Birth Matters Doula Care, Birth Photography & Prenatal Classes
503 1315 Summit Drive V2C 5R9 Kamloops, BC, Canada

Our 2020 stats for Birth Matters & Modern Nest in this unprecedented year! Thank-you each of you for inviting us into your journeys to family Huge thanks to our amazing Back up team for their support when things got busy! ... Stay tuned for some amazing new things coming for us and the families of Kamloops & area! Big announcement to come next week!! What's in store for your 2021? How much has your little one grown since we've seen each other last? Spam us with your updates and pics! Happy New Year Everyone!

We have been there this whole Pandemic I am thankful we have be recognized as an important, essential piece of the labour and birth team in these tenuous & uncertain times. #birthmatters

Get those alarms ready, friends - our winter virtual session of Mother Goose registers tomorrow morning. Register for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning and... afternoon groups beginning at 9am, and register for Wednesday evening, Thursday and Friday groups starting at 10am. We can't wait to see your family SOON! See more

These sweet siblings holding hands right from the beginning shared with permission

Hi! I am the co-founder of the Canadian Perinatal Mental Health Collaborative. We are publishing an anthology of perinatal mental health stories (prenatal and/or postpartum depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, bipolar disorder, psychosis). If you are interested in submitting your story, please send to [email protected] Submissions are due Dec. 15th and length is 800-1500 words (3-4 pages double spaced.) Read more about our anthology here: https://cpmhc.ca//get-your-perinatal-mental-health-story-/

Classes look a little different during the current restrictions But we are still running all class options so families don’t have to miss these milestone act...ivities and moments. Today our families all learned they love and miss wine . I see a night out forming as couples, post babies, when things normalize and gathering comes back. #buildyourvillage See more

We love all our amazing midwives here in Kamloops.

If you haven’t seen the ad in our local paper already - then here it is in true Big Bear CYAC style... loud + proud! Please head over to our website to learn a...bout Big Bear CYAC and support us by doing what we all already love to do - eat locally! Our awareness week is Nov 23-27 2020. Colombo and Nourishing Gourmet are helping us out by putting on these events in a collaborative manner, and we are all about the collaboration. It’s our mission - A Better Outcome for Everyone. Get your tickets! www.bigbearcyac.ca

All grown up we are, with a sign all to ourselves ~ Thanks to Visual Signs for the always excellent customer service and guidance! Birth Matters Doula Care, Birth Photography & Prenatal Classes

Childbirth is more admirable than conquest, more amazing than self-defense, and as courageous as either one Gloria Steinem shared with permission... #birthmatters #kamloopsdoula #optionsrespectsupport #newbaby #birth #midwife #doula #oxytocin #doulalife #doulasupport #birthwithoutfear #pregnancy #birthdoula #newborn #instapregnancy #birthpartner #childbirth #birthstory #motherhood #maternity #prenatal #labouranddelivery #birthphotography #expectingmothers #spinningbabies #kamloops #kamloopsbusiness #kamloopsmaternity #birthprep #birthinkamloops

Mighty Oak Midwifery Care midwives Joanna Norman and Josée Gervais and this Mighty Momma featured in the Vancouver Sun COVID has exposed a system where midwives are poorly and unfairly compensated and this experience has been really challenging for midwives who are working as front-line essential care workers without basic benefits. Please support your local midwives by contacting your MLA ... let them know how important this service is for our community! ... #BCmidwives #bcpoli #bcndp #MidwivesDeliver

Happy Halloween to all our amazing families. Spam us with what all your littles costumes are this year #halloween2020 #fullmoon

All set up for a full NewBorn 101 tonite ~ This session will be over ZOOM rather than in studio to keep all our new families safe in this second wave. No matter what we got you! #educationcontinues

First session begins November 17th - info on poster to sign up.

Some exciting things happening at Modern Nest - !! Stay tuned for some exciting announcements next week!! #growing #whataretheyupto #greatnews

Sending love to all our families who’ve lost little one’s 1 in 4 women know the depth of this kind of heart break and today and every day we see you and we will say their names Sending love to all our families who’ve lost little one’s 1 in 4 women know the depth of this kind of heart break and today and every day we see you and we will say their names #pregancyandinfantlossawarenessday

Photo edits of this sweet baby boy born in a hurry making a new family this Thanksgiving Weekend Always an honour to support new clients who are family of repeat clients #welcomelittleone ~ you are surely loved. Shared w/permission Sage Hills Community Midwives

So many of my clients spend a good portion of their pregnancies scared. While some anxiety in pregnancy is normal as we approach the great mystery of birth an...d parenting, I have never seen folks more scared than I do now. Much of it has to do with nearly unlimited access to instant information, undoubtedly. There are many rabbit holes to fall into. But what I also find is that the clinical approach to pregnancy is one that often suggests our bodies and babies are guilty of pathology until proven innocent. A living, reasonably healthy baby and living, reasonably healthy gestational parent are the "pudding" within which the "proof" exists. Some may say this is a limited view given that health encompasses so much more than just "being alive and reasonably okay". While access to prenatal testing and medical care TOTALLY has many benefits, the fear is causing its own set of problems. If birth and early parenting is generally best supported by the optimal flow of hormones, we need to be more aware that chronic anxiety has an impact upon the endocrine system. "Your baby is measuring big. Let's redo your gestational diabetes test just in case, and don't worry, we'll book you for an induction early on to avoid birth problems," for example, is calculated logic in many ways, and advice offered with good intentions (though maybe with some some breaches in evidence). But the message, "you are a disaster waiting to happen, don't worry, we'll circumvent Nature and deliver you in a controlled way" does NOT lessen worry in most pregnant people. It just doesn't. It says, "you may just be a lemon." It creates a "rock and a hard place" scenario. We need to realize that care provider brains are generally working differently than pregnant and birthing people brains. What may feel reassuring to the former can create terrible anxiety to blossom in the latter. To birth in fear has its own risks. I'm not saying we should keep pregnant folks in the dark about their bodies and babies, but how can pregnant people get good, careful care without having the daylights scared out of them ? A little anecdote: when my grandmother was giving birth to my father, it was just her and a nurse in a local hospital in England. WW2 was going on and there weren't many doctors available for childbirth. My Nana gave birth fine. She said it was long and hard but she and my dad were well. She noticed the nurse looking very relieved, like a big terror had just passed, right after the birth. My Nana inquired as to what was going on. These were the days when pelvimetry was probably a pretty common thing. The nurse told her, because my Nana was a nurse herself, "Mrs. Everest, you have the smallest pelvis on record at this hospital. I was terrified you two weren't going to make it." The wisest part of this story? The nurse did not tell my Nana this information while she was birthing. What if she had? What if fear had cavalierly been interjected into her birth experience? What might that cortisol have done to the critical flow of hormones (especially critical in this case, given no doctors around and an already stressful environment of war, my Granddad being a soldier?). It is intelligent to be able to discern problems. But wisdom comes from HOW and WHEN those things are communicated. My little Nana, elated by her great success, would always end this story (and she told it a lot because decades later she was still so proud of herself), "and I didn't even tear, either!" Maybe, just maybe, thanks to this wise nurse, I am here to tell my Nana's story. We need to find balance between offering information and scaring pregnant folks. Almost every person I see birthing in the hospital is frightened by something...monitors sounding off alarms, comments about Baby or the pelvis being a problematic size, contractions critiqued as potentially not being strong enough to do the job, the chastisement of pushing in "alternative" positions because they lead to worse tears (not true), if you can't take the pain now you're not going to be able to do this for hours, you're only this many cm after so many hours so there might be a problem down the road, you're not pushing hard enough, everything is okay now but the tracing isn't optimal so just a heads up.... The comments are an endless oxytocin killing barrage, as compassionately as they may be intended. Because an epidural can be given, synthetic hormones implemented or a Cesarean done, care providers can sleep well at night. Problems solved. But. Given that 36% of birth givers report feeling traumatized by their births, much of that stemming from having been so frightened, maybe it's time to look at the bigger picture and get back to the basics of what NOURISHES optimal birth. Remember, the needs of a care provider's brain and the needs of a birthing brain are radically different, and the gap needs to be narrowed for better communication and less fear. Pregnant folks need to be met where they're at physically, psychologically, and emotionally. They are more sensitive! It is tricky, because again, keeping people in the dark has its issues. It can be disempowering to withhold information so as not to "worry your sweet little head". But so is a steady stream of worst case scenarios. It would help for anyone who cares for pregnant, birthing, and parenting folks to take a breath before launching a fear bomb and asking themselves silently, "is this true right now? Is this necessary? How might this harm their birth juju?" Words can be a type of medicine...or a "nocebo". If birth hormones are akin to the hormones of the sexual response cycle, imagine trying to have sex with someone offering negative comments about your body and your unique process, even though it's done with the intention to give you a heads up about potential clinical orgasmic problems up ahead? Kind of kills the mood. Sometimes prevention is the best medicine.

so cute!! What are your Halloween plans?

What would you add to this list?