BIRTH DOULA SUPPORT WITH TERRI GIL

Prenatal Care:

• Free initial Interview and Consultation (1-1.5 hour).

• Prenatal visits (1.5-2 hours in length) to further discuss your birth plan, to help you prepare mentally and physically for birth

• Prenatal education is also available (See Education)

• Personal training in Spinning Babies techniques: including Three Sisters (Side-lying leg release, rebozo sifting and forward leaning inversion) & Daily Essentials.

• Available for prenatal calls or text to answer questions and have informed discussions about current events, future tests in your pregnancy.

• Referring you to the appropriate professional when pregnancy related challenges arise, for example: Physiotherapist, Acupuncturist, specific obstetrician.

Birth Support:

• The eyes of an experienced clinical midwife helping you to understand what is occurring clinically during your pregnancy, labor, birth and postpartum. Ability to alert your healthcare providers during labor if there are clinical issues, for example fetal heart rate deceleration, signs that you are pushing.

• On-call for your labor & birth (including helping you know when it is time to go into the hospital or call your Midwife for a planned home birth).

• Spinning Babies problem-solving techniques in labor: to help correct progress due to fetal positioning challenges by releasing soft tissue to make more room for your baby to navigate the pelvis.

• Labor support: including massage, acupressure points, homeopathy, TENS, use of hot and cold, spinning babies techniques, positional changes, vocalizations, music, reassurance through explanation of physiologically stage of labor and creating small goals and plans to get you through difficult moments in labor, keeping you in the moment through relaxation techniques.

• Support for the partner during your labor: including encouraging them to maintain self-care (eating, hydrating, resting if possible), explaining to them and reassuring them about what is happening in the labor and why, helping them be as involved as they are comfortable with in supporting their partner.

• Advocating for you: in labor and immediate postpartum to remind your health care team of your birth plan.

Postnatal Care:

• Immediate postnatal support: help advocate for as gentle a transition for you and baby as possible. For example: Skin to Skin, Delayed Cord Clamping, Zero Separation.

• Helping your baby latch on the breast soon after birth (if planning to breastfeed), supporting you 1 to 2 hours after the birth.

• Postnatal visits at hospital and later at home. Weighing baby and to assure normal weight gain.

• Helping you navigate transition to parenthood, understanding normal newborn behavior and finding solutions to breastfeeding challenges. See Lactation section for more details.