Twitter!

I tweet now!  It's fun!  Follow me @junolucinabirth

In other news, I am officially on call and awaiting a beautiful Christmas sugar plum!  Can't wait to watch her momma fulfill her destiny!  AND, two more potential babies added to the roster!  Things are really picking up here :)

Thanks to all my ladies!

The Big Latch On!!!

 On August 6th at 10:00 AM, I will be hosting the local area's sight for The Big Latch On at Mother's Own Birth Center in Temperance, Mi.

From The Big Latch On press release:

The first record for a single location was from Berkeley, CA USA in 2002 where 1,130 mothers breastfed simultaneously. The international record for one location is 3,738 mothers held by the Philippines in 2006.  Since then, there have been several coordinated international events and in October 2010, 9,826 nursing mothers were recorded at 325 sites in 16 countries.

The Big Latch On is originally from New Zealand.  It was introduced to Portland, Oregon in 2010 by Joanne Edwards as a celebration for World Breastfeeding Week. During the same week Annie Brown, a La Leche League Leader from Connecticut organized a simultaneous breastfeeding event in her home state. For World Breastfeeding Week 2011, they are working collaboratively and with the support of La Leche League USA to bring the event across the country.

World Breastfeeding Week, August 1-7, is celebrated in 120 countries and marks the signing of the WHO/UNICEF document Innocenti Declaration, which lists the benefits of breastfeeding, plus global and governmental goals. 

Breastfeeding contributes to the normal growth and development of babies, and babies who are not breastfed are at increased risk of infant morbidity and mortality, adult obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and premenopausal breast cancer and ovarian cancer (both mom and baby.) The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months of a baby's life to optimize these benefits, continuing to breastfeed for 2 years and as long thereafter as is mutually desired by mother and baby.

I really hope that you will join us, nursing mother, supportive friend or father of a nursling.  I will be offering some special lactation treats and there will be lost of other nursing families to meet!

Please call or email me if you have any questions!

An Eventful Welcome!

On July 5th, Jenny and Adam received their own little firecracker,  Abraham James!  Although Abraham's journey earthside was not to be as anyone had expected, he got here safely, and apparently well-fed :)  He weighed 10 lbs, 9 oz and was 22 and 3/4 inches long.  He is a beautiful little guy and he is so lucky to have soch great, flexible and easy-going parents.  He also is going to be LOVED by his big brother, Felix!

Thank you, Jenny and Adam, for allowing me to accompany you on this journey.  You both are the picture of grace in the face of adversity and I will never forget your experience.

New Blog Design

Whoa!!! Check out this beautiful new blog design!

Okay, I know that nobody saw it before, but trust me it is beautifuler now.

There are great things happening here at headquarters.  I am currently, patiently waiting for a phone call...shouldn't be too much longer.  Come on, baby A!  Your mommy, daddy and big brother are waiting to meet you.

Marley and I are participating in a nurse in on Friday in Detroit to support a momma who was harassed on the bus while she was trying to nurse her newborn.  We have never participated in a nurse in before and we look very forward to helping educate people on the importance of breastfeeding.  And nursing in public helps other learn, especially other children, that breastfeeding is normal. Pictures to follow.  That is, if I remember to charge the camera...

Check baby for updates on baby A's arrival and other news!

Erin

Moving right along!

Things are moving in such a positive direction here at Juno Lucina!

Clients are coming in and I currently have three coming up for the spring and summer.  I am going to try an figure out how to post a calendar with my availability here so that anyone who is now to the page and looking for a doula can check to see if I am available.

I have made some really great professional connections recently through my maternity nursing clinical.  I am really excited to get to know other birth professionals in the area.

Keep checking back for new information :)

Erin

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog page for my fledgling business!!!  I plane to use this blog page to update you on what is going on in the world of Juno Lucina.  Eventually, I will put up a calendar so that people can make appointments with me for an initial meeting, and so I can block of days that I am not available.  There are some old posts on this page, since it used to be a personal page (that I obviously never updated), so feel free to read them and get to know me a little better.  Thanks for checking things out.

Erin

Essay written about my favorite book on childbirth

Ina May Gaskin has been called “the mother of all midwives” since reintroducing midwifery into the mainstream in the late 1960's and to her I owe my career, my passion and the health of my future children. I read Spiritual Midwifery for the first time just a couple of years ago and since then I have referred to it and referenced it more times than I can count. I have shared it with more than a few expectant mothers and have even read stories from it to my husband.
I always knew in my heart that pregnancy, labor and birth was supposed to be the way Ina May teaches it to be but until I reached a certain point in my life, I was unequipped to process and relay the information. When I reached that point and my admiration for pregnant mothers turned from admiration to devotion, I found myself at a local bookstore and was a bit disappointed to find that there were no books on midwifery. I asked for a handful of books to be ordered and the first one to arrive was Spiritual Midwifery. My mind was open for learning and I drank every word of it with complete fascination. I'm not sure if I had already decided that “mommas” were going to become the focus of my life's work, but if I hadn't already, Ina May had sealed the deal.
The book was interesting to read and once I adjusted my lexicon to the colloquialisms of the hippie culture of the mid 1970's (not a far reach) I started to transport my mind to the cabins in the woods of Tennessee and I found that it was not hard to imagine myself there. Midwives are tender and compassionate by nature and above everything they have a complete faith in the female body's ability to birth her babies. The strength of that belief, which I believe was already inside me, welled to the surface and remains just as important to me today.
While the difference in the culture of the 1970's seems to differ greatly from the culture of today, the similarities are abounding. As long as there are wars and prejudice and people oppressed, there will always be people willing to fight for the causes they hold dear to their heart. The spirit of the hippies from the 1970's is still alive today in the war protesters, the human rights organizations, and the women who are demanding that they be able to birth their babies in the safest and healthiest way they know. In their home or in the hospital, Ina May taught me that my number one duty is to fight so that women have their babies the way they want to, not the way the insurance agencies or CDC or the AAP wants them to. She helped me remember that women have been doing this successfully for thousands of years, with the support of the people that love them and the women that have compassion for them, not vacuum extractors and abdominal surgery.
I have since read many different books about childbirth and raising children, and while I have learned so much from each and every one, the stories told by the women in Spiritual Midwifery and even Ina Mays Guide to Childbirth have touched me to my core. The stories are real, told by real women who had real wonderful life-altering births. I could never forget them, I will never forget them. They will remain my driving force behind my desire to bring Dar a Luz to this area and my driving force behind my goal to become a midwife and bring this opportunity to every woman that wants it, because she, as a woman, is entitled to it.