Happy new year everyone! Wow, 2011 was a BIG year for me, on a personal level, and for BirthFocus also! I’d like to share a bit of reflection and invite you to do the same, if you’d like.  Part of the goal of BirthFocus – in addition to providing amazing services to the women and [...]

Last week I got a huge reminder about the importance ofself-care. On Tuesday morning around 4:30am, I got the phone call from mycurrent client letting me know that her labor had started to kick into highgear and she was ready for me to come join her and her husband. Within an hour,I was with them, [...]

As a new doula, I find myself constantly having my mind blown by my clients. I am in awe of the connection they find to their bodies in this most intense of moments. As a yoga teacher, I also find myself making parallels between the deep mind-body connection that emerges in labor and the one [...]

One of our incredible BirthFocus doulas, Kira Neel, has written this post to share about an incredible campaign to secure doula services for Medicaid recipients in NYC!  Amadoma Bediako, Joan Sherwood, and other doulas from our practice are encouraging you to do what you can and help motivate our government to make a difference…one birth [...]

This past weekend, while looking through some old photographs with my three year-old son, Leonardo, I was inspired to share my experience of pregnancy through art. As you can see from my drawing, it is still a work in progress, and once it is completed I will gladly share the finished piece. Thinking back to [...]

Often times when I sit with an expecting mother and her partner one of the questions that comes up is whether or not I have given birth.

One of the most important things I always encourage laboring mothers to practice is allowing their hips to relax and open. Studies have shown, that laboring women whom assume postures that facilitate opening of the hips, can literally change the course of labor. In a small trial conducted at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center (part [...]

While we are often challenged to defend the right of all women and girls to decide if, when and with whom to have children, the equally important right to choose the way in which a woman brings her baby into the world often does not receive the attention it deserves. Rich or poor, childbirth is an [...]

As many of you know, I have been cast to read the role of “Jillian” in the NYC premiere of “Birth”, a play by Karen Brody, this Labor Day.Throughout the last several weeks I have read this play while riding the subway, eating dinner, in the bath, and before going to bed at night.  I [...]

I was reminded just now by Vivian Stein, Ilana’s daughter, that placenta was her mother’s favorite word!Three years ago today we lost Ilana. For those of you who knew her you understand the gravity of that statement. And, for those of you who did not, I can only hope for you that you have the [...]