The snow is deep (A poem for my sister)

Nov. 2007 In the cycle of grief, one comes reluctantly upon anger, or maybe anguish. The foot slams down on the break but there is no break. Time pushes you onward toward the inevitable death and loss and you don’t want to go. This poem is about my sister in anger that her daughter is […]

BirthingWays and the Meaghann Tully Scholarship Fund for Native Doulas

Greetings all, In pondering how best to honor Meaghann and her values of providing support to native children this is what we are doing: A new scholarship fund is being created in honor of Meaghann Tully to provide support for Native women who wish to become doulas and serve their communities. Contributions can be sent […]

Thank you for the kindnesses

Thank you for your kind thoughts and emails on the passing of my niece, Meaghann. She slipped away from us day by day saving the date to join Christ until Christmas Day. I’m so grateful it was Christmas Day, because my sister will always be with family on that day in the years ahead. Serving […]

Continual Presence at the other end of life

Sitting with my dying niece tonight, I didn’t want to leave her. But my son had to be picked up and I hadn’t seen my husband in daylight for a while. We’re nearing the final vigil time. It is hard to leave and hard to go back. Each time I approach her home my stomach […]

To try labor if baby is anterior

I’ve been contacted by a woman in southern Europe who is trying to decide if she should travel to a place where she can labor and give birth or to stay in her city and accept a cesarean without labor. What a position this mother finds herself in! What a dilemma! Should she put her […]

Doulas too?

One more post here in response to Joyce McFadden’s blog From Doulas to Doctors; Women are still dismissed.” Here is an extract : A woman says to her male doctor, “Since the surgery I have pain right here.” The doctor says, “That’s not possible.” Almost a year and at least $5,000 worth of medical expenses […]

If Men could have babies?

I’ve heard it again. “If men had babies….” Joyce McFadden’s blog entry “From Doulas to Doctors” explains well the emotional disruption of being ignored in your own birth process. She says, and the brackets are also hers, “[If men gave birth] I think there would be more transparency in the process, and that patients would […]

Might as well accept surgery?

A woman pregnant with breech twins emailed saying her physician recommended signing up for surgery. He predicted that they weren’t going to flip head down. Yet, she was less than 32 weeks pregnant! The direction a twin lies in is determined by the same things that determines a single baby’s direction. Plus one more thing, […]

What we know about fetal positioning

Spinning Babies is only one piece of evidence for the growing interest in fetal positioning. Parents, midwives, nurses and doulas are increasingly interested in how a baby’s position may influence a birth. Physicians have been studying this connection for decades. Understanding fetal positioning is not as simple as noting the differences between 1 position, anterior, […]

Rebozo for Comfort in Labor

Fabian relaxes Ayanna with the Mexican Rebozo. From the archives of Spinning Babies®, we see an indigenous couple using the rebozo, a long, woven cloth. Filmed by Gail Tully, their doula, the couple is empowered by the use of a technique familiar to the father’s ancestors. The birthing mother feels relaxed by the lifting and […]

Three thank yous

Three thank yous came my way to day. And I would first like to pass them on to the sources from which the information came to me; first God, then my midwifery and doula community, and then to the body work community. Here is the emailed thanks,   Thank you for getting back to me. […]

Doula means servant

First, I had to get over the funny sound of the word “doula.” Then, I had to remember a short and accurate way to dehttps://www.spinningbabies.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/sample3-1.png what a doula does. Quite a while later, I found out that some doulas didn’t like being associated with the original Greek doula. Originally the doula was the head servant […]