All The Birthy Things

Dear Reader, I've missed you all! It's been a few weeks since I wrote this newsletter, as I warned might be the case. I'm glad to be back on this cool, sunny Thursday morning to share what's on my heart with you! Labor day I was sitting on my front porch talking with one of my dear friends who also happens to be a CPM. I was sharing one of my favorite resources for home birth families -- The Basic Needs of a Woman In Labour (more about this below) -- and as she flipped through and skimmed it,...

Hi Reader! You're getting this email because you've expressed interest in the birthkeeper training we call Hearthmother Journey. If you no longer wish to receive information about this offering, click here to unsubscribe from these emails. We just finished the Open House and now it's officially time to open enrollment for the Fall 2025 cohort of Hearthmother Journey!! Enrollment is open August 18 - September 15th. Early bird bonuses expire August 15. Immediately after enrolling, you'll get...

Dear Reader, Lately I've been seeing a real uptick in posts on social media (a place I don't even spend much time) about water birth and all the reasons it is BAD. Here's one and here's another. The reasons listed for avoiding water birth are varied. Some of them make sense to me on some level and others seem absurd. But mostly I'm curious about why it's trending to hate on water birth? 🤔 I think it is, in part, a pendulum swing. For a long while, most of the imagery and talk about home birth...

Dear Reader, You didn't get an email from me last week! Did you notice? The reason for this is that I was at a birth on the morning I had planned to write the newsletter, and then again the following morning I had their postpartum follow-up visit. Though I am sorry to have missed writing to you, it was a very happy interruption to my usual workweek. The birth was absolutely beautiful in every way. Buttery smooth, family-centered, and light-filled. I had the honor of making photographs of it...

Dear Reader, I'm writing to you from the passenger seat of my Honda Odyssey. We're on our way to the destination for our third travel adventure in about 6 weeks. This time we're headed to Wisconsin for a family reunion of sorts with my husband's side of the family. This is way more travel than we normally do, for the record! I'm such a homebody, honestly, and though there are things I value about adventuring and experiencing life from other locations and with other loved ones, it drains me...

Dear Reader, Stories offer a powerful way of learning. Through drawing us into a narrative arc and engaging us with rich character development, we're also able to passively absorb contextual details laced with facts and information, and then integrate and use that information in other parts of our lives I love historical fiction for this reason: I can pick up on many historical events, cultural details, and generational beliefs/attitudes without even trying, all whilst enjoying an engrossing...

Dear Reader, This is not your normal newsletter. It's scheduled because at the time you are receiving it, I'm offline and at The Lake (that's what people in Wewith extended family right now. But I just waned to draw your attention to a WEALTH of wonderful content available for you this week. Free Birth Before It Was Cool A 3-part series with 3 veteran unassisted birthers In this short series, we're speaking with women who have been free-birthing long before it became trendy, back when it was...

Dear Reader, Part of my personal story is that for about 7 years (age 19 - 26) I was deeply depressed, wildly anxious, and struggling with a unique brand of obsessive-compulsive disorder, too. I praise Jesus for healing me and setting me free, but it's hard to look back on those years of struggle. In that season, I remember trying to use positive affirmations as a tool to overcome some of the intrusive and obsessive thoughts that assailed me. I remember how they rang hollow, how I felt like I...

Dear Reader, I tend to write in this space more about the emotional, spiritual, and cultural aspects of the childbearing year. That's because that's really my sweet spot, and I believe so much of the work of birth is this internal stuff and its corresponding transformational potential. But there's so much deeply embodied, physical, practical, nitty-gritty stuff associated with the journey of having babies also! While I save most of that sort of content for the insides of Embrace Birth...

Dear Reader, Hi! I missed writing in this space last week. I was blissfully off-grid in the Upper Peninsula (Michigan), enjoying forests and great lakes with my family. You may notice that my header image for this newsletter just got a little refresh! 🙌🏼 I wanted to pretty it up a little and also insert one of the lovely new photos I recently had done by Camille Lydia Photography. She did brand photos (my first since 2018) and family photos (our first pro photo shoot since 2021). What a...