American Mother’s Day is coming up, and while reflecting on motherhood I considered a recent development in the ecosphere regarding all-inclusive language. There are those who are advocating for more diversified terms regarding people who have babies, and there are those who are adamant that this language has the unintended consequence of erasing words like…
The end of March marked World Doula Week 2024, and it reminded me of how important doula care can be in making the fourth trimester a positive experience for new parents. A doula is someone who mothers the mother, whether it’s during the labor and delivery process or during the fourth trimester, when she offers…
Recently, during a podcast with @mymommymentor, we discussed how to avoid a traumatic birth experience, which is a workshop that I offer. The subject of medical consumerism came up, and it inspired me to write this blog about how to become a medical consumer when dealing with medical or health related issues. We don’t tend…
As a newly minted Somatic Attachment Therapist, I recently attended a Master Class on self-love as an embodied practice. What does that mean? Many of us find it hard to love ourselves, especially the ‘unlovable’ places within. Through our conditioning and our upbringing, we receive the message that we are not lovable, and that can…
Here’s a little nugget that I found in my upcoming book during the editing process. I thought it was important to share with fathers in the childbearing year. Fathers and Hormones* © Diane S Speier, PhD One of the most exciting developments in the last decade is the discovery that fathers go through natural hormonal…
This is an excerpt from my book – Life After Birth: A Parent’s Holistic Guide for Thriving in the Fourth Trimester now in press. It’s a bit long for a blog and I hope you enjoy it. If you do, please share your comments below. Postpartum W.E.L.L.N.E.S.S. Plan © Diane S Speier, PhD At the start of…
I recently received an email about dealing with disappointment, which often happens as the result of unmet expectations we have about how things should be or turn out. We can feel a range of emotions when we feel let down, by ourselves or by others. It’s a tough feeling to experience but it’s a natural…
I recently came across a post on Facebook that included a clip of a news program talking about birth in which instrumental deliveries were described as ‘natural childbirth’. There seems to be some confusion as to what natural childbirth is, and anything that is not a cesarean section is now labeled natural childbirth. And this…
Maternal representations, body images, and mothers’ real life experience. Birthlight Womb to World 2015 At the 2015 Birthlight Womb to World conference I spoke about postnatal bodies and the disparity between what the media says and women’s real life experience. When this conference theme was first announced publicly, I felt compelled to make a contribution…
“I know why you call it Birth Empowerment! I felt so empowered, elated, wonderful – I was on such a high”, exclaimed one of my clients when we spoke on the phone after her birth. This woman was the last client I taught birth preparation to before immigrating to the UK in 1998, and it…
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