Happy New Year!! Congratulations to all of us for making it through this year! This year has been odd, to say the least, and we've been in a place of reflection for a long time. This is another reflective post -- as this year comes to a close, I want to take one more moment to focus on some of the highlights of this unbelievable year. But first, story time: The day after Christmas, full of socially-distanced holiday cheer, my daughter and I were dancing in the living room when, for no discernible reason, I fell directly onto my own face. She followed immediately thereafter and landed bottom-d ..read more

I have such exciting news! Thanks to a generous grant, we've been able to establish a fund to offer birth and postpartum services on a sliding fee scale for individuals and families with limited income or facing financial hardship under COVID-19. Sliding-scale services are available for our Basic Birth Package and our Support Sleep Postpartum Package. We are offering virtual services widely, and in-person services as possible. Limited spaces are available, offered on a first-come, first-served basis. We're accepting applications for families with estimated due dates before July 1, 2020. Pleas ..read more

Good news, folks. We made it through April. It might have been a wild and crazy mess of a month (it certainly was for me!), but now we're in May, and it seems like the world is taking a collective deep breath and making plans for a new way forward. We still have no idea what the next few months are going to look like, and we're rewriting the rules as we go. But in all that chaos, there's a lot of hidden opportunity. Here are a few of the amazing opportunities that have evolved over the last month: We're now able to offer sliding-scale services for families facing financial hardship. We've se ..read more

These are strange and unexpected times we're living in. I know everyone is struggling, and our collective stress is at its max. But I want to tell you about some things that are making me happy right now: We have the privilege of living with the technology and other tools that allow us to stay connected... even remotely. We are several months into this worldwide pandemic, meaning we already have quite a bit of knowledge about how to manage it. We might not be making all the right decisions all of the time, but at least we're not starting from zero. This is a respiratory virus, not a gastroin ..read more

Well, March has certainly been an exciting month already... and we're not even two weeks in! For those who have been following the unfolding plumbing saga of our Family Ways office, I am delighted to announce that we are almost back in working order! We hope to be fully operable by next Monday... just in time to limit our office use as part of our ongoing effort to help reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The CDC has issued Frequently Asked Questions and Answers for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Pregnancy. At this time, we do not believe that our doulas or our clients are at si ..read more

New in 2020: Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Classes and Professional Workshops! Register now for the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class! Our first class starts February 12, 2020. Get mentored by your own Evidence Based Birth® Instructor! Learn about evidence based care, comfort measures, and advocacy! Get prepared, get answers, get empowered! This childbirth class offers a unique flipped-classroom experience -- students access learning modules from the comfort of their own homes, and then meet online weekly for mentorship. Two in-person classes bookend the series for additio ..read more

I've never been one to make New Year's resolutions -- if you know me, you know that I stay pretty well resolved all year long. Nevertheless, I had planned to start the year with a pop and an announcement of the many great things on our horizon! We have changes to our team, changes to our offerings, and plans for making our services even more accessible to our community as a whole! I've been looking forward to announcing these changes for months! Trust me, they're still coming. But our progress has been momentarily slowed by a minor plumbing catastrophe in our office. Long story short: cast ir ..read more

Happy holidays and a very happy New Year to you and your beautiful family! And a heartfelt thank you for being a part of our Family Ways family. We had an amazing 2019, and we are honored to have been a part of your family's story during this exciting last year of the decade! In addition to serving over 200 families this year, we have also expanded our service offerings in response to growing demand, and adjusted our packages to better meet your needs. And more exciting growth is on the horizon in 2020, that we can continue to support you as your family grows! Read below for some of our exciti ..read more

Advocacy. Believe it or not, this seemingly core concept of the doula role has long been one of the most hotly debated topics among professional doulas. The question comes up again and again in professional forums: What exactly is the doula’s role when it comes to advocacy? How much advocacy is too little? How much is too much? Because the definition of “advocacy” is a little amorphous to begin with, it’s understandable that there would be some confusion and difference of opinions when it comes to the types and nature of advocacy in a professional setting. Compound this semantic difficulty wi ..read more

You’re pregnant. You’re glowing. Let’s be honest, that’s probably sweat… but you’ll never admit that to yourself as you scroll through your friends’ glowing pictures on Instagram, looking at their pregnancies as well. Everyone is so happy and alive, with their cute bellies and soft squirming babies! You can’t wait to be a parent yourself. You’re probably somewhere between 28 and 35 years old, pregnant with your first child and very much looking forward to bringing your new baby home, where you will spend hours gazing lovingly into its sweet eyes as your friends and family pamper you with food ..read more