With You Doula and Birth Services

Lols. Some very wise women!

A wonderful and beautiful written birth story of premature babes on World Prematurity Day, written by our own and very talented Laura Gibbons!

An excellent resource: The Access line is a confidential 24-hour Canada wide toll free number that provides information on reproductive and sexual health and referrals on pregnancy options. This resource is evidence-based, not values-based, so you will get your FULL range of options to make an informed decision that is right for you! https://www.actioncanadashr.org//call-access-line-1-888-64

We are so excited to be able to offer more postpartum support! Take DSF’s childbirth education and get a free call from a doula!

As some of you are no doubt painfully aware, today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. I know intimately about loss through my own experiences, and I also know that each experience of loss is as unique as the little one lost. Today I hold everyone who has been touched by pregnancy and infant loss in a giant, compassionate, non-judgmental, tears-welcome hug, and I encourage anyone feeling alone in their loss to reach out to someone they trust to find warmth and support. Loss happens far more than many of us realize, and I promise youyou are not alone.

Are you pregnant and looking for a space to hear about birth that is not focused on fear-mongering and belittling? Then join us for this amazing and heartwarming Birth Sharing Circle online (it's free!!!) Saturday Oct 3rd at 3pm. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/birth-sharing-circle-tickets-11

This is a truly beautiful story, amongst nonstop beautiful stories!! Thank you to all the Birth Story Contest folks, and congrats to Ashley!

If you can, donate to Jacob Blake's fundraiser so the costs incurred from senseless police brutality does not land on the shoulders of the Blake family.

Happy Black Breastfeeding Week! The beautiful powerful breastfeeding Black mothers are worth celebrating and this week is set aside to do just that. This week i...s Black Breastfeeding Week. Why do we have a separate week from World Breastfeeding Week focusing solely Black breastfeeding? Because there are unique systemic challenges, historical stigmas, intergenerational trauma, and institutionalized racism that undermines Black women breastfeeding, this week helps raise awareness and celebrate Black women that have overcome these substantial obstacles to breastfeed their babies. What do these obstacles look like in terms of numbers? Data shows that Black mothers have the lowest breastfeeding rates of any group in the USA. The most recent CDC data show that 75% of white women have ever tried to breastfeed versus 58.9% of black women. The infant mortality rate of black babies is two times higher than the rate of white babies. These stats are sobering when it has also been noted by the CDC increased breastfeeding among black women could decrease infant mortality rates by as much as 50%. Culturally and historically there are barriers to breastfeeding as a result of intergenerational trauma of slavery. Enslavers used and purchased Black women as wet nurses for their children and would forcing these enslaved Black women to stop breastfeeding their own baby. For those that were not forced to breastfeed the young of their oppressors, enslavers would often force Black women to stop breastfeeding earlier than normal in order to impregnate them to make more enslaved children. This trauma left deep wounds on the bodies, minds, and hearts of Black mothers. Then formula companies targeted the Black community in their marketing to undermine breastfeeding and exploit this trauma. These are just some of the factors that makes this week important. For more information follow the @Black Breastfeeding Week Facebook page and visit their website to find out more: http://blackbreastfeedingweek.org Want to know why Black Breastfeeding Week is a thing? Go here: https://www.pbs.org//racial-disparities-persist-for-breast Photo credit: @_supersavyshots @gemmedbyjewellphotography on Instagram.

This is a great Canadian resource for finding essential sexual and reproductive health services, particularly in urban spaces. (Some of these services include contraception and emergency IUD insertion, STI screening and treatment, abortion services, and pap testing). Created by the COVID-19 Women's Initiative!

Jodie Turner-Smith speaks of choosing home birth as a Black woman, birthing in a pandemic, the struggles to measure up to unrealistic expectations in the postpartum, and the gratitude of having a supportive partner (who also happens to be Joshua Jackson). Congrats to them on their new little bundle!

DSF is proud to be providing the amazing childbirth education that Chidlbirth Kingston has been known for for decades! And we've built an incredible virtual series in the era of COVID, which is great because now, more than ever, being educated and able to make informed decision along your birthing journey is critical!

I want to commend the Associate Minister of Children and Women's Issues (Jill Dunlop), for moving ahead with the elimination of birth alerts. This was a system that disproportionately discriminated against Indigenous folks and folks of colour, and ending the use of birth alerts was recommended by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. This is an important step towards addressing systemic racism that continues to needlessly tear families apart. https://news.ontario.ca//ontario-eliminating-the-practice-

Cool 4-minute video showing key findings related to breastfeeding from the CHILD Cohort Study.

Given birth? Want to share your story? Please consider submitting your birth story to DSF's 2nd annual Birth Story Contest! We have CASH prizes and even have the well-known and respected Dr. Michael Klein as one of our judges!

What a wonderfully cool way to show what baby gets and how they get it during a breastfeed! Clever little munchkins :)

The face of a tired but happy doula after a night of supporting a client thru a peaceful yet powerful labour. Because of COVID restrictions I couldnt go with them to the hospital when baby required that move but made sure their home was clean and their cat fed for their return with their newest member of their family. And now, I get to go home to my boys

Had a wonderful opportunity to chat with our local chiropractors Dr. Becca and Dr. Jason at Forever Young about doula care and giving birth in the era of COVID. Check it out for some great tips and support strategies!

This is amazing!

So glad to be back at a birth last night supporting someone who would otherwise not have had a support person at the hospital. The hospital definitely feels different in the age of COVID, but the staff are still doing a wonderful job of being kind and caring to its patients.

I know I've been MIA - I had a baby, and then COVID-19 took over the world. My heart goes out to all those navigating an impending birth in this context. I am still taking doula clients, and have written a blog for the Doula Support Foundation about birthing in our current context. https://www.doulasupport.org//birth-and-parenthood-in-the-

An amazing and much-needed doula and support programme for incarcerated womenanother example of incredible and badass women helping other women through challenging times.

Very cool visual showing the benefits of a doula!

I am so excited about this! Childbirth Kingston has long been known as some of the best childbirth education money can buy, and our very own Doula Support Foundation is humbled to now be the organisation behind these courses! You can expect the same great classes, and we'll be getting more educators trained in the new year so we can expand services. Big things are coming, folks!

It's giving Tuesday, and the Doula Support Foundation is a great cause to contribute to! We have a dynamic, passionate, and deeply caring team of Birth Doulas, Postpartum Doulas, Bereavement and Loss Doulas AND now Childbirth Educators too!! We are working hard to improve birth culture and increase access to quality doula care for low-income folks. We already had a few clients who have benefited greatly from our support. Your money will be well spent with us!

An awesome and powerful movement by Black women, for Black women, in Cleveland, Ohio (US).

Wow, The Gertrudes really are a gem of Kingston! We are so excited that they will be opening for our upcoming benefit concert for the Doula Support Foundation, THIS Saturday at 7pm! Get your tickets at http://dsfconcert.eventbrite.ca/

Got to hang out with Donna again at Limestone Lens, this time to talk about our exciting upcoming Benefit Concert -- enjoy a watch and don't forget to buy tickets: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/lemon-bucket-orkestra-the-weath

Yes. I have worked in the field of sexual and reproductive health internationally for more than a decade, and have heard too many stories of women being mistreated during this critical moment in their lives. Even here in Canada, I have seen poor treatment of women. We need to do better, and I'm so glad I'm a doula that is contributing to improving birthing people's experiences of labour and birth.

Proud that the Doula Support Foundation will once again be at Bump Baby & Beyond next Saturday (Nov 2nd). We'll host an info session on what doulas are and how they can help. I will be away (visiting my grandmother!) but please stop by and say hello to our wonderful team!

Today is World Mental Health Day: This years focus is40 seconds of action to raise awareness of the scale of suicide around the world and the role that each o...f us can play to help prevent it. Suicide is one of the leading causes of perinatal death. "...they found that suicide accounted for 5.3% (51 of 966) of perinatal deaths, or approximately 1 out of every 19 deaths in pregnant or postpartum women during that time period. Perinatal women most frequently completed suicide at 9 to 12 months postpartum. " Perinatal suicide in Ontario, Canada: a 15-year population-based study. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28847780

A much-needed but disturbing report of the extent of abuse of birthing people during childbirth globally. In my international consultancy work I have spoken to many people who say the same thing. All the more reason that doulas should be made more available to all!

Holding space for all those who have experienced loss along their pregnancy/parenting journey. May you feel supported, heard, and allowed the space to feel whatever feels you have about your experience.

Kingstonians - please dont forget to buy your tickets to our awesome benefit concert before Sept 30th! Early bird tickets are only $37, and after that theyll still only be $45. All of the musicians who are performing on the night felt that this cause resonated deeply with them and so wanted to support us help them support us by supporting us! Itll be a great night and the money will go to good use. Please share with your Kingston networks. Also: More tickets bought now = us being less crazy now, and later!! Thank you!

I am so grateful for each and every one of these people for sharing their stories and photos of real life postpartum bodies. For many, it can take years of trying to conceive before the pregnancy even happens, and then one's reality postpartum in terms of one's mental health, time one has for self care can mean a whole range of things for how one's body responds. For each person who has grown and birthed life from their incredible bodies, I encourage us all to love what the journey has brought us, rather than let society tell us we should hurry up and "bounce back."

This is a fun way to get to know me a bit more :)

I couldn't be more excited. The Doula Support Foundation is OFFICIALLY open!!!! After a year of hard out work (and still more to come, of course), we are thrilled to be opening our doors (lols, we have no ACTUAL doors, we're a grassroots-funded nonprofit!).

Amazing reminder of what is possible.

It is finally done, and we couldn't be prouder! Check out our first official DSF video about what a doula is, why they're so invaluable, and what we're up to at the Doula Support Foundation! And a HUGE thank you to clients who were interviewed for this video!

What an amazing story!