From the WBWC Blog:

Menopause

WBWC Welcomes Back Dawn Erikson

Women’s Birth & Wellness Center is happy to announce the return of Dawn Erikson, FNP, to our staff. In the 1990s, Erikson opted to birth her two children at Women’s Birth & Wellness Center. Her experience of the quality care that’s delivered at WBWC led Erikson, who is a family nurse practitioner, to accept a job as a primary care provider at WBWC in 2000. WBWC founder, Maureen Darcey, CNM, recruited and encouraged Erikson to join the WBWC team and expand the primary care aspect of the Center. In 2004, Erikson left WBWC to take a position at Community Family Medicine in Pittsboro where she had the opportunity to work with families and across the age spectrum. However, after her children, Kyle, 22, and Anya, 20, left home for college, Erikson started thinking about her next step in health care. In the meantime, she and her husband, Vic, wanted to spend some quality time together, so Vic also left his job so the couple could do some traveling in their 16-foot Airstream trailer. Erikson also used that time to work on her career as a fabric artist, taking art classes and marketing her art. “It was a gift of two years of stepping away from our careers to re-establish our lives together,” she said. When a job as a nurse practitioner opened up at WBWC this year, Erikson was ready to work again with women and newborns. Erikson says a kidney infection that landed her in the hospital at age 5 sparked her interest in nursing. She encountered a “very mean nurse,” so Erikson said to herself: “I want to be a nurse, but I want to be nice.” Erikson says she was attracted to nursing because it’s a caring profession. And she said her “natural caring tendencies,” were a good match with nursing. Erikson, a native of a very small town, Greene, N.Y., earned her undergrad degree in nursing from SUNY Plattsburgh. After she and Vic moved to Chapel Hill in 1993, Erikson decided to seek a master’s degree as an FNP (Vic also attended UNC). Erikson said being an FNP gave her more autonomy as a health care professional because FNPs can diagnose and prescribe medicine. “I can work much more independently,” she said. Erikson said she is drawn to the Birth Center’s model of care, which is consistent with her core beliefs. “WBWC is making a difference in the … Read More

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!

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