How to Use Your B.R.A.I.N.

By Shellee Semrad You took a pregnancy test and found it to be positive. YAY! Congratulations! You’ve planned. You’ve read. You’ve researched. You’ve stressed and cleaned and celebrated. And you’ve listened, (somewhat) patiently and graciously, as everyone and their dog has given you unsolicited advice. Everyone seems to have an opinion on your body, your…

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How Doulas Can be Allies to LGBTQIA+ Clients

By Sarah Braun Every June we celebrate Pride Month, giving space for LGBTQIA+ visibility and celebration of identity. Over 10 million Americans identify as LGBTQIA+ and somewhere between 2 million and 3.7 million kids under 18 years old have a parent that identifies as LGBTQIA+. As birth workers, it’s inevitable that at some point in…

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Mother’s Day: A Beautiful Celebration of Women and Birth

By Angie Rosier May holds Mother’s Day. It could be called Women’s Day as we celebrate the power of all women.  Doulas are lucky people among women. They have the unique opportunity of glancing into the soul of a woman.  A woman’s soul, which contains her whole heart and her entire power, is a rare…

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4 Reasons a Surrogate Needs a Birth Doula

Surrogacy is a beautiful gift to families that have struggled to have a child. There are so many aspects about surrogacy that are planned and thought out from the beginning. One of them can and should be is if the surrogate should have a doula for the birth. As a doula myself, I see the…

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Our History Informs Our Future

By: Angie Rosier When my daughter was nine years old she had a fascination with fish.  We learned about and purchased all the components for a fish tank then filled it with guppies, platys, and mollies.  She is nearly fifteen now and we still have that fish tank in our home.  Toward the beginning of…

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The Briana Project

By: Sara Vranes, CPM What is The Briana Project? The Briana Project is a mobile outreach program providing free postpartum care, education, and advocacy for underserved women and mothers in the Salt Lake Valley. We provide in-home and mobile prenatal and postpartum visits and community classes in Salt Lake City. We meet with and assess…

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Twenty Years in Birth

One of the UDA’s previous logos: By Andrea Lythgoe I started my career as a birth worker in 1997, when Bill Clinton was president and Mike Leavitt was Utah’s governor. Gas cost about $1.22 a gallon and Titanic was the new blockbuster movie. I was pregnant with my daughter Callie when I taught my first childbirth…

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National Cancer Prevention Month

By: Stacie Rupp, CD(DONA) laboryourway.com   Stacie has been a birth doula since early 2015 and has recently begun teaching Childbirth Preparation classes through University of Utah Perinatal Education. She loves sharing her excitement about all things birth with expectant couples. She also strives to offer understanding and support to women who have had cancer…

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How to select the doula for you

By: Destiny S. Olsen CD(DONA), PCD(DONA), RYT, TPYT    801-361-9785 shaunteahealthandwellness@gmail.com www.shaunteahealthandwellness.com What is a doula? Doulas are involved in the pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum processes for expectant families. They provide educational, physical, and emotional support for anything that may arise during your journey. Here is a how-to-guide for selecting a doula not only…

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