doulas
Comparing local hospitals in Southwest Michigan
By Jessica English, LCCE, FACCE, AdvCD/PCD/BDT(DONA) One of the questions we’re asked most often by clients and students is, “What do you think of my midwife/doctor/hospital?” That’s a complicated question and there’s no one perfect place to give birth in Southwest Michigan. How will your birth unfold? If we take a “control the controllables” approach,…
Read MoreMichigan Doulas + Medicaid: an open letter to the state
An Open Letter to the State of Michigan Doula Medicaid Proposal The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services recently released a draft proposed policy discussing Medicaid coverage of doula services. As doulas and advocates for families statewide, we appreciate the State’s attention to this important issue and we strongly support the concept of…
Read MoreDear Ascension Borgess: midwifery is the way
By Jessica English, LCCE, FACCE, AdvCD/PCD/BDT(DONA) Last week, physicians at Ascension Borgess Hospital in Kalamazoo made the decision to cut the number of midwives in their practice from seven midwives to three. This is a frustrating, troubling change for our community, and it will limit midwifery options for area families, setting us back in decades…
Read MoreHome birth midwives in Kalamazoo
Looking for a home birth midwife in Kalamazoo? It’s a question we hear often from area families! Here’s our list of midwives currently practicing in the Kalamazoo area: Linda Healey, CPM Battle Creek 269-832-0755 birthalternatives.com It’s best to contact Linda by phone. She takes on a limited number of clients in the Battle Creek…
Read MoreNo you can’t put that on my vulva or in my vagina — I don’t consent!
By Jessica English, LCCE, FACCE, AdvCD/PCD/BDT(DONA) When colleagues around the country and the world ask me what our birth culture is like in Southwest Michigan, I tell them that overall, things aren’t too bad. Birth here is better than a lot of places, occasionally great, and we’re still working toward total fabulousness. We have a…
Read MoreUPDATE: Borgess & Ascension Health — where’s my midwife?
By Jessica English, LCCE, FACCE, AdvCD/PCD/BDT(DONA) Today, we are celebrating the best of news! We received the official word late yesterday that administrators at Borgess Medical Center, an Ascension Health facility, have restored full midwifery privileges to the Certified Nurse Midwives practicing through Borgess Women’s Health. Fantastic! There are a number of very specific things to…
Read MoreJuliet’s birth: Joanna’s story
Early labor started for me around 2:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning. I was only having one to two contractions an hour that were strong enough to wake me up. My husband, Neil, brought a futon into our bedroom so that I could wake up to manage the contractions on the floor and then go…
Read MoreWithout my doula…
Our client Teesha Bancroft shares her thoughts on all the ways her doula helped her through her birth — and what it might have been like without that support. by Teesha Bancroft Without my doula, I would not have had an amazing natural birth class and a huge network of resources; Without my doula, I…
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