In the Annapolis area, one of my main functions as a birth doula is to make sure you know your options throughout the process. I go over them in detail at the prenatal, which is usually at about 28-34 weeks—after that meeting, I develop a birth preferences sheet catered to your exact wishes. Sometimes these plans change in the moment. For a lot of people, one of the goals says “I am planning an unmedicated birth supported by my partner and doula.” Sometimes the birthing person decides they want to get an epidural or other pain relief medications. I call it a birth preferences sheet instead of a birth plan because birth is a trip—you can be very well read, you can have listened to every podcast—you can have given birth before, but each one is different, especially in the moment. Things can change quickly.

I recently had a surrogate mom who had two births previously. Her second baby came fast and furious and was a beautiful, unmedicated birth. When it came time for this third birth, the parents to be flew in to be by her side, along with her husband, and myself as her doula. The plan was to go unmedicated again, but this little lady in her belly had other plans. She was not in the best position (being OP) and it was causing a great amount of pain and back labor. The birthing mom (also called the gestational carrier) said to me “I won’t be badass anymore if I get an epidural” and she kept apologizing for wanting one. I told her, “you are literally carrying someone else’s baby. You couldn’t be anymore BADASS.”

A meta-analysis by multiple institutions revealed that women who yoga during pregnancy experienced up to two hours of shorter labor and were 2.5 times more likely to have a vaginal birth. These women also had comparatively higher comfort levels than those who did not do yoga (Boopalan et al. 2023; Corrigan et al. 2022).

I’ll break down the following poses and explain what muscle groups they help and why they matter for your birth.

A pelvis that moves in pregnancy is going to be a pelvis that moves during labor. We need you to be able to move your body to help move your baby Earthside. You can do it!

A mother blessing is about …the MOTHER. She is celebrated by her closest girlfriends and confidants. It’s intimate and homemade, and time is spent honoring the relationships the mother to be has with the people she loves and trusts. There are many different rituals that can be performed or it can be less structured and just an informal gathering with the focus on the mom.

The point is to honor her journey and give her support, love, advice, hold space for her to reach the end of her pregnancy adventure, her labyrinth of labor, and her transition into Motherhood.