Ripening - Birth Doula and Prenatal Educator

07/26/2021

Greetings from Dori and Melissa! These two doulas are taking our “off-call” summer pretty serious as we recoup and re-energize for the coming fall birth season. Look at this happy camp-life! 🤩😌 ⛺️ 🚐❤️

Hoping to hire a doula for your birth? Give me a call, email or DM if you’d like to set up an interview with us down-to-earth, experienced doulas. 🙂

We have some limited space for late Sept-early Dec, and are now starting interviews for 2022.

Hope you’re having a beautiful summer!

01/16/2021

Not what you planned. Big love from your caring doula.

This is not what you had planned. This is not what you’d envisioned. There are no visits from friends, no loving doula bringing you soup, no “mommy and me” yoga classes, no coffee dates, no stroller walks through the park. There is empty space where you had planned comfort and company. There are long days with no one but your little one to talk to and this big transition to navigate all alone.

I know it’s lonely, mama. I know the walls of your house feel tight and the days feel so long, and you crave a warm hand on your knee and the soft embrace of a friend. You wish for someone by your side to marvel at this beautiful baby of yours and to wrap an arm around you when the feelings get too big and scary.

We were never meant to do this alone. Motherhood has never been a solitary sport. And yet here we are, in this odd chapter of isolation and distance, with no choice but to do it by ourselves.

But mama, know this- We are alone. Together. You are surrounded all the other mothers who are navigating this tender time in isolation. You are held by all of us who have walked the path before you and who know how much you must be hurting. You are wrapped in the warm embrace of mama earth, as she too settles into this time of slowness and healing.

This too shall pass. And when it does, hugs and coffee dates and visits from friends will taste so much sweeter. Soft kisses on your cheek and arms around your waist and gentle laughter in your ear will be the joyful medicine after this trying time.

Until then, hunker down mama. Find the coziest, warmest spot on your couch, sink into the pile of unfolded laundry, and sleep the Spring away, with that sweet babe warm on your chest.

Reposted from ❤

12/14/2020

Hi folks! Well 2020 has been quite the year. Talk about a doula learning-curve!!

Whether it’s been adapting to Zoom for interviews and prenatal visits, or juggling the work/family balance, or staying up to date on protocol to support clients for home and hospital during this pandemic, or in the work of figuring out how to transform classes to online formats, or really recognizing and teaching the importance of informed decision making processes (especially during this pandemic!), or so much more!... doulas continue to do our best in helping folks navigate the precious and unpredictable time of pregnancy and postpartum.

Through it all, my partner Melissa and I have had the joy and privilege of supporting many families into parenthood in 2020!!

To all of the families we’ve worked with this past year, it’s been a heck of an honor to walk with you. You’ve taught us so much about navigating pregnancy through all kinds of tests and blessings, with incredible resilience and heart.

For the families hiring us in 2021- thank you for inviting us in! We can’t wait to get to know you and support you.

I know I’m a couple weeks early, but I’m ready for 2021! This is an exciting year ahead Melissa and I, as we are celebrating 5 years of partnership! One of the dearest people I know, Melissa has been a doula for almost 10 years, and she was the inspiration and motivation for me getting into this work over 8 1/2years ago. Best!!

My Wish and Blessings to all: whatever the hard work that we are navigating- I hope that we turn to each other with kindness and compassion, and that we challenge ourselves to connect to the pain of life, and that we ask ourselves what it means to dig deep, deeper still, and to give birth to that which is growing inside of each of us.

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and Blessed Solstice in the days ahead.

Stay safe. I’m rooting for you. ❤️❤️

07/24/2020

Hi folks! I’m so excited to talk with Michelle Tyliakos from Transforming Birth about a big passion of mine- true holistic care in childbirth. I’ll be sharing my work about spirituality and childbirth, and specifically the role Doulas can play in supporting and protecting qualities of spirituality during childbirth. Join us next Wednesday at 1pm PST!

Dori Luthy-Harrison has been supporting families in Vancouver area as a birth doula for over 8 years, and teaching prenatal classes for 5 1/2 years as a trained instructor. In that time she has witnessed the importance of spiritual care in this powerful life transformation, leading her to a path dedicated more centrally to the spiritual nature of human experiences. In 2018, Dori began a Masters Degree in Spiritual Care at the Vancouver School of Theology, to become a Chaplain/Spiritual Care Practitioner. The link in her life between these two kinds of work, Spiritual Care and Birth-work, has more than anything revealed the significant gap in spiritual care during the powerful event of Childbirth. Dori is pursuing this topic further both in her birth-work, and in research/writing, and hopes to bring greater awareness and urgency to the protection of the spirituality of childbirth, and the critical role doulas can play in this care.

Join Dori Harrison and I as we explore questions about spiritual care.

🔹️What do we understand about current gaps in care?
🔹️With evidence supporting the positive outcomes doulas offer, how does this kind of research and connection to Spiritual Care potentially help establish doulas as a cohesive and valued role in the birth care team?
🔹️What about the spiritual nature of birth should birthing families be aware of?

See you all on Wednesday July 29 over in Transforming Birth!

05/07/2020

Hey peeps! This is my first major (& awkward, & long) attempt at documenting a bit about what is in my heart as I move through this world: Artist and doula meet spiritual care.

The questions for me: what do I want to be witness to in this time? What do I think is important about the work of being human?

Sorry the video is so long. (Wine.)

(Inspired by pushing me to lighten up in perfectionist tendencies and take a risk.)

05/07/2020

This is a shout out of love and respect to some of the hardest working people I know- MIDWIVES! And a bit of education about their skills, commitment, and conscientious role in births. Amazing to see one of Pomegranate Midwives in this film! It’s an honour to work along side midwives!

This is "Canadian Association of Midwives: Vancouver" by Tessa Giffen on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

05/01/2020

To our Vancouver birthing families. An article of reassurance and encouragement from the PHSA newsletter. ❤

***

The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the way people live their lives and for women who are pregnant, it can mean a whole new level of worry.

At BC Women's Hospital + Health Centre we hear questions like, "Could the virus harm my baby?" "Could it harm me?"

"Can my partner or doula even be there for the birth?"

"That last question is the number one question I get in my office," says BC Women's Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Chelsea Elwood. "We're very patient and family centred. We support having one support person in the labour room, plus a doula in their care team, because we think that's a hugely important part of the birth process."

COVID-19 is a viral disease, but so far, research shows pregnant women are not more susceptible than the rest of the public.

"Pregnant women are not shown to be more infected with the virus," says Elwood. "They seem to be actually, potentially, less infected with the virus or the same as the general population."

With other viruses like influenza, pregnant women can get sicker than non-pregnant women so our teams are watching closely for this with COVID-19, but so far no studies have confirmed this.

"The vast majority of pregnant women experience very mild disease," says Elwood. "There will be a portion, like any part of the population, where they have more severe disease, but for the most part, it's actually quite mild."

Pregnant women in their first or second trimester and have flu or COVID-19 symptoms, are encouraged to get tested for COVID-19. Women in their third trimester should be tested for the virus. Public COVID-19 testing sites can be found here.

If you are pregnant and waiting for COVID-19 test results, seek urgent care if you experience one of the following changes in your health:

• If it becomes harder to breathe

• If you can't drink anything

• If you feel very unwell

• If you show signs of going into labour

If you have suspected or confirmed COVID-19, you and your support person will be in isolation and care will be based on your symptoms. Anticipate continuous electronic fetal monitoring during labour to assess your baby's well-being. Our aim will be to keep you and baby together, if at all possible, after birth. Skin-to-skin contact, delayed cord clamping and breastfeeding are considered safe at this time. If you need to go to the operating room, further measures may be taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Your baby will be tested for COVID-19, but the chances of the virus transmitting from mother to baby are slim.

"Right now, we have no evidence that the virus is vertically transmitted to the baby," says Elwood. "This virus is similar to other respiratory viruses, which do not transmit to the fetus."

Patients who come to the hospital will find the entrances to BC Women's are limited to facilitate active screening. Women in labour can enter through Entrance 97, listed on this campus map. People will be met by a greeter at the entrance, who will remind them to wash their hands and wear a mask if they have any possible COVID-19 symptoms. The greeter will also advise people about the current visitor restrictions at BC Women's, which include no child visitors for labour and delivery patients. There will be extra precautionary measures visible, for instance, health-care workers are often wearing more personal protective equipment. Physical distancing measures are also in effect.

To protect yourself and your baby while in hospital and after you go home, the most important thing you can do to prevent COVID-19 and other illnesses is to clean your hands regularly and avoid touching your face. If you feel sick, wear a mask, especially while breastfeeding. Stay home as much as possible and if you must go out in public, keep yourself and your baby two metres from others.

"Those physical distancing measures that are in place, are actually quite beneficial for newborns," says Elwood. "Those are similar practices we recommended pre-COVID, including frequent hand-washing and not going to large gatherings with newborns."