Our Products
The Center sells products that are referenced in our educational programs as being particularly helpful to expectant and new parents or the doulas and other caregivers attending them. Our primary intent is to make readily available, at competitive prices, items that may be otherwise difficult to find in the commercial marketplace. Rather than overwhelming you with an abundance of choices, we have selected a few quality items. As 2008 unfolds, we expect to increase our retail offerings. Come visit us often! And also, feel free to let us know if there is something in particular that you are seeking.
All items can be either mail ordered or purchased on site at the Center. Shipping is billed at cost.
Wholesale discounts up to 40 percent are available on educational materials published by the Center for the Childbearing Year. To obtain the wholesale discount, you must place a minimum order of 6 copies of any one item. Wholesalers pay shipping and handling costs.
Cookbook
Whole Family Recipes — For the Childbearing Year & Beyond
Edited by Patty Brennan, 2007
$15.95
From many kitchens to yours . . .
Whole Family Recipes–For the Childbearing Year & Beyond is more than a cookbook. While being a guide to nutritious and delicious meals the whole family will enjoy, it highlights foods that are especially needed by pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and their growing children. Taking a non-dogmatic and down-to-earth tone, the book focuses on incorporating vitamin- and mineral-rich foods and good quality fats into the diet. It playfully encourages parents to experiment with “new” foods as they transition to healthier food choices. In addition to yummy recipes, the book contains numerous tips for parents and a collection of essays devoted to nutrition during the childbearing year, including a unique piece on “The Birth Marathon–Food & Drink for Labor & Birth.” The cookbook is a community effort. Contributors include midwives, doulas, moms, and dads, with illustrations by children. Makes a great gift for those moms, doulas, and midwives in your life!
Wholesale discounts available for orders of six or more books.
Guide to Homeopathic Remedies for the Birth Bag
Fourth Revised Edition, 2005
Written by Patty Brennan
$12
This compact booklet is designed to provide a practical, quick, clinical reference guide that birth attendants can easily slip into their birth bags. Seventy-five key remedies are briefly summarized for their applications in midwifery practice or self care. Prenatal problems, complications arising during labor and birth, and postpartum complaints of both mom and baby are covered. The 4th edition features an expanded therapeutic applications or repertory section designed to facilitate expedient choice of a remedy during labor. Written by a midwife for midwives, mothers, and anyone who works with pregnant, birthing, or breastfeeding moms and their babies.
Wholesale discounts available for orders of six or more booklets.
Vaccine Choices Sourcepack
Vaccine Choices, Homeopathic Alternatives & Parental Rights
Written and compiled by Patty Brennan
2nd Edition Revised, 2008
$20
Find everything you need to know about the vaccination issue in a single, clear, and concise package designed to assist you in making an informed decision for the health of your family.
- The sourcepack is designed to help consumers of health care obtain informed consent to childhood vaccinations or exercise their right to informed refusal of vaccines.
- Emphasis is placed on the prevention of adverse vaccine reactions.
- Homeopathy is presented as a method of preventing and treating acute and chronic vaccine reactions, and as a means of protection from illness after exposure or during epidemics.
- Remedies are detailed which historically have proven useful in limiting the course and severity of these diseases once contracted.
- Excellent materials on enhancing the immune system naturally are featured (a good idea regardless of your choice).
- Resources are included for understanding and obtaining your legal right to waivers and how to exercise your rights.
- Favorite resources on various aspects of the vaccine controversy are outlined.
The following topics are also covered in the sourcepack:
- Antibiotics: How Do They Harm Our Children?
- Stimulating a Weakened Immune System
- Food & Herbal Sources of Important Immune System Nutrients
- Questions & Answers About Vaccination Safety & Laws for Daycare Providers
- Family Winter Health Tea Recipe
Additional materials included:
- Current government-recommended vaccine schedules and alternate schedules
- Sample Immunization Waiver Forms for Michigan
Wholesale discounts on orders of six or more sourcepacks are available.
Introduction to Doulas Care
Doulas Care is a 501c3 non-profit organization working to improve maternal and infant health outcomes and reduce health disparities by matching qualified volunteer doulas with pregnant women and adolescents who have limited resources. As special mentors, doulas provide educational, emotional, physical, and logistical support to women and their families. Doulas Care also helps the volunteers by providing the opportunity to gain hands-on experience soon after training and opens a professional pathway in the field of maternal and infant health.
We are located at the Center for the Childbearing Year, 722 Brooks Street Ann Arbor Michigan 48103 and we can be reached at 734-332-8070
or toll-free at 1-866-845-0003 or for Spanish Speakers at 734-478-0045.
Population Served
Community-based doulas serve families with limited resources in the following counties of southeastern Michigan: Washtenaw, Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Lapeer, Genesee, Livingston, Ingham, Jackson, and Monroe. In 2007, the program served over 200 families. Since 2000, the program has grown between 25% and 90% per year. As an outreach program, Doulas Care receives referrals primarily from pregnant women themselves or through social workers and prenatal care providers.
Latino Community Outreach. Doulas Care has been able to recruit and train a small cadre of bi-cultural and bi-lingual volunteer doulas who are now providing a growing number of Latina women in Washtenaw County with free doula services. More bilingual doulas are needed to work with the program.
Services Provided
The volunteer doulas are community outreach workers who provide unique social, emotional, and educational support during the childbearing year. They do not provide medical care services.
Services During Pregnancy
- Prenatal visits — provide a minimum of three home visits.
- Phone support between visits.
- Education — provide nutritional information and encouragement to clients. Educational efforts are aimed at preventing complications such as pre-term labor, low birth weight, and postpartum depression.
- Mentoring and emotional support — doulas concentrate on building a relationship and empowering the pregnant woman.
- Assistance in arranging transportation to prenatal care and childbirth classes.
- Accessing community resources — Doulas are trained to identify social risk factors and promote risk reduction. They make referrals and educate clients about available community resources as needed.
Services During Labor & Birth
- One-on-one labor support — Doulas stay with the woman throughout her labor.
- Mediation and advocacy — Doulas assist families in their navigation of the health care system. A multi-lingual Doula (or one who knows sign language) can serve as a woman’s interpreter and facilitate communication with her caregivers.
- Doulas do not take the place of dads or other family members, but facilitate everyone’s optimal participation, respecting the mother’s wishes.
- Promote skin-to-skin contact and MotherBaby bond.
Postpartum Services
- Home visits — provide a minimum of three postpartum home visits.
- Ongoing phone support.
- Education on newborns and infant care skills, breastfeeding skills, maternal recovery, and coping skills.
- Breastfeeding support.
- Facilitate MotherBaby bond and attachment.
- Postpartum depression screening.
- Referrals — Doulas increase access to community services for women and families at risk.
- Extended in-home doula help is available to low-income families in need of some extra support. Typically, the doulas provide a minimum of 2-3 visits, lasting 2-4 hours each, for 2-6 weeks postpartum. In special circumstances, care may extend up to 3 months and/or a team of doulas may be assigned to the family. This program initiative is aimed at reducing the incidence and severity of postpartum depression. The doulas also hope to increase breastfeeding success.
The Volunteers
Currently there are approximately 50 volunteers ranging in age from women in their twenties to sixties. It is a diverse group. Some are former homemakers with grown children who are now able to offer their experience, time, and energy to new families. Others are students exploring career options in nursing, midwifery, or medicine who value the opportunity to work with women in a community setting as they consider a health care career. We also have retired nurses who are establishing a second career doing work they love. Some volunteers are professional doulas or intend to become self-employed professional doulas. And others are social workers, outreach workers, and educators who already work with with pregnant women on their jobs and are interested in enhancing the quality of their interactions and support. Many volunteers are young mothers themselves who simply love the work. A remarkable feature characterizing this group of volunteers is their passion for helping moms and babies.
Herbs for the Childbearing Year
All herbs are organic or wildcrafted.
Pregnancy Tea
Nettles, $4.50 per 1/4 pound
Red Raspberry leaves, $5.50 per 1/4 pound
Spearmint leaves, $2.75 per 1/8 pound
Postpartum Herbal Baths
Each bag makes one healing bath and contains a pre-mixed batch of organic calendula flowers, comfrey leaves, and lavender. $3.00 each
Learn about the Postpartum Herbal Baths.
All About Doulas
What is a doula?
A doula is a labor support professional who “mothers the mother” during childbirth, as well as during the prenatal and postpartum periods. Birth doulas provide support to pregnant women prenatally, through labor and birth, and in the early days postpartum. Postpartum doulas provide in-home services to families, typically lasting from three weeks to three months, or longer with special circumstances. Some doulas combine the birth and postpartum roles into a complete service package, thereby offering continuity of care throughout the childbearing year.
Doulas are non-medical care providers. Their role is limited to educational, emotional, physical, and logistical support. They do not provide clinical care such as taking blood pressure or checking dilation in labor, nor do they give medical advice. A “doula” who offers vaginal checks at home in early labor, for example, may be offering a service that you find desirable, however her role is more accurately described as “monitrice” (a clinical role which falls somewhere in between the doula and the midwife role). Postpartum doulas are not “baby nurses,” but a nurse may offer in-home care to postpartum families. Likewise, a “doula” who “prescribes” homeopathic or herbal treatments to support healing also may be offering a service that you value, but she is operating outside of the scope of practice of the doula professional.
All doulas provide information, emotional support, and comfort measures such as massage, hydrotherapy, and enhanced relaxation. Doulas enjoy providing attention to expectant parents and getting to know their clients prenatally. By the time you go into labor, your doula has become a trusted friend and mentor. During labor and birth, doulas feel privileged to be present and helping at such a sacred and joyful event. Postpartum doulas simply love hanging out with new moms and their babies! Your doula is there to support you in your choices and to provide concrete physical and logistical support. Doulas do not take the place of dads, partners, or other family members who want to help you. Their job is to facilitate everyone’s optimal participation at your birth, as well as to provide support to the entire family through the postpartum recovery and adjustment period. If you are a single mother, your doula can serve as your primary support person so that you are never left alone in labor.
A selection of services provided by birth doulas
- Nutritional counseling
- Tips for coping with discomforts of pregnancy
- Preparation for birth
- Assistance in creating a birth plan
- Support at home in early labor
- Comfort measures in labor
- Massage
- Suggestions and support for positioning in labor
- Continuous support throughout labor and birth
- Troubleshooting for difficult births
- Facilitate communication and informed decision making with your health care providers
- Support for dads and partners
- Natural birth coach and advocate
- Support for VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean)
- Cesarean and post-cesarean support
- Respect for the bond between mom and baby in those tender early hours
- Encouragement and skilled support to breastfeed
- Postpartum home visit(s)
- Community resources and referrals
A selection of services provided by postpartum doulas
- Breastfeeding support
- Newborn care
- Comfort measures and support for the mother’s physical recovery
- Shopping, errands, meal preparation
- Laundry, light cleaning, household organization (not housecleaning)
- Sibling adjustment support (not babysitting or nanny services)
- Depression screening and referrals
- Education on infant topics
- Community resources and referrals
Shifts worked by postpartum doulas vary. Some may do overnights, others may stick to the weekday hours when their children are in school, and so on. Expect a typical shift to be from three to four hours, though some doulas may work an eight-hour day. There are no rules – it is up to you and your doula. Typically, support is more concentrated in the first two weeks and then gradually the family weans off of doula support. However, in special circumstances such as multiples, preemies, babies with special needs, or moms suffering from postpartum depression, postpartum doulas may be involved over a longer period of time.
Before hiring a postpartum doula, consider whether or not you are really seeking a nanny for your other children or house cleaning help. If those are your primary motivations, then you should hire a nanny or house cleaner and will probably come out better financially by doing so. Another option may be to start out with a doula for the first couple of weeks while mom is recovering physically, adjusting emotionally, and may be in need of breastfeeding support, and then transition towards hiring a nanny later (say, in the case of twins or multiples).
What is a certified doula?
A certified doula is one has chosen to complete a certification process through a doula or childbirth association such as DONA International, Association of Labor Assistants and Childbirth Educators (ALACE), and others. While certification processes differ, certification generally means that a person has: (1) completed a proscribed training program, (2) documented a minimum level of hands-on experience with positive client evaluations, (3) completed reading requirements, (4) agreed to work within the Scope of Practice as defined by the certifying organization, and (5) paid her membership and certification processing fees. The process certainly guarantees a minimum level of training and experience for providing doula services. It is an effort to professionalize the traditional role of the female support person at birth and during postpartum.
Is certification important?
It depends upon who you ask. From the consumer perspective, good worth of mouth in the community, or a recommendation from a trusted friend trumps certification any day. Certification is no guarantee that your doula encompasses the personal qualities of patience, humor, compassion, integrity . . .
Some insurance companies may reimburse for doula services. Ask your doula if any of her clients have been successful in getting reimbursement or partial reimbursement for her services. As the doula profession grows, we expect increased success for insurance reimbursement and if/when this happens, it is likely that certification will be required.
What are the benefits of doula support?
There have now been several studies on the benefits of continuous labor support on labor and birth outcomes. Laboring women who are supported by doulas have lower c-section rates, lower instrumental delivery (forceps and vacuum extraction) rates, and are less likely to use epidurals or pain medication than women who do not have doula support. These women also have shorter labors, have more positive childbirth experiences overall, and are more likely to breastfeed. Furthermore, the newborns of these women have higher 1-minute and 5-minute Apgar scores.
Postpartum doulas can have a strong impact on early parenting success. The evidence shows that women who use a postpartum doula have increased rates of breastfeeding, decreased rates of postpartum depression, decreased incidence of maternal re-hospitalization for complications postpartum, a stronger bond with their newborns, greater self-confidence in their parenting abilities, and increased understanding of newborn care.
Is it appropriate to have a doula if my partner will be at the birth?
Yes! The doula’s role includes supporting the laboring woman and supporting her partner. Your doula should be able to work alongside your partner and/or other family members and show him/her/them how to best support you. If you and your partner have taken childbirth classes, the doula can remind you of techniques you learned in class and provide guidance through the physical and emotional challenges of labor support. Your doula can provide your partner with breaks, facilitate communication with your care providers, and, in short, be an excellent addition to your birth team.
Is a doula appropriate if I have an epidural?
Yes! Many women are unsure of whether they will want an epidural (or know they will want one) prior to going into labor. While you should ask your doula if she is comfortable working with women who choose a medicated birth, the role of the doula is not to critique your birth choices but rather to support you and ensure that your wishes are respected. A doula can improve your chances of having an unmedicated birth if that is what you prefer, but she should also be able to provide you with non-judgmental emotional and physical support in the context of a medicated birth. Women who choose to use an epidural during labor can especially benefit from a doula during the pushing stage, as this stage can take longer for medicated births due to the decreased physical sensations intrinsic to the use of epidurals. In addition, because the medications used often make mothers and babies drowsy, it is extremely helpful to have a doula during the immediate postpartum period so that she can support early breastfeeding efforts. Epidurals provide pain relief, not emotional support!
Is a doula appropriate if I am having a planned cesarean birth?
Yes! Although women having planned cesareans do not experience labor in the same way as women planning natural births, a doula can still be helpful to prepare you for the experience. Your doula can help you learn about the choices that you have in the context of a cesarean birth and can also provide emotional support before, during, and after the surgery. Because recovery from a cesarean often takes longer and is more complex than recovery from a vaginal birth, a doula can be an asset to parents during the postpartum period. A postpartum doula can help with newborn care, provide breastfeeding support, prepare meals, and help take care of your home while you recover from surgery.
Charlie’s Story
Read the story of one mother who received postpartum doula support from the Doulas Care program.
Our Programs for Parents
The Center for the Childbearing Year offers a comprehensive selection of classes and cutting-edge resources designed to help you have the best possible birth experience and ease you through the early weeks of caring for your newborn baby. We provide an environment that encourages a sense of community with other expectant couples and new parents. Support groups, lending library, and ongoing opportunities for you to enhance your family’s health through education are available. Learn more about the values that inform our programs.
Birth Balls
$25
This 65cm green exercise or “birth” ball comes with its own pump. Birth balls encourage rhythmic movement in labor and can be used to support the laboring mother in a variety of positions. Infants enjoy being bounced on the balls as a comfort measure (better than a rocking chair!) and toddlers love to play with them. Makes a great gift for the pregnant woman, doula, or midwife in your life!
Steps to Becoming a Volunteer
- Complete Birth or Postpartum Doula Training (available through the Center for the Childbearing Year). If you have already completed doula training through another organization, simply provide evidence that this is the case.
- Sign up for and attend the Volunteer Orientation. Once you have completed this free training, you will be registered as a volunteer in the program and will be eligible to receive client referrals.
- Register for and attend the Outreach Worker Training as soon as possible after becoming a volunteer with the program.
Volunteer Orientation Schedule for 2008
VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION, Part I
Thursday, 6:30-9:30pm
April 24, June 12, or September 25
This free three-hour training will introduce you to the Doulas Care Program and prepare you to begin to receive client referrals. You will meet the staff who administer the program, as well as other volunteer doulas. You will learn how the referral process works, how to use program forms with your clients, how to access community resources, how to screen for depression, and the overall policies and procedures for volunteers. Beverages and snacks are provided. You will also receive your customized Doulas Care tote bag, nametag, and Orientation Manual for attending this training.
OUTREACH WORKER TRAINING, Part II
Saturday, 8:30am-5pm
May 3 or November 15
This full-day free training focuses on issues of risk and other challenges of working as a volunteer for Doulas Care. Volunteers must attend this training at the earliest opportunity after completing the initial orientation session. We will cover: the doula’s role regarding medical and social risks, domestic violence awareness, values clarification, cultural competency and the needs of unique groups, establishing boundaries with clients, postpartum depression, and more. Breakfast and lunch are provided. You will also receive a customized Doulas Care t-shirt for attending this training.