​Whether you are having your first baby or your fifth, many expectant parents worry about the early weeks and months after baby's arrival. And for good reason. Up to 80% of new parents experience the baby blues, which are defined as a normal adjustment period in the first 2-3 weeks after birth that resolve without treatment. But 15-20% of new parents will have more serious issues with Postpartum Mood Disorders (PPMDs), both depression and anxiety. 

First and foremost, if you or someone you love is dealing with potential postpartum anxiety or depression, make sure to reach out for help immediately. In the Twin Cities we have Pregnancy and Postpartum Support Minnesota which can connect folks with support including health care professionals when needed.

If you are currently pregnant and want to explore ways to prevent or minimize postpartum mood disorders, read on!

​I was honored to attend the births of this family's two children and then provide many hours of postpartum support for the first six months of their second child's life. They were kind enough to share this testimonial. I hope it will help other families make the decision to invest in this type of care! -Anne

Our family has had the pleasure of working with Anne for both of our children’s births and for postpartum doula services when we had our second child. As a new mother, having a birth professional to turn to for questions, guidance and emotional/physical support has been invaluable. Adding a second child to the family has been particularly challenging, and having a doula be part of our family for this transition was the best decision we made to help us through it! After our son was born, we hired Anne for several postpartum doula hours that stretched out from birth to six months. We did not have a lot of local family, so her assistance was so appreciated.
 
There are countless ways a postpartum doula can serve a growing family. Anne spent a lot of time with my older child, as well as caring for the infant. This allowed me to spend more individual time with both kids, and have some time for myself! While she was in our home, she helped with meal prep, laundry, errands, organization, cleaning. I was able to sleep, get a massage, and have a date night with my husband. She was also incredibly knowledgeable regarding breastfeeding, infant care, and all the postpartum changes your body/mind go through. My postpartum anxiety became more prominent during my transition back to work, and Anne was helpful and supportive during this time. Having her help when my son was 3 months old was just as, if not more, helpful during the immediate post-birth time period. The postpartum period is up to one year, and having doula services at any point during that time will be a great investment in yourself and your family.
 
Anne is reliable, trustworthy, communicative, fun-loving, and very experienced as a doula. She has become a friend during the time we spent together as our family’s doula. If we add any further children to our family, we hope Anne is available for being a birth and postpartum doula once again.
 
For all you fathers to be out there who are hesitant to hire a doula…in the words of my husband “just do it!” Having a doula is just as beneficial to dads as to moms. It allows you to be more present with your partner during the labor/birth process, and gives you reprieve when you need it. And you will need it!  After some initial convincing to hire a doula, my husband shortly realized the incredible benefits of this support person during a major transition in our life. He really relied on Anne during the births, and reaped the benefits of the postpartum care as well. He now tries to convince every new dad how important the doula’s role is regarding birth knowledge, and encouragement during the prenatal, labor/birth and postnatal period.  

This Sunday I had the pleasure of sitting down with Elise Maxwell, founder of Ova Woman, to talk about placenta encapsulation. We had a great time talking about this topic and so many others related to birth, postpartum and breastfeeding after the camera stopped filming! We recorded a video with a ton of great information for women deciding if placenta encapsulation is right for them. Click here to access the Vlog. 

Enjoy!

Anne Ferguson

I am really excited to have a brand new offering for families in Minnesota. Many of you are already familiar with the wonderful website EvidenceBasedBirth.com created by Rebecca Dekker. Families and birth professionals alike use this website to gather information about current maternity practices that are based on the best medical evidence. Does it surprise you to know that many local providers and hospitals do not practice evidence based care? Luckily, many do, but families are often overwhelmed with options, or they may choose a provider simply because they've seen them for many years or because their insurance covers them. 

The Evidence Based Birth® Workshop is exciting because it will be a chance for expectant parents to learn HOW to get evidence based care. This type of care is available in a variety of settings in our community, but families need to know what questions to ask and what clues or red flags to look for to determine if their provider practices evidence based care.

This workshop is for all types of families no matter what type of birth they are planning (natural, medicated, cesarean, etc.), where they plan to birth. or who they plan to have catch/deliver their baby. Both the birthing person and the birth partner will learn how to speak up for their wishes and how to take advantage of their legal rights to be an active and informed participant in their birth. 

I hope to bring this workshop to all parts of the Twin Cities so if you are a birth professional who would like to see this course brought to your area, please contact me! The workshop is about 3.5 hours long and the cost at this time is $60/couple. I am also available to travel to other parts of Minnesota and the surrounding states if there is demand outside of the Twin Cities. There are a couple other birth professionals who will also be offering this workshop. Very soon we will launch a shared website at www.EvidenceBasedBirthMN.com. Stay tuned for that!

I really cannot say enough good things about this workshop and about the training I received to become an Instructor. Although I've been doing birth work for nearly 5 years now, I am always learning new things and the instructor course definitely taught me things I never knew before. 

Lastly, for those of you reading this who live in the Twin Cities, it's important for you to know that we are incredibly lucky. We have providers practicing evidence based care in all settings: hospitals, birth centers and home births. In many parts of the country families have very few options and really have to fight for the care they desire and deserve. You shouldn't have to fight during pregnancy and especially not during labor when a birthing person is very vulnerable and it's easy to defer to people in authority roles. I am excited to teach this new workshop so I can play a small role in empowering families to demand the evidence based care they deserve!

Click here to get more information about these workshops and to register!

Click here to see the Facebook Event I've created for my first workshop, happening Jan 16, 2016. 

​by Anne Ferguson

​Dear Parents struggling through the early weeks with your new baby,

Hang in there! You are going through one of the most challenging periods of your life. If you just had your first baby, your life abruptly changed from freedom and time to not even fitting in a simple shower some days. If you already had one or more children, you may feel stretched beyond your limits and wondering how to meet the needs of one more person. 

It can feel like this is your new life and it will never change ever again. I remember when my first son Henry was a newborn, I felt like I would never get to do all the things I used to love doing, like sleep for example. I'd never get to go out to restaurants with my friends, or have parties, or read a book, or have a clean house. For you, the things you are missing might be different, but the fear is the same.

by Anne Ferguson and Aileen Larson

Exactly nine years ago, we were both working hard to bring our oldest children into the world! Anne's son Henry was born at 12:14 pm at Ridgeview Medical Center in Waconia and Aileen's daughter Lily at 12:30 pm at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis.

We didn't know each other in 2006 when those babies were born. We met in 2008 through our local chapter of Attachment Parenting International. We became friends and quickly realized that our kids shared a birthday and not only that, we were literally pushing at the same time! 

Fast forward to 2014. We were both doulas and Hypnobabies instructors and we decided to become business partners. We'd like to share just a little bit of how our birth experiences nine years ago shaped our work as birth professionals. 

From Anne:
My birth was very straightforward and just what I hoped for. It was 12 hours from start to finish, and I pushed for 2 hours to bring my 9 pound baby into the world! Thanks to the support of my husband, midwife, doula/friend, mother and future sister-in-law, I was able to have the natural birth I desired. We had episodes of "Friends" playing in the background! It was a great distraction and brought some humor to a serious scene. Looking back with all I know now, I realize I was very lucky that everything went so smoothly. I knew even then that I would become a doula someday. My birth went as well as it did in large part because I spent time up front assembling a team that supported the type of birth I wanted, and I wanted to be a part of that type of team for other women. Now, 9 years later, I'm so thrilled to be able to support women and their partners as they work towards the births they want as a birth doula and childbirth educator!

From Aileen:
My birth was long due to a malpositioned baby (if only I'd known about Spinning Babies back then!). I ended up with several interventions that were not in my birth plan, and didn't feel like I was listened to by the staff at the hospital. I pushed for over 4 hours, and got to hold my baby for a few seconds before she was taken to the NICU. Happily, my baby and I were reunited after only 5 hours of separation. She has grown into a wonderful, sassy, smart girl & I'm glad I get to be her mom.
The support of my husband T. J. and my AMAZING doula, Sarah Biermeier, were the shining lights in my birth experience. Without Sarah's support and skill, I am certain I would have had a surgical birth. I knew right away that I wanted to become a doula and support other women in their birth journeys. I love teaching Hypnobabies, doulaing, and encapsulating placentas. Being a Birth Nerd is the best, most rewarding job I've ever had - except for motherhood!  

Here are those "babies" and their proud mommas now!

by Anne Ferguson

If you are a low-risk woman having a baby, and you want a low-intervention birth, I urge you to consider hiring a midwife for your care. I want to explain some facts that many expectant parents don't realize about the difference between midwives and obstetricians. 

What does low-intervention mean? Well, it's different for everyone. For some it means completely "natural": no medications, no interventions. For others it means avoiding a c-section. Midwives are surely experts at unmedicated birth, but they also support families who plan to use an epidural. Choose a provider who facilitates the type of birth you desire every shift they work. Obstetricians are trained surgeons and it's wonderful we can use their skills as needed. But most women will not need a surgeon to give birth. They need a baby catcher!

by Anne Ferguson
​​Two weeks ago I attended training to become a postpartum doula through Welcome Baby Care, a local postpartum doula agency that also certifies doulas. This new role seems like a logical next progression to my career, and a great way to support new families in a way that also fits with my family's life. Let's be honest, being a birth doula is a really hard job. The actual work of being at births is amazing, but constantly being on call, missing family events, and scrambling for childcare at any moment takes a toll on us over time. 2015 started busy with quite a few births early on, but since April I've cut way back in order to find better balance in my life. I will continue to do occasional births for repeat clients and others as I can, but I'm excited to expand my postpartum work.