How Out of Hospital Birth is like the Mass

Ep. 12: Update & Where to get the "Catholic Birth Preferences" Guide!

Just an update on what Jenny has been doing the last few months....she is starting a new doula agency, Parish Doulas! Please pray for her and the doulas she has hired, and that they continue to keep Christ at the center of their work. In the meantime, Jenny has officially published the "Catholic Birth Preferences" Guide! You can get it at the link in her bio on her Instagram page: @Jenny_The_Doula or HERE [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SmaNvdSGsAw_COmJ-DZe-2XDS2JhavZS/view?usp=sharing]. Please feel free to share with anyone who may be birthing at a Catholic hospital (remember they do not have to be Catholic to use it) or if they are Catholic and birthing at a secular hospital, it may help them with their birth plan there. God bless!

Ep. 11 What would a "Catholic Birth Plan" look like?

Choosing your birth preferences and reminding the hospital of their mission statement can make your birth a reverent and sacred event, no matter how your birth unfolds: whether is natural or medicated, surgical or vaginal, birth should be and can be sacred for all of us. In this episode, Jenny goes through what a "Catholic Birth Plan" would look like, but she prefers to use the words "Birth Preferences". Using the ERDs, ACOG Committee Opinions, and hospital policy guidelines, Jenny has prepared a document that you can use to create your own vision for a sacred birth. To get the document, you can either DM her or go to her Instagram page @Jenny_the_Doula and her link in bio to get a free copy!

Ep. 10: What is Scientific Motherhood?

In this episode, Jenny talks about Scientific Motherhood, which is the belief that women need the scientific advice of experts and physicians to birth and parent their children, instead of using their intuition and generational knowledge passed down over time. That Scientific Motherhood is just another form of Scientism, a belief system that purports that science should be applied to everyday aspects of our lives. In our pursuit of knowledge in the science of our bodies, we left our faith behind, when in fact the two are inseparable. Science and faith should go together, not separately. Instead, we have broken our bodies down into its parts; and that over time, we have reached a point where we are hurting mothers and babies rather than helping them. Statistics show our outcomes are worse, and almost half of all women report having some sort of trauma from their birthing experiences. We are at a crossroads in health care, where we need to fully bring in the sacred and add it to the safety of providing health care to women in the birthing process. Make birth both safe and sacred again! In the next episode, Jenny will be speaking to resources we can all use to discuss our birth preferences (some call it a birth plan) with our care providers.

How Out of Hospital Birth is like the Mass

We all know birth is a very sacred moment; but in today's birth world, navigating faith and the birth system together can be difficult. In this episode, Jenny speaks to the contrast in birth environments - out of hospital birth vs hospital birth (not to pit them against each other!). The sacredness of birth is what is missing in our current day and age. Just like our marriage is a sacred moment, carefully planned and full of meaning and people we love, so too should our births be! Birth is similar to the Mass in many ways as Jenny explains. However, in our current system we have degraded the mother, treated the baby as unintelligent, and dismissed the Father's role in birth, shoving him aside as an observer rather than a full participant (participant can have different meanings and levels too depending on the needs of the family). The ultimate lesson here is that we as mothers and famlies can and should demand better care. That we should demand excellent care, rather than just the standard/lowest bar of mere survival.

VBACs should be a priority for families and society

Vaginal Birth After Cesareans (VBAC) are still not a common occurrence in the United States. Why? Cesareans are life saving, but overused and have many negative impacts on mothers, babies, families and society. In this podcast Jenny discusses the history of c sections, the challenges in discussing such a sensitive topic and having non-judgemental conversations. She speaks on why we should be concerned about the primary c section rate increasing and why VBACs should be a priority in our country rather than care providers and family members deterring them. The Evidence on VBAC [https://evidencebasedbirth.com/ebb-113-the-evidence-on-vbac/] Why the Cesarean Rate Matter to the Church by Mary Haseltine [https://www.madeforthisbirth.net/post/cesarean-rate]