From the WBWC Blog:

Events & Workshops

Partners to Parents Workshop

Are you afraid of losing connection with your partner after the baby arrives? Are you feeling overwhelmed by the transition to being a parent?  Learn how you and your partner can navigate the transition to parenthood with greater ease and connection in this  5 hour research-based relationship workshop. Learn skills and information that will help you cope successfully with the normal stresses of becoming a family.  This class will teach you how to: Increase friendship in their relationship. Deal effectively with conflict. Involve dads in infant care and parenting. Improve the quality of parent-infant interaction. Recognize the psychological and emotional needs of their child.  Be a sensitive and responsive parent.  This is a fun and impactful class. We cover a lot of information and give you time to implement what you learn throughout during exercises.  Included with your registration is a Partners to Parents Workbook (one per couple). Please plan to eat dinner before you come. Light refreshments will be provided. Class meets Saturday, 10/26 and Sunday, 10/27 from 6-8:30 PM Cost is $120/couple Register here Presenter: Ali Parnell (learn more: http://joyfulparenting.me/about/)

Funding Needed For Groundwater Approach Presentation

Dear WBWC supporters, We have a specific funding request and would love to give you the opportunity make a community investment. WBWC wants to further walk the walk of racial equity by hosting a “Groundwater Approach Presentation.”    We want to provide an on-site, one-day training with the Racial Equity Institute for WBWC staff and volunteers that will help us work harder to improve equity in our community. In an effort to stay focused on the structural and cultural roots of racial inequity, the racial equity institute developed the “Groundwater” metaphor and accompanying analytical framework to explain the nature of racism and it currently exists in the US.   https://www.racialequityinstitute.com/groundwaterapproach  Please help WBWC cover the costs associated with this important training by sponsoring a staff person’s training. It is $146/person and we have 41 folks on staff. Perhaps you want to help us train 3 staff for $438.   Click here to donate. In the “donation message” field please type Groundwater Training.  Thank you, Brianna Bennett, Business Director

Free Class: Your Pregnant Body/Your Postpartum Body

Introducing “Your Body” Series of FREE Classes developed by Dr. Lori O’Neill, PT, DPT from Vitality Physical Therapy, LLC. These 1 hour free classes are taught the first Sunday evening every month and include information not likely presented in any other  childbirth/parenting class on how to proactively optimize your transforming body during the childbearing years. Class highlights include: Your PREGNANT Body Strategies for encouraging baby positioning and why it matters The biomechanics of a birthing body Protection of vulnerable areas to prevent/relieve common pain patterns Proactive habits to optimize postpartum physical recovery Advantages and disadvantages of various delivery positions Your POSTPARTUM Body Immediate perineum care and scar healing (perineal and c-section) Protective movement strategies for the first month What is “normal” bowel/bladder/sexual functioning after birth? Breastfeeding implications to vulvar tissue and body mechanics Safe return to exercise recommendations including “core muscle” training Questions: www.VitalityPT.org Click here to register

New Class For WBWC Parents-To-Be

We are thrilled to be offering a new class for WBWC families having their first baby or first birth center birth! Great Expectations: Preparing for Your Birth Center Birth will cover topics including birth center routines, normal variations of labor, how to prepare at home, what to do in early labor, and more! The class is taught by 2 WBWC nurses who are also WBWC moms. There will be birth stories from WBWC parents, discussion, and plenty of time to get all your questions answered! First class: June 9, 4-6 PM in the Living Room (3rd Floor) Cost: $10/couple (free with Medicaid or Tricare) Class will be offered the 2nd Sunday of every month Register at https://ncbirthcenter.org/classes/register/ *This is a supplement to a childbirth course, NOT a comprehensive birthing class*

Let’s Celebrate Maureen!

After over 30 years of service and tireless dedication to midwifery, women’s health and the nonprofit community, Maureen Darcey has retired. Please help us honor Maureen as she receives the governor’s highest award, The Order of the Long Leaf Pine.  All are welcome to join us for a celebration at the Rigmor House on April 20th from 1-5 p.m. A buffet of NC BBQ and all the fixins’ will be served at 1:30 p.m. If you play, bring an instrument. If you sing, bring your voice. If you have a story to share, bring your memories. Love, hugs, and joy are the order of the day, and we expect to have them in abundance as we celebrate Maureen! You may also wish to make a tax-deductible donation to Women’s Birth and Wellness Center’s “Dorothy B. Sullivan Fund” as we carry on Maureen’s vision for our “home-grown, home-owned” practice serving women and families in our community. The “Dorothy B. Sullivan Fund” is an endowment named after Maureen’s mother which directly helps the birth center continue to provide its invaluable services. You can donate now by clicking here. Thank you so much for your support! View the Evite

Hormone Madness

Future workshops will feature a deeper dive into herbal allies, traditional therapies for women’s healing, coping strategies for the mental and mood challenges of changing hormones, the power of women’s circles and healing, spiritual practices  that support women’s health and healing, modern shamanism as a healing tool, sexuality/libido and hormones… and other topics by popular request. Look for some great guest speakers as well!  Womyn, this is for YOU, whatever age you are! We at WBWC recognize that childbearing is a “season” of a woman’s life. Women’s Birth & Wellness Center offers you the same kind, caring supportive midwifery to guide you through the life and health challenges a woman may face. Midwives are trained to be “With Women, for a Lifetime”! This is how HEALTHcare should be.  Come join us!

WBWC Sponsors Film Screening of “These Are My Hours”

Join us on Tuesday, October 16 from 7:30-9 PM for a screening of the birth documentary, These Are My Hours. These Are My Hours is an intimate sensory immersion into one woman’s physical, emotional and psychological experience of giving birth. It is the first documentary filmed entirely during a labor, told from the perspective of a woman giving birth. This documentary delivers the intimacy and intensity of childbirth as an expression of women’s empowerment in a way that reveals the special dignity of the event that ushers us all into life. The film will be followed by a panel discussion with filmmaker Scott Kirschenbaum and the featured mother, Emily Render Graham. WBWC is a sponsor of this event, which will take place at UNC’s Mandela Auditorium in the FedEx Global Education Center, located at 301 Pittsboro Street in Chapel Hill.   For more information, visit https://thesearemyhours.com/.

WBWC Celebrates World Breastfeeding Month!

By Rebecca Costello, IBCLC MPH   Our first celebration was for World Breastfeeding Week with a “Milk and Cookies” theme. Honeysuckle Tea House hosted our party and even made a special lactation tea blend for us! We had a great time drinking milk (babies), eating cookies (the rest of us), and jamming to music with Erica from Jammin Baby, LLC. It was a hot day, but we had a great time! Click here for the link to the Facebook album. Thank you so much to Sunshine Scoville for the beautiful photography!   Our second celebration was for Black Breastfeeding Week. Tracey, who you all know well from your visits in the lab, did an awesome job of coordinating this! Moms and their families made nursing necklaces, got gorgeous henna tattoos, enjoyed tasty snacks, and had breastfeeding portraits taken by the wonderful Sarah Stanley from Love at First Sight Photography. Check out our group shot above, and there are more photos to come – stay tuned to our Facebook page.   Thank you to everyone who helped with and attended these events – we had a great time celebrating with you and your sweet babies! We’re already looking forward to next year.  

RSVP for WBWC’s Annual Birthday Party

Join Women’s Birth & Wellness Center as we celebrate another year of births and the founding of WBWC, North Carolina’s longest-operating free-standing birth center. This year, we’ll be celebrating at Briar Chapel’s Great Meadow Park with games, music with Erica Berry of Jammin Baby, and cake for the whole family. Bring along a picnic blanket or chairs,and plan to stay and play at the playground and park. Come reunite and celebrate with your WBWC midwives, staff and other WBWC families. We love to see your babies as they grow! Please RSVP to let us know if you’re planning to attend to help us get an accurate head count for refreshments. Hope to see you there! Who is invited: Any current or past WBWC patients, families and staff Where: Great Meadow Park in Briar Chapel at the corner of Beacon Ridge Blvd and Salt Cedar Lane in Chapel Hill When: October 27, 2018, 2-4 PM

Tea with the Midwives

To celebrate Midwifery Week this year, WBWC will be hosting a tea in honor of our wonderful midwives. Please join us on Tuesday, October 2 from 4-6 PM in the Living Room (Suite 304) for tea, lemonade, and cookies with the WBWC midwives. Babies and kids are welcome!

The Power of Menopause

By Allison Koch, CNM How much do you know about the life transition we call Menopause? Menopause is what is known as a retrospective diagnosis. That means that women are defined as “in menopause” or “menopausal” when they have had no period for a full year. Women may go 10 or 11 months without a period, then have a period. We call that “peri-menopausal.” Once women have achieved Menopause, they are considered Post-Menopausal. In the USA, the average age of menopause is 51. Despite women’s shorter lifespan throughout history, age 51 has remained the average age of menopause for the past 300 years. Most women will experience some symptoms that make them aware that their bodies are changing, but few women that I have seen in my practice are aware that there are nearly 100 symptoms that may coincide with the menopausal transition. The hormones involved in the changes of menopause are likely to be estrogens and progesterone, but also could be DHEA, testosterone, or an imbalance in another body system brought on by changing hormones. Hormones are natural chemicals present in our bodies that interact with each other or with our cells and organs. Hormones exist primarily to regulate processes and keep our body in homeostasis, a state of natural balance. Menopause is a process, frequently taking 10 years or more, designed to change our bodies and prepare us for a lifetime beyond the fertile years! In perimenopause, most women experience some of the same hormonal symptoms that heralded menarche. Anxiety, emotionality, irregular periods are all normal in young girls approaching puberty. Worsening PMS is often the first symptom noted as we enter the perimenopausal period.  Although our youth-oriented culture doesn’t generally approach the Elder “rites of passage” with as much anticipation as other milestones, there is still cause for celebration (raise a glass of red wine!) The main focus of my practice at Women’s Birth & Wellness Center is peri-menopause and menopausal care. I am here to guide and support you through the menopausal transition. I want to optimize your experience, your health and your adjustment to the power of a new way of life. Together we will explore the process and your options for managing challenges. Our mission: Your Life. Your Health. Our Commitment. Since last September, I have been hosting a recurring workshop titled “The Power of Menopause.” Menopause is one of the Women’s Mysteries, along … Read More