Welcome to Mother Earth Birth & Doula Services!

Mother Earth is about helping women and families have the births that they want and deserve. We provide birth doula services for Swansboro and Jacksonville, NC and surrounding areas. We can attend hospital and home births. Doulas provide emotional, physical (including natural pain management techniques), mental, and sometimes spiritual support. We are your advocates for the birth that YOU want. We are here to provide an array of pregnancy and childbirth services. Our focus is on women-centered support, hand-made art, and services provided from the heart. We are believers in birth and in women's ability to birth. We support the rights of women and their families. Please read through our About Us and our Services pages to learn more about what we stand for and what we offer to the Eastern North Carolina area (some services provided long-distance). If you have any questions, requests, or inquiries feel free to contact us by e-mail, phone, or Facebook!


Birth Blessings,

Aileen Peterson

LMBT, Doula Student, Artisan Crafter

We've Been Featured!

We have been featured over at Pagan Families in their Birth Guardians series. Check it out!

http://paganfamilies.com/2012/09/birth-guardians-aileen-peterson/

Benefits of Labor Support

Though we believe that a woman has full power to give birth naturally with no assistance (and that no intervention is the safest for birth but does have its place in the medical world for those rare instances when a mother needs them), for those who do wish to have labor support, here are some statistics on the benefits of having a labor support partner such as a doula.

~Benefits of Labor Support
(Source: Mothering the Mother, M. Klaus, M.D., J. Kennell, M.D., P. Klaus. Second edition of this book is called The Doula Book)

• Shortens Labor:
Length of Labor, study #1: No doula, 19 hours, Doula, 9 hours
Length of Labor, study #2: No doula, 15.5 hours, Doula, 7.7 hours
Length of Labor, study #3: No doula, 9.4 hours, Doula, 7.4 hours

• Increases your odds of a natural birth from 12% with no doula, to 55% with a doula

• Reduces requests for epidurals (which are indicative of the level of pain being experienced) from 55% with no doula to 8% with a doula

• Reduces the need to use oxytocin (a drug used to stimulate a labor that is not progressing normally) from 44% with no doula, and 17% with a doula

• Reduces the use of forceps from 26% with no doula, to 8% with a doula

• Reduces the need for C-Sections from 18% no doula, to 8% with doula

• At six weeks of age, babies with feeding problems are 63% with no doula, and only 16% with a doula

• Babies with colds or runny noses was 69% with no doula, 39% with a doula.

• New mothers rate their marriages as better after the birth only 30% with no doula, but 71% with a doula.

• Mothers expereinced several benefits: they report that they bonded much more quickly with the baby, could take their babies home sooner, and had fewer maternal fevers when supported by a doula.

• Cost Savings: It is estimated that a reduction of Cesarean sections from the current 20 to 25% average down to 10% would mean a savings of about $3,500 per birth, more than $2 billion annually. A reduction of epidurals from the current 80% down to 10% would result in an average savings of $1,300 per delivery, saving more than $4 billion annually.

• Penny Simkin writes in Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn that relaxation in labor will 1)conserve energy and reduce fatigue; 2) calm and reduce stress; and 3) reduce pain

• These are only the physical and financial aspects of labor support. See a recommended reading book,Secret Life of the Unborn Child, to understand the social impact of easier childbirth on all generations to come, as you understand how labor pain and maternal tension can increase incidence of criminal behavior and mental disease.