warm blanket. They were not expected to live. Neonatal intensive care units were not yet an option, and the first antibiotics were not available until the 1940s. There were no scales that could weigh the babies individually, but together they weighed 13 lb 6 oz. Before the third day, there was no incubator available, so hot water bottles were used to maintain warmth. The babies were fed nothing for the first 25 hours but drops of warm water from an eye dropper. Then they were started on “7-20 mixture" --cow's milk, boiled water, two spoonsful of corn syrup, and one or two drops of rum. By day 5 they were drinking donated breast milk. When the girls were a year old, the provincial government of Ontario removed them from their home (ostensibly to protect them from germs, potential kidnappers, and exploitation) and placed them on public exhibition in a sideshow-type exhibit called Quintland. Quintland earned the Ontario province $500 million in less than 10 years.

Text source: Dafoe, A. R. (1934). The dionne quintuplets. Journal of the American Medical Association, 103(9), 673-677. (quote is on page 675). Image:Wikimedia commons

05/26/2022

York General Hospital is planning to have a mother & baby fair in 2023, which is awesome!! Unfortunately their suggestions for vendors are not very naturally minded. If you would like to see increased access to doulas, lactation support, placenta encapsulation, pelvic therapists, independent childbirth education, etc., please fill out this 2-question survey. They need to know that there are women in our area who want these things!

The Obstetrics Department at YORK GENERAL is looking to hold a Motherhood & Baby Fair in 2023.

As part of the planning process, we are seeking community feedback on possible days/times as well as what types of vendors would be best to secure. We appreciate the time you take to complete this survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WMK787N

05/06/2022

Couldn’t love this more!! Imagine your birth going a dozen different ways, and make peace with each of those, because we don’t get to choose how it will be. What you CAN do is get educated about your options, and find a care provider who will support your choices and respect your decisions.

Labor and Birth holds a galaxy of experiences. Try not to see one star and focus too deeply on it, naming it yours. It belongs to someone else. Accept your story, because it’s the right one for you.

04/28/2022

🙌🏻

“I’d love to have a homebirth but I’m going to deliver at a hospital… just in case.”

1) Homebirth midwives are medically trained professionals, highly qualified and equipped with the skills needed to handle an emergency and knowing when to transfer.

2) The homebirth midwife that you’re scared of being under-qualified has probably seen more natural, physiological births in a one month timeframe than the typical OB has in their entire career.

3) The emergencies and trauma you’re trying to avoid are more likely to happen within a hospital setting because they have such a high rate of medically unnecessary interventions, leading to the cascade of interventions.

*Women should birth where they feel the most comfortable but we also need to remove the fear and stigma from homebirth because it’s a safe and valid option*

Reposted from

04/19/2022

This fundraiser is for an amazing cause ❤️

CuddleCot Fundraiser at York General . . . .

03/29/2022

I always tell new mamas: “Sleep when the baby sleeps, clean when the baby cleans!”

Sounds as plausible as sleep when the baby sleeps lol

03/27/2022

❤️