christalene-block

Support for Birth Partners

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 09:11:16 GMT

Childbirth can be stressful and scary, that goes for the birth partner as well. Understanding the weight of their position as providers, birth partners often feel uninformed and powerless to make real change. Feeling a medley of emotions at once, they want to protect & may be concerned that they're being replaced by the doula. However instead, by choosing to work with a doula you are being proactive to have the best experience possible. Rather than procrastinating & throwing fate to the wind, you choose to be informed, join a loving team and position yourself for success.

One of the saddest things I come across are husbands who are not supportive of their wives hiring a birth doula. This is just a matter of ignorance as they are on board once they realize that the presence of a doula can better allow for relaxing into the birth process, and enjoying the newborn stage with reduced fear or stress.

Perhaps these hesitant husbands are worried that their role as birth partner is being replaced by the doula, but that is not the case. Labors can be so long, exhausting and intimidating for the partner, that the doula supports them as well. In cases where the birth partner is not calm or does not know what to do, the doula will instruct them or relieve them to allow for their own rest. This has proven valuable in cases where the birth-partner is experiencing anxiety or needs their own medical care, because the birthing mother is not left without a support person.

It is essential that the care-takers of a birthing mother stay calm, but this can be easier said than done depending on the circumstances. The birth experience can be greatly affected by prenatal preparation, emotional state, choice of care provider, birth location, doctor scheduling, hospital protocols, unplanned medical anomalies, etc. The more calm and collected the birthing mother and partner are, the more they can ride the changing tide.

Position yourself for success with our childbirth education, such as birth-partner workshops, HypnoBirthing, mommy-mindset training and fitness classes. The birth doula, postpartum doula and overnight doula services are not luxuries, they are the best way to ensure a smooth transition into parenthood. We care for you so that you can enjoy caring for your new child, while feeling loved, supported, and safe.

The Need for Death Doulas

Tue, 09 Sep 2025 20:26:40 GMT

There is a group that we will all belong to one day, and as such we would all benefit from accommodating their desires more completely. This group of people are the dying, and we would be advised to better take heed of their experiences, as we will each of us be in the position of dying one day.

There is a gap between what people want for their death and what they ultimately experience. For example studies have shown that a majority of Americans prefer to die at home, but that only 30% succeed in doing so. This is due to the societal fear of death and the fact that medical protocols are designed to keep people alive at all costs, sometimes even the quality of life. Death doulas help reconcile this discrepancy by assisting in planning, logistics, errands, facilitating ceremony, domestic tasks and emotional support for both the dying and their families, before and after passing.

A Death Doula is non-judgmental and does not insert their own meaning of death, rather they help a dying person and their family arrive at their own conclusions. We do not suggest any “right way” to die, rather we present the options and facilitate the chosen process, seeing out their wishes and supporting the remaining family afterwards. Death doulas empower clients to be active in the decisions made around their death while they are still able to do so. It is our role to help them consider what a “good death” means for them, and then advocate for those wishes at the end.

Working with a death doula will vary depending on your circumstance, each care plan is customized to our client’s needs. What follows are some examples of ways that death doulas can provide support…

- Meet a healthy client at home to discuss advanced care directives, facilitating the conversation with family & documenting their choices.

- Visiting the elderly who lives alone to make sure that their basic needs are met, assisting with meals and chores, companionship & reporting back to their family.

- Holding vigil by the bedside of a dying client, holding sacred space & creating ceremony by preparing candles, music, aromatherapy, or reading aloud.

- Relieving the care-taker who is exhausted so they can have personal time or run errands, known as ‘respite care’.

- Conducting a ‘living wake’ for a hospice patient by assisting in planning, logistics, directing ceremony and documenting the event for the family.

- Meeting with a family who lost someone suddenly, explaining funeral options, connecting them to resources, helping them process grief & creating a care plan to support them in adjusting to life after loss.

- Holding the hand of a terminally ill client & discussing their life or afterlife, then creating a legacy project before or after death to memorialize their accomplishments.

Passing from this world to the next, can be as meaningful and sacred as the miracle of birth. Of course it is sad to say goodbye, but it doesn’t have to be scary. Here at The KDC we believe that death is not an ending but a doorway to pass through, and one of the most beautiful of life’s natural transformations.

God's Gift of Natural Birth

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 08:16:41 GMT

Why consider natural birth? Because you and your baby deserve it!

In the Western world epidurals have become a common place aspect of childbirth, despite the fact that they carry significant and often unknown risks and side effects for both mothers and babies. Epidurals may have long term implications on breastfeeding and mother-child bonding, sometimes leading to a domino effect of interventions which interrupt the natural flow of birth hormones.

Cesarian surgeries have also become routine, and indeed they can be life saving in some cases. However, the operation is very new in human history and the rates far exceed the real number of women who truly require the risk. For healthy pregnancies, C-sections unnecessarily present all the implications of major abdominal surgery. There is an interruption of the bonding hormones, a missed opportunity for baby’s immunity on vaginal exit, and complications for breastfeeding due to pain meds; all this while juggling a newborn.

Indeed most modern medical routines are contrary to women’s intuition and instinctive mammalian birth. In fact, it is often the hospital setting itself (with the beeping, bright lights, regular prodding and high stress atmosphere) which can prove counterproductive to birth. Many birth professionals have come to the conclusion that healthy women should be giving birth elsewhere.

Healthy pregnancies do not belong in a hospital setting. Hospitals were designed for the sick, and it is well known that the medical industrial complex has made a business of keeping them full after they were constructed for WWII. Hospitals and their protocol were never designed around pregnant women, rather they protect their own interests and those of the insurance providers.

If you have a healthy pregnancy, give your child the gift of a natural birth, this is the first of many times that you will protect them from harm. With childbirth education and a doula, we will support you in the most beautiful and empowering experience of your life. You can do this. Believe in yourself. Put your faith in God. Your body was designed for this!

* Buckley, Sarah. Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering. Crown Publishing Group, 2009