This Labor Day, Beautiful Births & Beyond wants to take a moment to honor stories of labor, birth, and beyond from our clients, our friends, and our families. We can’t help it - Labor Day makes us think about the hardest labor there is - giving birth!

The human body is a wondrous thing. From mending it’s own broken bones to stitching cut skin back together, to clearing out harmful toxins daily in urine, the body is a self-maintaining machine. As long as it’s fueled properly, hydrated, and given enough time to rest, most of the time it takes care of itself.

What about a pregnant body?

One misstep that happens all too often when discussing pregnancy with LGBT+ couples, particularly lesbian couples, is assuming the more feminine presenting partner will automatically carry the baby. This is a heteronormative approach to pregnancy and parenting, and however incorrect, is understandable. For years we’ve been conditioned that the “woman” is the mom and the “man” is the dad. There are plenty of masculine presenting women who decide to carry, and many feminine presenting partners decide they never want to be pregnant.

During the times of COVID, most Doula’s have shifted their services to a digital platform, like much of this new world we’re all learning. This is for a number of reasons, the biggest being most labor and delivery wings do not allow more than one support person in the room with you while you’re giving birth.