Creating a postpartum plan? Does it include healing food and lactogenic meals? If your family isn’t already providing this nourishment, doulas can cook up a storm and be there to serve you all the nutrition, nurturing, and healing that home-prepared foods have to offer. If you have read THE FIRST 40 DAYS, you might be inspired to get the nest building support of a doula in the first month or so.

Get out your calendars and let’s plan for baby’s early weeks!

BTW Good news, they start responsively smiling during this time and I’m pretty sure it was built into the design of babies to smile right before they get WAY harder!

Doulas exist because families need us. Sometimes they plan ahead and book up our time well in advance. Sometimes they don't realize the transition and call after baby arrives. And sometimes they are so buried in the chaos they don't even know to call.

Birth is meant to be transformative. What we do not plan for is the massive recovery period after birth (we call it postpartum, but that just usually means depression to the majority, even though it is something that everyone goes through after having a baby).

Saving lives by listening to mothers. How can we help? Listening to Black and Brown mothers could save their lives. We need to trust what they say about their bodies.

Last week we got a lot of calls from pregnant people about setting up doula care. The first question was, "What are you doing to keep everyone safe?"

We know how much difference support makes. Doulas exist to support parents, to help create that circle that carries them when they are focusing all their energy on their new baby. We love supporting single parents by choice. We love being able to take on all the tasks that burden new parents so they aren't overwhelmed when their tiny one arrives.

The person you don’t have to ask for help who supports you without judgement: Doula.

Who is filling your gaps? Postpartum doulas support parents so they have more time to love on their babies.

I have had the most wonderful grandma doulas in my trainings, and I am always looking for more! If you have wondered what a second career as a doula might look like, check out an introductory training to see if this might be right for you for this season in your life.

“We had the pleasure of talking with Kimberly Bepler, a local postpartum doula here in Portland and founder of ABC Doula. It quickly became clear why so many mothers in the area rave about Kimberly—she’s down-to-earth, joyful, and is known to whip up a delicious frittata. We wanted to share some of Kimberly’s wisdom about becoming a new parent, and she had a lot to give.