Los Angeles Birth Partners

Repost from my client Natalie. I thought this was beautifully stated. "The most difficult part of birth is the first year afterwards. It is the year of travail... when the soul of a woman must birth the mother inside her. The emotional labour pains of becoming a mother are far greater than the physical pangs of birth; these are the growing surges of your heart as it pushes out selfishness and fear and makes room for sacrifice and love. It is a private and silent birth of the soul, but it is no less holy than the event of childbirth, perhaps it is even more sacred." -Joy Kusek credit: @iamhaizehawkerosen . . #homebirthbaby #homebirthmama #homebirth #birthpartners #doulasdoit See more

https://www.nytimes.com//p/postpartum-food-traditions.html

A True Midwife is a kind of shaman for her community. A shaman is a person who lives with one foot in nature/spirit, and one foot in human society. The True Mi...dwives I have known are a human bridge between those worlds. In the birth room, they weave a web (of oxytocin?) that holds everybody in it, that supports the birthing woman, and into which the baby is born. Because the True Midwife bridges nature and culture, spirit and body, her support enables the birthing woman to let nature/spirit do its work through her body. This is the kind of person who should be in the room when a baby is getting born. As my own Medicine Woman Midwife Laura van Deth once said to me, "Hermine, there are moments in life that really matter, like when you are being born, when you are dying, and when you are giving birth. And at moments like that, the question is, Who is in the room? And what are they doing?" I was blessed to give birth with a True Midwife, and I have had the honor of knowing, defending, and advocating for many more. Once you have known midwives like these, you look at the uptight, closed-off OBs and medwives who are attending most births, and find it shocking that any woman would let them be in the room while she's giving birth. But that's why I am a lawyer for midwives: because True Midwives are barely allowed to exist, hunted down for daring to support women on their terms. True Midwives answer a calling and have to fight hard, for years, to be able to do their work, and these are midwives, not warriors. The midwives who should be attending childbirth are persecuted and driven out of maternity care by the doctors who want to be the only ones attending childbirth, but have no idea how to do so in a way that works with the female body instead of against it, and no real interest in learning. Sure, there are a few doctors who practice like True Midwives-- Brad Bootstaylor, I'm looking at you. But for the most part, the people who practice like True Midwives are midwives-- and I'll be honest, they're usually the older midwives. Around the world, and especially in the US, there are not enough midwives, as a result of state enforcement of medical monopoly. This will only change when women stand up for their right to midwifery care. If women knew what childbirth is like when they are loved and genuinely supported on their terms, they would stand up for that right. As Tanzanian journalist Kenneth Simbaya said at my 2015 Human Rights in Childbirth: Africa conference, "When people know what they have the right to expect, they have the audacity to demand it." May every healer who feels a calling to midwifery find the courage to ground her power in the Earth, and to work with spirit in the way that serves her community. May organized medicine finally get out of the way of midwifery and take its rightful place in maternity care: backing up midwives and providing medical assistance when it is actually wanted and needed. Only then will every birthing person have the opportunity to maximize the chance for a normal, healthy birth, and be assured that medical assistance is there if it becomes necessary. (Frederick Leighton, "The Return of Persephone," 1891.)

There should be a midwife or a birthworker on every corner, says Kimberly Durdin, echoing the words of Shafia Monroe Consulting. Durdin and Allegra Hill co-fo...unded Kindred Space LA_Birth,Lactation,Education in South Los Angeles, where they are building anew the world that works for us. bit.ly/KindredSpaceBirth Donate today at www.kindredspacela.com to help Kindred Space’s new birthing center thrive in the heart of their community, and support Birth Center Equity Fund www.birthcenterequityfund.org raise $100 million for BIPOC-led birth centers around the country! #kindredspacela #birthcenterequityfund #BIPOCbirthingcenters #reimaginebirth

Newborn Care Class with Khefri Riley CD, CLEC, CPYT via Zoom THIS SUNDAY AND 1st SUNDAY OF EACH MONTH 5:00pm - 8:00pm Link to register in bio @losangelesbirthpartners Khefri will bring you the most up to date information on Newborn Care. Newborn class will include hands on practice, ample reading material, discussion and video's to review. ... Join us for a informative and empowering class to ready you for parenthood. Swaddling, diapering, soothing, breastfeeding, bottle feeding, developmental needs, post-partum recovery and more! #newborn #infantclasses #newborncare #babyclasses #childbirtheducation #parenting

https://laist.com//Los-Angeles-Black-Breastfeeding-Week-20