Monthly Archives: June 2015

How you grow your family is YOUR climb

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Today was a day that will forever go down in history as a step forward for human rights.

Today is a day that our friends, family and clients will look back on and remember where they were and when they saw the news. (Most will probably say Facebook)

Today our news feeds were FILLED with rainbows and celebration for Marriage Equality.

Today we smiled and shed tears for those that we care about in our personal and business lives who are greatly affected by what today means for them.

Today the team at Colorado Mountain Doulas celebrates with the world. We celebrate the love, the marriage, and the babies to come!

Tomorrow we will be there when our clients call and tell us they are pregnant.

Tomorrow we will be the shoulder to cry on when the IVF or In Vitro doesn’t work for our friends and family.

Tomorrow we will be photographing pregnant bodies and births of babies.

Tomorrow we will be teaching labor techniques and coping skills to birthing people, partners, surrogates and intended parents.

Tomorrow we will be physically, mentally and emotionally supporting families of all shapes and sizes through the most important day of their lives. The day they add a new little being to their family.

Tomorrow we will lift up our clients and help them to find their own power and their own voice no matter how they are growing their families.

Tomorrow we will NOT judge. We will not shame. We will not disapprove. We will be nothing but loving and compassionate and professional.

Tomorrow, from our Christian, Humanist, Wiccan, Mormon, Catholic and Agnostic backgrounds, we will be here, supporting YOU and your growing family no matter how you decide to do it. We know that it is all done in love.

Jenn Leonard
A passion for helping families to make educated decisions about their families and their birth choices has lead Jenn to become a great source of information for many across the country. She has been educating families on their choices and guiding them to find their own voice in maternity care since 2002.

Jenn is a certified Labor Doula, beginning her studies with CAPPA, taking many additional trainings along the way and is recertifying with ProDoula in 2015. She is also a trained childbirth educator and Postpartum Doula teaching childbirth preparation classes, and also creating her own curriculum for a pre and early pregnancy workshop focused on families who are just beginning to plan for a family, into the 2nd trimester.

Today Jenn is the Co-owner of Colorado Mountain Doulas LLC, providing the community with much needed education, local resources, sibling, postpartum, and labor Doula services.

When she is not guiding families through their birthing year, Jenn is living in Black Forest, CO with her husband and two children on their hobby farm.

http://codoulas.com

Not My Baby On Board Part2

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When last we talked, I told you about how I’d been matched with a nice couple from the East Coast. Now I’ll tell you all about how we met, in this segment called “How I met your Surrogate”. I really think CBS stole the title from me, but I could be wrong.

I have to back track a little again to get everything set up for you.

One of the steps in becoming a surrogate is that the future oven (me), and all future ovens, have to fill out a profile, very much like a famous social networking site.

In filling out the profile, I had to answer all of the standard questions you’d find such as “Where do you live?”; “Do you have children?”; “Why do you want to become a surrogate?”; “Who is your favorite Star Wars character?” You know, all the standard questions.

For those of you wondering, my answer to that last question (an answer that still makes my husband shake his head in disbelief), is Jar Jar Binks. (Seriously, my husband is shaking his head and muttering “WHY?” under his breath as I type this).

Now, you’d think that saying something like “I love Jar-Jar” or “sometimes Mommy needs a stiff drink” would automatically disqualify me from becoming a surrogate, but nope. In the end I think my honesty in saying that Yes, I really do love my kids, but sometimes I still need a tall cold beer or a nice dirty martini, helped the IPs in choosing me to be the oven for their bun. Not only did they get to see my profile, but I got to see theirs. Once I saw their profile, I knew that we were going to be a good match.

After talking it out with my husband, and deciding that I had found my match, it was time to meet the IPs face to face.

Now, seeing how this is the 21st century, meeting face to face no longer means having to travel half way across the country and be a nervous wreck when the meeting finally takes place.

Now there’s Skype. Now you get to be a nervous wreck at home.

I had that feeling….that pit in your stomach awkwardness that comes with a first date.

The plan was for me, Darci, and the IPs to talk to each other, using Darci as the “mutual friend” who set up the biggest blind date any of us had ever been on. Like all blind dates, things didn’t work out as planned.

Sadly I’m not the best at Skyping, so even though I was in the comfort of my own home, I couldn’t get my end to work. I’m really not good with these computer contraptions believe it or not.

We couldn’t get Darci to dial in so we had to go it alone, just me and the IPs.

Remember all that nervous wreck stuff I talked about before? Yep, it was there, times a million! I wasn’t in full blown I-think-I’m-gonna-throw-up nervous wreck mode, but I definitely wasn’t cool-as-the-other-side-of-the-pillow either.

The good news is, it went really well. We talked, and talked some more. Babies, families, vacations, upbringings, and the future were just some of out topics. I told ya, first date, right? After almost two hours (longer than I thought), the call, sadly came to an end.

The next step was that both parties had to confirm with Darci, that yes, they were right for me and I was right for them. I was itching to tell Darci how eager I was to help make the intended parents dream come true but they beat me to it!

Minutes after the call ended I got a text from Darci “THEY LOVED YOU!”

Whew. Next up: the medical steps involved in becoming a surrogate.

Lauren
Working with families has been Lauren’s passion for over ten years. Her tremendous work ethic and devotion to helping parents has made her a must have in the birth setting, postpartum, and beyond.
Lauren serves her community as an educator, via postpartum planning curriculum and as a Labor and Postpartum Doula. She has a certification in breastfeeding counseling and started her training with DONA; being mentored by established Doulas in Colorado Springs. Lauren is now a professional member of ProDoula and a pre-certified Labor and Postpartum Doula. Lauren will be taking additional training in placenta encapsulation and business by the end of the Summer.

Paving the way, Lauren is the Co‐owner of Colorado Mountain Doulas LLC provides the community with much needed education, local resources, sibling, postpartum, and labor Doula services.

Lauren is the mother of two young children, and has been married since 2008. She loves to cook and entertain for her friends and family in her home in Colorado Springs.

http://coloradomountaindoulas.com

Interview with Dr. Kurt Perkins DC CCWP FMT

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The first time I every heard Dr. Kurt speak, it was at a Birth Network meeting at the local library. The topic was on vaccines, a highly controversial topic to begin with, and one that Dr. Kurt is not only well versed in, but well known FOR as well.

The thing that stood out to me immediately was the logic of his talk. He didn’t speak specifically FOR or AGAINST, but rather to the numbers of the studies and to the way vaccines work and the ways that they don’t work. It’s something that is hard to come by when researching vaccinations, and it hit home with me.

As a doula, we respect ALL the choices our clients make for their families and I felt like, from Dr. Kurt I was getting a great view of the whole picture, rather than one side or the other.

The first time I actually met Dr. Kurt was when he came to talk to our local doula professional development group, PPRDA, here in the Springs. His focus was primarily on nutrition and fertility and the many ways in which families (both parents) can vastly improve their health and their outcomes for their pregnancies well before they are even pregnant.

Because Pre & Early Pregnancy Preparation is an important part of the education I provide as part of our agency, I knew Dr. Kurt is someone our agency would work closely with in the future.

You can find Dr. Kurt at his new location on N. Nevada at Dr. Kurt’s Place: Functional Chiropractic and Lifestyle Medicine.

Dr. Kurt’s Place gives off a modern yet welcoming vibe when you walk in the door. Cool wall graphics catch your attention and make you want to read about functional medicine and chiropractic care. It’s fun and informative.

How long have you been in this business?

I have been in the professional setting for 10 years. I graduated from New York Chiropractic College in 2004 and did a short term associate position in California before locating to Colorado. I’ve been in Colorado since November 2005.

You have two children, with one on the way. How do you feel you best help families in their birthing year?

How I help families during the birthing year is being an Energy Broker. With functional chiropractic, the main objective is to make sure the nervous system is efficient, not just for mom’s needs, but also the baby. The baby’s nervous system will mirror what mom’s is doing. If mom is always on the gas pedal side of life, this uses up unnecessary energy stores that could be going towards fetal development. Strategies can include regular chiropractic care, custom supplementation, and lifestyle medicine. Some use one service, some use multiple. It’s not an all or nothing approach.

So do you have a specific area you focus on?

In this world of specializing, I look at myself as more of a super generalist. 30-35% of my clinic is kids. The rest are adults looking for solutions to problems that they have been told, ‘there’s nothing more we can do for you,’ but the majority are families that I have been taking care of on a regular basis for years. Though I recommend they maintain a relationship with a traditional MD, many use me as their primary doc. I do quite a bit of functional lab analysis on top of the chiropractic. What usually enters my door for the first time are women, ages 28-45, with a chronic issue like hypothyroidism that are looking for a non-drug approach to health expression.

What do you like best about living in Colorado?

Being from NY State, what I love about Colorado is the low to no humidity, the rare occurrences of mosquitoes, and knowing that the sun will come out tomorrow. Annie must have been singing about Colorado. I think another cool thing about Colorado is that it seems most people are transplants. This is great in my line of work because I get to interact with people that often times have a cool story. People are so interesting, you just have to shut up and listen sometimes.

Dr. Kurt is currently working on a book, to be self published this Fall about leadership in health. He has been blogging for 5 years at www.DrKurtPerkins.com but recently switched over to his new site www.MoreHealthLessHealthCare.com.

Jenn Leonard
A passion for helping families to make educated decisions about their families and their birth choices has lead Jenn to become a great source of information for many across the country. She has been educating families on their choices and guiding them to find their own voice in maternity care since 2002.

Jenn is a certified Labor Doula, beginning her studies with CAPPA, taking many additional trainings along the way and is recertifying with ProDoula in 2015. She is also a trained childbirth educator and Postpartum Doula teaching childbirth preparation classes, and also creating her own curriculum for a pre and early pregnancy workshop focused on families who are just beginning to plan for a family, into the 2nd trimester.

Today Jenn is the Co-owner of Colorado Mountain Doulas LLC, providing the community with much needed education, local resources, sibling, postpartum, and labor Doula services.

When she is not guiding families through their birthing year, Jenn is living in Black Forest, CO with her husband and two children on their hobby farm.

http://codoulas.com
Getting pregnant without using drugs or intervention

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5 Easy Ways to Increase Your Fertility (Without Drugs)

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Growing your family isn’t always simple or quick. While some couples find that they can get pregnant without much effort, others have to put lots of time, money, and stress into getting pregnant. Before you invest in complicated fertility testing or expensive doctor visits, try these tips to increase your chances of conceiving:

  1. Be as healthy as possible

Quit smoking, get enough exercise and sleep, and reduce caffeine intake to 2 cups of coffee or less. Work to maintain a healthy weight, ideally at 20-30 BMI for women. If your partner is male, have him switch to boxers instead of briefs while you are trying to conceive (it can take several months for this to work, however).

  1. Learn to understand your body’s ovulation (egg releasing) cues

There are several clues that a your body is approaching its fertile days each month:

  • basal body temperature
  • the position of the cervix
  • the quality and the quantity of cervical fluid

While there are ways to monitor these 3 signs, it is usually easiest to notice the cervical fluid that appears on the toilet paper throughout the day. Typically, cervical fluid will become more slippery and elastic as the most fertile time approaches.

For more detailed information about cervical fluid and how it affects your fertility, read more here. To learn even more about your monthly cycle and how your hormones impact fertility, Fertility Friend offers free online educational courses.

  1. Have intercourse at least once during the 2 days prior to and the day of ovulation.

When you know you are about to ovulate, you need to be sure to have intercourse (or inseminate with sperm) during this 3-day window. Many people ovulate around the 14th day of their cycle, but there are others who do not. By watching your fertility signs, you will be able to predict more easily when you will ovulate. The convenience and simplicity of ovulation predictor kits (OPK’s) can be helpful if you don’t mind peeing on a stick once or twice a day. It can be a good tool to help determine when you will be ovulating. For more information about timing of intercourse, read Fertility Friend’s article here.

  1. Give your body lots of chances for pregnancy during ovulation

Some old wives’ tales warn against having sex too often during the fertile window, claiming that it can reduce sperm count. The reality is that for healthy couples with normal sperm, frequent intercourse or insemination will only increase the likelihood of pregnancy. If you and your partner can commit to at least once per day during the 3-day fertile window, that’s okay too. Do what you can to be sure that you have an orgasm each time, as that can increase the chances of conception as well.

  1. Use a fertility charting app or program to become familiar with your body’s patterns

I am a big fan of Fertility Friend, but there are other fertility charting programs out there to choose from. Once you have determined your patterns, you are much more likely to catch the egg during your fertile window, and even more likely to get pregnant! In addition, if you find that you still are not pregnant after 6 months of actively trying, you will want to talk to your care provider and show them your fertility data.

Although getting pregnant can sometimes seem like a job with uncontrollable variables, you can rest easy knowing that these tips will give you the best chances of conceiving without intervention. Good luck growing your family!

Sarah
Sarah is a birth and postpartum doula who provides services through Colorado Mountain Doulas. She is a La Leche League leader, a volunteer with her local babywearing group, church choir member, and mother to two young children. Sarah enjoys cooking, reading, and music.
http://www.florabirthservices.com

Not My Baby On Board Part1

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Let’s put it out there, I’m going to be a surrogate. The road to this decision was not an easy one. There was lots of going back and forth, both with myself and my husband (who is awesome) as well as a ton of research including such questions as:

How do I become a surrogate? How do I pick the intended parents? Do they pick me? Is it a combo of both? What’s the infield fly rule?

Like I said, lots of important questions. This is the road that I’ve taken (so far) to become a surrogate. It’s not so much a straight road like “I’m-running-down-the-block-to-hit-the-red-box” kind of road, but more of the “let’s-drive-half-way-across-the-country-without-knowing-where-we’re-going” kind of road. It’s going to take some time, so please bear with me.

A little back ground info on me before we get too far ahead of ourselves.

My name is Lauren Silk. I’m married to a totally awesome guy with whom we have two totally awesome kiddos. I’m also co-owner Colorado Mountain Doulas, a doula agency based here in Colorado Springs. My first child birthing experience was in a hospital and, for me, wasn’t that great. My second was at Mountain Midwifery Birth Center, and was, again for me, amazing. It was during my second pregnancy that I started to become interested in becoming a doula. This was to become a major moment for me as it then lead me to not only become a doula, but start my own company.

It was after a prenatal visit with one of our clients, that I mentioned to my business partner that I was interested in becoming a surrogate. An oven for someone else’s bun, as it were. This was the first time that I’d ever said this out loud to anybody. Not too long after that I worked up the courage to tell my husband.

Now, I don’t know what I was expecting when I told him, but I don’t think I was expecting him to be as cool with it as he was. I thought that there was going to be a big debate about it. There wasn’t. And while we did have conversations about what was going to happen later, the big debate I was expecting just never happened. Here’s what did:

Once I decided that I wanted to be a surrogate and told my husband, the next step was finding out HOW to become one. I was pretty sure that the local Chase branch didn’t do those kind of “deposits”. I did some research, and by research I mean I Googled “Surrogacy Agencies in Colorado”. I found one that I thought would work, but in the end, it didn’t work out. After that, becoming a surrogate kind of took a back seat to life for a little while; but not for long.

Only a few months later I was contacted by a private party as well as a nice lady named Darci from Silver Linings, an agency that finds surrogates for intended parents. After talking it over with my husband, I decided to go with the agency, mainly because they would take care of most of the work involved.

 

After getting contacted about becoming a surrogate, the next step in the process was sending off my medical records to make sure that there hadn’t been any previous complications with my births. Check, check, check, and then not even 24 hours later, I was notified that there might be a match for me with a nice couple from the East Coast.

Next I’d meet the intended parents, for whom I’d be carrying their baby. Whoa that happened fast! Stay tuned I’ll tell ya all about it.

Lauren
Working with families has been Lauren’s passion for over ten years. Her tremendous work ethic and devotion to helping parents has made her a must have in the birth setting, postpartum, and beyond.
Lauren serves her community as an educator, via postpartum planning curriculum and as a Labor and Postpartum Doula. She has a certification in breastfeeding counseling and started her training with DONA; being mentored by established Doulas in Colorado Springs. Lauren is now a professional member of ProDoula and a pre-certified Labor and Postpartum Doula. Lauren will be taking additional training in placenta encapsulation and business by the end of the Summer.

Paving the way, Lauren is the Co‐owner of Colorado Mountain Doulas LLC provides the community with much needed education, local resources, sibling, postpartum, and labor Doula services.

Lauren is the mother of two young children, and has been married since 2008. She loves to cook and entertain for her friends and family in her home in Colorado Springs.

http://coloradomountaindoulas.com