About Birthwise
Get to know us — you’ll be glad you did.
What you need to know
What Is BirthWise?
BirthWise Doula Services is a comprehensive and holistic practice, purpose-built to serve expecting families throughout the entirety of their journey from fertility and pregnancy planning, prenatal period, labor and delivery, through postpartum care and recovery.
Our guiding principle has always been, and will always be:
“Safe Birth for Everyone.”
BirthWise believes in, and practices, person-centered care, in that, our clients’ past experiences, belief systems, goals, fears and ambitions are all factors we consider in providing extraordinary personalized, contextualized care, tailored to the specific individual needs of each client. This level of care is then supplemented with physical, emotional and educational support for both the expecting mother, birth partner and, in many cases, immediate supporting family members.
BirthWise strongly believes that the process of birth is a natural process and, in many cases, with the appropriate support, can be experienced without the need for significant medical intervention. We often refer to the birthing process as “a natural process that is medically observed.”
WE ARE EMPATHETIC AND EXPERIENCED.
We are evidence-based.
BirthWise is an evidence-based practice — meaning, we use a combination of historically and scientifically proven methods encompassing traditional/natural (non-medical) treatments, physiology, psychology, nutrition and modern medical best practices to affect the best possible birth outcomes for our clients. Our doulas take pride in being lifelong learners and critical thinkers; continually striving to educate themselves on the latest treatments and advancements in birthing techniques, with the goal of always being prepared to offer a knowledgeable, fact-based and unbiased course of care that aligns at the intersection of our clients’ desires, and their unique medical conditions and constraints.
We are credentialed.
One of the challenges of vetting and selecting the right doula(s) for you is that the birth support industry has historically been unregulated. There was no generally accepted standard for educational or experience requirements to become a practicing doula. Since then, much has changed. There are now multiple reputable, certifying organizations (e.g. DONA International (DONA), International Childbirth Education Association (ICEA), Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association (CAPPA), etc) to ensure that the quality of doulas satisfies industry-accepted standards, and that a doula’s competency can be, in part, objectively measured by levels of education and experience — which ultimately helps clients make a more informed and confident decision about the doula they choose to work with.
BirthWise doulas, including our founder, remain actively certified in a variety of disciplines and focus areas. Many of our doulas maintain certifications with some of the most recognizable names in the doula and birthing communities, such as DONA International, Lamaze, Spinning Babies, Academy of Certified Birth Educators (ACBE) and many others.
We believe in Social Responsibility and equitable care.
One of the primary reasons BirthWise exists is to serve the rapidly escalating need to positively affect systemic change and impact of the worsening Maternal Health Crisis among minorities in the United States. A recent report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) contained the following information:
…pregnancy-related death rates are two to three times higher among Black or Indigenous populations compared to White populations. Severe Maternal Morbidity, unexpected outcomes of labor and delivery that impact the pregnant person’s health, is 1.9 times higher among Black populations than White populations.
As doulas, we believe we have a social responsibility to give voice and attention to mothers and families who are, often tragically, overlooked and underrepresented in the United States healthcare system.
As doulas, we often have valuable insights, experiences, historical knowledge and perspectives that can inform the legitimacy of safer, “less risk” options which may be appropriate for some individuals.
And, as doulas, we are at the forefront of being passionate, articulate advocates for, and educators of, our clients, including but not limited to the following areas:
- Understanding “informed consent” and its importance to patient care
- How to effectively communicate with hospital staff and healthcare providers
- Understanding implicit and unconscious bias in the healthcare system
- Identifying and understanding “birthing friendly” hospitals (and what that means)
- Preparing for hospital birth and Birth Centers
Ultimately, we believe that doulas play a significant and complementary role in helping expecting families achieve better birth outcomes. While we do not believe that our approaches to, or presence in, interacting with the healthcare system is adversarial or controversial, we certainly do believe that pairing additional evidence-based holistic techniques with accepted modern medical practices provides benefit to everyone, and more importantly, surfaces legitimate, practical options to limit the need for medical intervention during birth, and often delivers wonderful, memorable birth experiences for expecting mothers and families.
Testimonials
What our clients say
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