The reality is that the person you will choose for your maternity care (and where you choose to birth your baby) can make a huge impact on the type of care you receive, your labor and birth experience (including the choices and options you are offered), and your overall satisfaction with your birth.

We know you want to do what you can to have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby! Eating right is one piece we have some control over in the process. I recently sat down with Judy Simon, MS, RDN, CD, CHES, FAND to talk about nutrition in pregnancy.

This empathy link is the secret weapon of an otherwise somewhat helpless newborn. They cannot feed themselves, or care for their needs except to compel another to do so. That loving bond, and desire to care for your child is reinforced every time they cry and are comforted by your response.

Many partners feel uncertain about how to help, feeling that if they can’t take the pain away, there’s nothing they can do to help. So doulas can help give direction as to HOW to emotionally support the person in labor, since labor itself is often intensely emotionally trying.

There is no easy birth. A planned VBAC- with babies that come early and can’t tolerate labor; a VBAC with doubts and doubts and doubts; a planned C-section hoping to feel heard, respected and understood. As a doula, I’m helping people through the mental struggles of birth- the pain, the decisions, the doubts, the guilt people put on themselves. When I can do well, I help people feel positive about their birth.

Making change at the level needed to affect the unconscionable health disparities experienced by women of color is a truly significant challenge. If one is not reading about and hearing this information or interacting in a direct way on a regular basis, it can be put out of mind. That doesn’t mean people stopped dying, it just means we stopped noticing. Be willing to keep learning about and talking about uncomfortable topics.