I would like to welcome Annie to the Sacred Roots family! Annie is a Birth and Postpartum Doula, and will be a great asset to our community. When I met Annie, I was impressed with the ease we were able to connect and quickly develop our relationship. I’ve loved the great questions Annie asks as she delves into this work and know her thoughtful and careful work will make lasting positive impressions on her clients. Annie is finishing up her Masters degree in social work and I know she will be able to bring what she learns as a doula, READ MORE
Category: Doula
Welcome Michelle!
I’m so happy to announce that Sacred Roots has added another doula to our team! Michelle will be joining as the newest mentee (for now 😉) in the Sacred Roots Birth Doula Mentorship program. I met Michelle when she was a moderator for a panel through the Health Management and Policy Masters Program at the University of Michigan. She was looking for doulas to speak to students about the roll they play in creating safer birth outcomes, and I was so happy to be able to offer my experience on the panel. After our call, Michelle reached out to learn READ MORE
Welcome Grace!
Hello Sacred Roots family! It’s been awhile since I posted here, I’ve been busy with births, but also with building my women’s health guide biz over HERE! It must be a spring thing, since it was May the last time I got to introduce a new mentee! Please meet Grace Willis! I am super excited to be given the opportunity to support Grace in becoming a great doula and asset to her community as a birth worker. Grace reached out a few months ago looking for information and guidance on building a doula business and what the day to day look like as READ MORE
Presentation on "What do Doulas do"
In June 2020, I presented to the University of Michigan “Stay Home, Stay Connected” prenatal support group. This group was created to provide support to soon-to-be mothers during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders. If you’re wondering if a doula might be a good tool for you in your birth (or you just have no idea what a doula is) please watch. This presentation explains everything you need to know about how a doula/client relationship works. It also covers how to find and hire a doula and the roles a doula has in the birth room, supporting you and your partner. Feel READ MORE
Working Together
I have been so blessed to work with many amazing practitioners. I have also seen laboring mothers treated as though they were 2nd class citizens – stupid, and unable to think clearly or logically. When I’ve seen the entire birth team working together, the outcomes are beautiful. They might not always be ideal, and they might leave the mother with feelings of sadness or disappointment, but they don’t leave anyone feeling as though they were taken advantage of. They don’t leave questions behind. When the whole team works together – mother, father, doula, nurse, midwife and/or OB – the world READ MORE
Welcome Alyssa!
Hello Sacred Roots family! It’s been awhile since I updated here, and I will share some about what has been going on with me lately in a near-future post! I promise! In the meantime, I wanted to introduce Alyssa Bialy! I am super excited to be given the opportunity to support Alyssa in becoming a great doula and asset to her community as a birth worker. I met Alyssa in my Childbirth Education classes through Ypsi-Arbor CBE in the fall of 2018. After the birth of her son, she reached out to ask about the process of becoming a doula READ MORE
Where does the evidence come from?
“All of the high level medical evidence is flawed because it only reflects what happens at institutions that are big enough to do research. I’d like to call this institutional bias or academic bias, but those titles are both taken by other concepts. For lack of a better term, let’s call it research hospital bias.” – Sarit Shatken-Stern While my personal anecdotal data is of course a very small sample, I find it so confusing, and sometimes frustrating when the newest research provides “evidence” against what I feel is true in my bones. For instance the recent study that says a READ MORE
Doula Katy #1
Doula Katy, pt 1 Hi y’all! My name is Katy Gladwin. This post is just a start, but I’m going to try to tell you who I am, and why I think the way I do. I grew up in Michigan from the age of 5 and have lived here my whole life (minus a year in Nashville, but that’s an entirely different post). I have 3 little sisters, all of whom are amazing, smart beautiful women who I love dearly. We are all close, and feel very lucky to have them in my life. I am married to a READ MORE
Our Doula Toolbox
It was recently World Doula Week, and the two of us took the opportunity to do some extra reflecting on our work as Doulas and the support we provide. One prompt for a World Doula Week photo challenge was “tool you use the most.” If you know me, you know I’ve never been able to pick just one thing, whether it be ice cream flavors, favorite colors, or patterns in an outfit. So instead of posting about a tool we use the most, we thought we would (playfully) share a handful of tools that we keep in our Doula toolbox. Our Doula Toolbox is READ MORE
Mother Interview: Really Drawn Out Change of Plans
We’re going to start doing small interviews with our past clients, not necessarily about birth, but about some of the little things surrounding birth. What was hard, what was the best advice you received, etc… We hope that in sharing these candid little parts of pregnancy and new motherhood, we can normalize this experience for everyone. We so often only see the most beautiful parts, or the hardest struggles, of this major life change. There is so much more! All titles for the interviews are chosen by the mothers themselves. This is MY interview! Nothing profound, just a casual chat. READ MORE