49 Quarantine Tips with Doula Sam from The Carolina Doula Collective

Heidi catches up with Sam from The Carolina Doula Collective about the state of birthing during COVID-19. Everything from last minute switches from hospital to home births to virtual doula services and everything in between. These two power doulas share all of their best tips for a safe and successful birth despite the restrictions being brought by the corona virus pandemic.

TRANSCRIPTION

Does a contraction feel like? How do I know if I'm in labor and what did the day of labor look like? Wait, is this normal? Hey, I'm Heidi. My best friends. Call me hides. I'm a certified birth doula host of this podcast and author of birth story and interactive pregnancy guidebook. I have supported hundreds of women through their labor and deliveries, and I believe every one of them and you deserves a microphone and a stage.

So here we are, listen each week to get answers to these tough questions, birth story, where we talk about pregnancy labor deliveries, where we tell our stories and share our feelings. And of course, chat about our favorite baby products and motherhood. And because I'm passionate about birth outcomes, you will hear from some of the top experts and labor and delivery, whether you are pregnant, trying desperately to get pregnant, or you just love a good birth story.

I hope you will stick around and be part of this birth story family. Thank you for listening to the birth story podcast. If you are tuning in for the first time, I want to encourage you to start the beginning. I want you to go on a journey with me and allow me to be your virtual doula and teach you. All the things along the way.

So I'm just going to give you a couple of highlights. Some of the earlier podcast episodes, if you are just now tuning en so very first episode, episode one, you can learn all about me, who I am, why I became a doula, why it is I do what I do and also my very own birth story with myself. Second child Jagger, then I've interviewed some really cool CEOs.

So episode three, Tori Jones is the CEO of  triangle and she was also featured on Rachel Hollis's. The rise podcast. Episode seven was Rachel Coley, the CEO of Kandoo kiddo. She was just on good morning America. She's an incredible occupational therapist that teaches you how to play with your baby in her.

First stories are incredible. Episode 10 was one of my best friends. Amy who had a VBAC in the car. We have done episodes on micro preemies episode, 1821 on international adoption out of Uganda. 24 and 25. Oh, those episodes like get a box of tissues. They're on Seragusi and cancer. We've addressed hypnobirthing, fertility, really easy, joyful medicated birds, really hard, long labors, Kayden, unmedicated, everything in between.

So I hope you'll start at the beginning. Let the birth story podcast take you on a journey all the way through. Yeah. And enjoy this episode and then remembered a rewind all the way back to episode one. Thanks for tuning in good morning. So welcome to the birth story podcast. Thank you. I usually don't say the date, but it's, you know, April 2nd.

And so we're in the middle of corn team and today I have Sam on labor with Sam. And so your labor doula? Yes. And how many kids do you have? You have to, and we're going to talk about your birth stories and then, but before we get started on your birth stories, I would love to hear a little bit about the environment and what you are supporting women and where the virtual doula eating and kind of what that looks like.

So where are you seeing the country? Where are you in? So I'm based out of Raleigh, North Carolina, I'm the owner and CEO of the Carolina doula collective and yeah, the environment in which we are supporting women has changed a lot. Last couple of weeks, been very offended, but we are pivoting. Very very well and figuring out new and creative ways to make sure that our clients still have all of the support that they need.

So that has kind of taken yeah. In the form of like virtual meetings, which is easier to replace. So we're just holding our prenatal meetings and things like that over zoom or Skype or Google hangout. So many choices. And so those have been buying, you know, a lot of that is just conversational and, and everything.

So. That's about the same. The main difference in that is that we are not currently allowed in the hospitals. Um, because we, all of our hospitals in our area, like most hospitals in the country have switched to a one support person policy for laboring people. So we are really kind of shifting our focus to providing support and education for whoever mom's primary support person is going to be.

Um, and trying to make sure that they. Feel very confident in taking on that role of sole labor support and that they have our support in doing that. So a lot of time working with partners and working on comfort measures and education, to make sure that they also have a really good understanding of, you know, the process of labor and the different labor stages and kind of what the goals are for each stage of labor.

And thankfully I had already earlier this year created an online course. Geared entirely around comfort measures and it's video based and kind of walks through 11 different comfort measures then talks about when to use them and how to use them and gives a demonstration. So, you know, we've been able to kind of.

Signed people up for that and give them the opportunity to work on those comfort measures and learn them, practice them in their homes before going into the hospital. And then when people go into labor, we, our own colleges, the same way we normally would be, and we're just kind of gauging how we can best offer support in the moment.

So if people are. Are not symptomatic and there's not a lot of concern there. We are still offering, meet people in their homes and kind of get them settled before they go into the hospital. Kind of depending on where everyone's comfort level is. And then as they go into the hospital, we're offering either to just be on a video call with them.

If that is what would make the most comfortable, um, or do regular check ins every like 30 minutes to an hour. And kind of offer suggestions for different position changes or comfort measures to try offer emotional support, answer any questions that they might have about what's going on and just kind of make sure that they feel supported during that.

Um, and then, you know, again, Going back to video calls and other, um, means of communication postpartum and making sure that they still have access to all the resources that they need. You know, we still, so many people have done such a great and creative job of transitioning their resources over to. Safer modes and mechanisms.

So we've got lactation consultants that are still doing telemedicine visits and support groups that are still meeting online and things like that. So we're just trying to get people connected with the resources that they need afterwards and help their transition to Parenthood in this crazy time.

Isn't it so amazing how quickly all of the doulas have been able to adapt. And one of the things you touched on that I just want you to go into a little bit more is that you had developed an online course. And so people are moving. We're moving to this prior to the pandemic. I think we're going to see a lot more online courses being offered, you know, after this, but a couple of questions.

What is a doula collective. Cause if I'm a listener right now, I'm like, I barely know what a doula is and you know, what is a doula collective. And then also, how can we find your online course? And can anyone take it? Do you have to be your client or can anyone take it and then how much does it cost? Yeah, so.

A doula for anybody who might not know what to do is as a nonmedical support, professional and labor or birth doulas, specifically, um, offer emotional, physical support in the form of comfort measures and educational, informational support throughout pregnancy labor birth and the early postpartum period.

So I'm not doing any clinical tasks, which is what. Part of what makes me different from like a midwife or an OB I'm kind of filling in the gaps. I like to say for people in terms of making sure that they have the information that they need and feel solidly educated about, you know, what's coming. Um, my background before becoming a doula was in crisis intervention, counseling and trauma counseling.

So I also personally spend a lot of time. Helping people, um, for pair and make decisions that will help them have the best chance possible at a positive birth experience, regardless of kind of what happens when we go into birth, because we're never a hundred percent sure about what our birth story is going to look like.

So I feel like. Giving people that information that support that education ahead of time, walking them through the range of possibilities of what things can look like so that they can think that through and decide on what their preferences would be really kind of helps reduce the likelihood that they're going to become overwhelmed or fearful during the birth itself so that they can kind of come away feeling like, you know, they were able to maintain some autonomy and control in that situation can feel positively about.

How it was handled regardless of what happens. So that's, I spend a lot of times my clients doing that. And then in person, when I'm able to go to births, providing a lot of that physical support and comfort. So that's what I think is really important right now, too, is what I cannot stress enough to everyone out there who has a doula.

I'll probably publish this episode, like recent, you know, right away, rather than delaying it or whatever is that. 95% of our job has nothing to do with the actual day of labor. Like your doula is with you for your whole pregnancy and the postpartum period. We're with you at home all the way until you're ready to go to the hospital.

Some, you know, a lot of the times. And so I just keep trying to stress to my clients like this tiny action of a moment of time, like the birth is being taken away, but like the whole experience. Still, you know, intact for like my business and your business and the doulas around the country supporting, um, all of the mamas that are late.

So I think it was so important that you went through the whole spectrum. Yeah, because on the news media, people just hear like, Oh, they can't have their partner. And it's like, well, they still have so much, you know, support going on. Okay. Sorry to interrupt. But now your online courses. Yeah. So yeah. To touch real quick.

On the collective piece, we have a group of doulas that work with us and a big piece of what I do also run a mentorship program for new doulas, um, that kind of work with them through their first year of being a doula where they've kind of finished their training, but they haven't completed their certification bursts and hours, um, and kind of working with them to provide continuing education and.

Birth experience. And we also use that program as an Avenue to connect with people in the community who are struggling financially and might not be able to afford doula services in the traditional way. So we kind of have partnerships with clinics in our area, um, that kind of connect. So the collective piece just simply means that it's more than just me.

Um, Yeah. So I have another question on that too. So someone is, we're looking to hire a dual app and they look online and they see words like agency or collective or comms years versus just like a person's name or whatever. One of the questions that a lot of my listeners have is like, how do I know who's going to be at my birth?

So if someone hires like you or your company are, do they get Sam or do they just get a doula within your collective? How does that work for anyone who's listening that might be in or around the Raleigh area? Kind of what might that experience be for them? Yeah. So every group does it differently, but in terms of my group, um, you are hiring your doula and you are hiring a person and they will be your primary person throughout their birth and pregnancy journey.

And I think that's really important because it's such a rapport based business and, you know, you're. You're trusting the person that you hired to come into your birth space and you need to click with them and you need to feel good about that relationship. So you're hiring a person. Now, we all have backups that kind of work within the agency to make sure that in the event that someone would not be able to attend the verse due to extenuating circumstances.

We still have someone that can come, but we always make sure that. You know, people meet the backup and they know who that's going to be, and they feel comfortable with that person as well. But you are definitely hiring one person to be your primary doula. Cool. It's like the perfect thing of collaboration over competition.

Yeah. So very cool model. Yeah. Um, and then in terms of my courses, you can find the comfort measures course on my website, which is Carolina doula, collective.com. And it's on there, the online course tab, and you can find it there typically it is $45, but for right now, as long as this pandemic situation is going on, it is discounted to $30 with the code.

Get 15. So you get $15 off, um, to $30. Cause I do want to make sure that people, you know, feel like they have access. And I know finances are a big concern for just about everybody right now. Um, so yeah, so that's where you can find that. And then more information about any of the services that we're offering.

Very very cool. Okay. So one of the things I wanted to mention to the audience is that there's to clarify some things, especially in North Carolina, and I don't know how it is going to be across the entire country, but when they say they've limited, the. Introduction of birth partner, just down to one, it's really to limit the exposure, to protect the people within the hospital from having a whole bunch of people coming and going.

So the number one question I've gotten from my clients is. Which is very flattering because I have a lot of second time to Paris moms is, will Heidi. Like I choose you. Like, you know, I already had an experience with number one, you know, I choose you and. What we've been told is that there's no switching out.

And so very quickly my client, then we're like, Oh, reverse. I have to then be at the hospital with my baby after the birth, without my partner, then that. Part would be a little bit devastating. So I wanted to like share that piece of it to everyone listening is that the hospitals are protecting the people within the walls of the hospital.

And if we switch out they'll to birth partners, and so there is no switching out, you know, before, during, after I think that the only exception would be if. Somebody fell ill or, you know, didn't, you know, didn't feel good, but then I think you may just still think that that might, they might just. Now we're going to take a short break to just share a few things with you.

Things for listening to the book story podcast. I am so excited to announce the launch of my book, book, birth story, a 42 week guide for your pregnancy, a collection of these birth stories, a ton of doula advice. And journaling prompts. You can order a copy [email protected]. It also will mean the world.

To me, it feels spread the word about this podcast. So on Stitcher or on iTunes, just leave a review. Thanks. So in your area, what are you hearing about discharge? So at birth centers, you know, typically you're gone quickly at home. You're, you know, just at home, but in the hospital. Have you heard anything in your area about how quickly they're trying to get moms and babies out of the hospital and is that different than what it has been?

Yes. So, um, it's a little. It can be a little complicated in my area because we have three different, large, um, hospital groups to work within. And they're, they're doing as best they can to kind of make sure that all of their policies are the same, so that it's not confusing in the community, but we're still kind of in that feeling things out phase where things are changing every day in general, what I'm hearing and what I'm telling clients is, you know, they're still.

For, for an uncomplicated vaginal delivery. They're still saying that it's going to be challenging to discharge before 24 hours. And the reason for that is. That there's just a certain amount of testing that needs to be done with the baby that they prefer to do at that 24 hour Mark. So what I'm kind of encouraging my clients to do is to kind of increase their understanding of what those tests are and what the talk to their provider about the list of like, what needs to happen in order for me to get discharged so that they can advocate for themselves.

To say, like, I understand that I gave birth at three o'clock in the morning, but like, I would also like to leave at three o'clock in the morning tomorrow and not wait longer than that so that they can advocate and say like, no, it's really okay with me. If the nursery staff comes in at 3:00 AM to do some of these tests.

Because we're trying to expedite the situation. I think also just communicating with your provider about what your options are in terms of the pediatrician piece of the discharge. Cause I think that's the biggest hangup for a lot of people is that the pediatricians are not often at the hospital overnight.

They usually come in in the morning and do all of their discharged situations. So working that piece out, you know, and I have heard of clients being able to see. Work with like their pediatrician personally saying like, You know, I'm going to take my baby at this point to go and see the pediatrician or whatever, and have the test there.

So I think there's, there's just a lot of communicating that has to happen, you know, in right or in hospital communications with the client. And it probably is going to require some advocacy on the part of the client to get discharged earlier. If that's what they want. You know, I think our, I think all the hospitals are doing as, as good of a job as they can in making sure that they're still kind of operating as close to normal as is possible.

And obviously we want to reduce the strain on the hospital system. So I think they're trying to. You know, get people discharged closer to that 24 hour Mark than the 48 hour Mark, as long as everything is, is uncomplicated. But you know, you also have to take in mind the risks of taking them newborn to the pediatrician and those, your trips out.

So I think it's pretty personal and, and they're just trying to feel it out. Yeah. I think a good takeaway though, is that they are trying to reduce the amount of time you spend in the hospital. But yeah, so yesterday my kids and I had to go to the pediatrician, I have one who's got like, you know, we joke it's like the hundred day cough and it's not a good thing to have with COVID, but thankfully he's, you know, has it every year, the a hundred bake-off.

So anyway, so we go yesterday to the pediatrician, but they did car visit. So she came right out to the car, fully masked, fully gloves, and was able to just kind of check come over in the car. So that's another thing. Um, if you are delivering during, right around now, you're going to have a two week, four week, six week, you know, whatever that schedule looks like with your pediatrician.

And there may be some visits that they could do without you getting out of the car. Two, which is kind of the, okay, before we finish up this quick little chat on the quarantine, and in a later episode, we're going to get into your birth story. So if anybody's listening, cm has two incredible birth stories.

Just give us the highlights really quick so that they hang around and stay for your birth stories. Yeah. So I have two children and they're 15 months apart. That's probably the biggest highlight. Yeah, mine too. So my daughter was, um, a hospital waterbirth it was a long labor, but it was a great experience.

And then my son was a home birth is a very different experience and I nursed through my whole second pregnancy, um, and then went on to tandem nurse. So that was. I cannot wait to get into those. Oh my gosh. I just got goosebumps all over and I told my coffee coffee's billing. That's how excited I am. Okay.

But before we get into this let to leave the audience with some practical tips for birthing and delivering during COVID, you know, especially with your one partner, that's going with you. But. Let's be real. The majority of people listening to a birth story podcasts, don't have a dual app. And so let's talk about some practical things to like pack.

And do I know you have a whole course. We want everyone to take, but let's just give a few tips away. So the course is just income fermentors, but I did, I have, um, hosted a couple of webinars recently that are bins specific to like helping your partner prepare for birth. And kind of the outline that I'm giving people is the first step is to make sure that you're both educated about the process and that is going to include the stages of labor and what those look like and common interventions that you might encounter and just kind of really becoming educated.

Both of you on what to expect in the variations of what that can look like. And you can do that. On your own, you can do it through a book. You can do it through your course. You can work with the doula to make sure that you have that done ahead of time. That's really important. Let's let's hang there for just a minute.

If you're listening and you don't have a doula is not too late to hire a doula to help you. Like with the visioning of like a birth plan, an advocacy plan, you know, maybe it's the end of your pregnancy and you didn't get all of the things that doula does, but like you can call if anyone picked up the phone right now and called me and I know called you and said, Hey, we're about to do this.

And I just want help with that birth plan or advocacy to get through. COVID what does that look like? Yes out of doulas are just kind of doing that. I know what I'm doing is kind of lumping that into kind of like a one-on-one childbirth education course. And that's, you know, just a one off, you know, couple of hours or we just go through everything and work on birth planning and, and those things to kind of make people feel prepared.

So wherever you're listening, Google, you know, Google some doulas. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Exactly. Here we are. Yes. Um, so that would definitely be the first step. The second step you, you touched on with birth planning, and I always tell people, you know, back a few years ago when birth planning was becoming really popular, the goal was to write your preferences down, to communicate with your provider and make sure that.

Your preferences were respected and that can still be really important. But thankfully, a lot of things that people were putting on their birth land back a few years ago have started to become more commonplace at a lot of hospitals, which is amazing. I still feel like birth planning has a lot of value more for the process.

So that you have are having that conversation. You're sitting down with your partner and you're making sure that the two of you are communicating about your goals and your preferences, because your partner can't support you right. Adequately if they don't know what your goal is and what your preferences are.

So making sure that you take the time to, you know, use a birth planning template and sit down and say, These are my goals. These are my preferences. This is how I would like to see, you know, situation a, B and C handled so that your partner has a frame of reference for how to best support you, because they might be thinking like, who would want to go through this process being in tons of pain, she definitely would want to get an epidural and.

You might be like, no, I'm really good. I just, I would like to try to make it through without an epidural. And that's going to come into play when they're supporting you and you're in transition and you're at your most vulnerable and your partner is like, okay. And then you, you will, because at that point you're going to be like, fine.

I'll just do it. You might feel a little bit unhappy about that later. So making sure that. Or not. Um, but you want to make sure that you are just communicating your goals to your partner so they can support you. Yeah. Let's talk about what someone could pack. So like, I know a lot of the partners call me and are like, okay, if you're not coming into the hospital with us, And we're not crowning, you know, as we walk in, um, you know, which are some people's beliefs, I will tell you that, but if your are not crowding and you're walking into the hospital and there's some laboring that needs to be done, what are some things like I've been encouraging my clients, partners to have their own.

Like doula back. So let's talk about what would you put in there? Yeah. So the number one thing that I'm recommending to all partners to pack is food for themselves, because I think you have to think about your role as being the sole labor support. You don't. You're not going to get to leave really with the exception of maybe going to the bathroom while nurses in there to take over whatever hip squeezes, or counter pressure you're doing.

And you're also not going to get to leave. The hospital really to go get food or get coffee, the way that you might have, you know, at a different time. Cause they are trying to, to reduce that risk of exposure. So making sure that you're packing snacks to sustain you for like, Um, about 24 hours is what I'm recommending to people.

And those need to be, you know, snacks that are kind of nutrient dense, easy to grab and don't have a strong smell. So that's kind of the way that I think about it as a doula. Like I need to be able to grab this in between a contraction and like eat it real fast without making a big deal out of it. So making sure that, you know, you as a partner are packing enough of that, and that kind of includes caffeine and, you know, Pick me up to give you the energy that you need if, if labor goes on for awhile.

So that's the biggest thing that I'm recommending to people and then making sure that you as the partner, no, where everything is to support moms. So really kind of recommending that people pack. Everything that they're going to need for labor. And that's going to include like things for the partner and also things for the mom.

And one bag that the partner knows where everything is. So if you're bringing a tens unit, if you, you know, if mom wants to use essential oils and a diffuser music, changes of clothes for mom, like if she needs a dry. Works bra her bathing suit top or things like that, making sure that the partner's well aware of where everything is and what is in there is important so that they can kind of be proactive about going and grabbing things without needing to ask where they are.

And then, you know, things that you feel like you're going to need for your postpartum period. I usually recommend packing in a separate bag and just leaving them in the car until you're in your room and settled and can go and grab them. Cool. And I have a couple things I'll add to the list is more like on the dueling side too, is like environment to just like keeping the lights low and maybe some like, just a couple of, not like a million things, but like just a couple of those, like led candles or twinkly lights, like something to just keep it really low and soft.

And then I've also just been. You know, I can never stress the reminder of emptying out your phone before you go. So you have plenty of storage and having lots of chargers, like the number one way to not upset your partner laboring is to make sure that, you know, they can call or text the people that they love and that their phone is dead, you know, after they've delivered, you know, their baby, that kind of thing.

So as we wrap up Sam and I are gonna put a little guide. I'll put it on my website. You can put on the website, but especially in the show notes with just a few packing tips and then we'll link to your class for comfort measures so that if anyone wants to jump on and take your class, we would highly encourage it.

So thanks for jumping on for just, I don't even know how long we've been talking for 20 minutes or so to go through, you know, birding during. Um, COVID 19. So we're gonna hang up this call and then I really appreciate you having on, and then I'm so excited to do a whole, another podcast talking about your birth stories.

Sounds great.

Thank you for listening to birth story, Michael, if you will walk away from each episode with a clear picture of how labor and delivery might go and that you will feel empowered by the end of your pregnancy to speak up plan and prepare for the birth you want, no matter what that looks like.