Michaela Pershe Doula Services

17/11/2023

20/10/2023

Mama, I love you.
I hope you know that.
But I’m so small and I can’t say it yet.
So the tears will come when I need you, and sometimes I feel yours too.
I know you ache, but I ache for you.
Maybe we feel the same?
When it’s dark around me and your face comes into view,
I know everything will be ok.
Do you know that too?
I just want to tell you,

I love you.
But I can’t just yet.
So I’ll stretch out my arms instead, I’ll protest and fuss when you put me down.
When all I want is your smell, my comfort, a wholeness.
Because you smell like the two of us, as if we were one.
You’re all I know.
All I need.
I can’t wait to know more about the you before me, but right now it’s, ‘us’.
One day I will tell you,

I love you.
When I gaze up at you, as soon as I find your eyes, my whole world is in focus.
Maybe, we can both slow down together.
Orbit around each other, like we have nowhere to be.
As if this will be no longer.
As if my smallness won’t last.
I wish this moment could last forever, and maybe one day you will too.
These days are ours, as you whisper to me,

I love you.
When you kiss me goodnight.
As I fall asleep.
As we breathe each other in.
When I wake, again and again, searching for you.
While you’re searching for you too.
While we find each other.
I know it is constant.
But you are my constant.
Because these days filled with nothing are everything to me.

And soon my head won’t rest on your chest,
soon my cries will become words instead.
By watching you, my lips start to move,
the only feeling I’ve ever known, in a voice that feels new.
I’ll smile up at you and say the words,

“I love you too”.

…………………………………….
Jess Urlichs ‘My After All’ poetry book 📖 lin
Words also available on Etsy
Www.jessicaurlichs.com/shop

18/10/2023

One mom-to-be opted out of a baby shower and instead, put her friends to work at what she called a “nesting party.”

19/03/2023

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=581892747303421&set=a.335681095257922&type=3&mibextid=SDPelY

Milia föddes två månader för tidigt, men har varken lagts i kuvös eller skiljts från sina föräldrar. Istället har Milia fått ligga hud mot hud med både mamma och pappa sedan födelseögonblicket. Det tack vare ett nytt arbetssätt som används på sjukhusen i Gävle och Hudiksvall.

– Personalen är helt otroliga. Förlossningen var tidig och oväntad, men ändå lugn och trygg, säger Milias mamma Sophia Pihlajainen.

Ett nyfött barn behöver uppleva närhet och få värme, även om det fötts för tidigt eller är sjukt. Det nya arbetssättet innebär att det nyfödda barnet läggs direkt efter födseln på mammans bröst där det får stanna, där får barnet också den vård de behöver. Hud- mot hudmetoden började som ett projekt men är nu ett etablerat arbetssätt inom BB, förlossningen och kvinnosjukvården i Region Gävleborg. Vinsten är friskare barn och mammor och trygga familjer.

– Anknytningen mellan barnet och mamman påverkas positivt. Det leder till kortare vårdtider och hela familjen känner sig trygg och nöjd, säger barnsköterskan Stina Lundin på neonatalavdelningen i Gävle.

– Det vi kan se är att vi har färre inlagda barn med låg kroppstemperatur och kuvöserna används nu alltmer sällan, säger Jennika Pettersson som varit projektledare.

Läs mer om projektet och bakgrunden till det: https://www.regiongavleborg.se/nyheter/noll-separation-ger-friskare-barn-och-trygga-familjer/

23/09/2022

My friend messaged me after I had a baby, “how are you?” her message read.

I responded,

“It’s harder than I thought, some moments I’m swept up in the beauty of motherhood, others I’m dragging myself around in a coffee-stained dressing gown with unwashed hair. I know people say to take some time out for me, but in this season of being so needed I don’t know how.

I’m more tired than I ever imagined, though I could trace their tiny features for hours, I could watch the way a sneeze crinkles their eyes and takes them by surprise.
But I also feel a little lost at times, yet they are a seed in my bones, and I have never been more found.
Some days I sit in shadows and other’s the light fills me up inside and together we grow and grow.

My body aches, from birth, for the girl I once was, for sleep, for their scent. The shower feels like a break, though I always feel hurried.
Makes no sense, does it?
Some days I feel as if I’m not achieving much and yet I am rushed off my feet. Years can pass through these four walls in mere minutes.

My mind is all over the place, I want to press pause and yet I am already in awe of who they’re becoming. We’re still figuring this whole thing out together, and yet it’s like I’ve known them forever. I feel a new type of wholeness, of being complete, but some days I just feel empty,
does this make any sense?

I’d love some time alone, but I am entangled in them, and yet that’s how I want it. My heart would be fumbling around in the dark without them. That’s another thing I wanted to tell you.. I’ve never thought with my heart so much, I’ve never seen so much with it either.

I’m not ready to have visitors just yet, but I miss you, I really do.

Thanks for checking in.”

But I didn’t.

Instead, I told her we were great, my baby was simply a dream, and that we couldn’t wait to see her.

Then I hit send.

Words: Jess Urlichs, Writer for The Atlas of Motherhood
Art: Amanda Oleander Art

21/09/2022

15/08/2022

02/05/2022

Paid maternal leave was associated with increased activity of higher-frequency brain waves in children at three months of age.

29/03/2022

https://pin.it/64HFoO0

Activities for 3-6 month olds!

An Idea Pin by Britton M

01/03/2022

How to encourage steps in helping baby to roll!

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Freel%2FCXgpZaSpPVf%2F&h=AT1WvfRhPLmAU-JVv9J1_9k_zyKDJQHaBrBtxwvucrHxGWf4EVZvHjokcDjwJQkgyAaMibEnE0ajAjVVDOOeIbzAoPbxn3Y1q60A_k6Ky3Mf1xn2QQxf8peBrFczScA&s=1&fs=e&s=cl

MidnightDrives • Stereo Zaalima

18/02/2022

Formula recall for several major brands!!

The quality and safety of our infant nutrition is our top priority. We’re initiating a proactive, voluntary recall of powder formulas manufactured at our Sturgis, MI plant, including Similac, Alimentum, and EleCare. We value the trust parents place in us and are doing everything we can to resolve this immediately. For more information as it becomes available, please visit: www.SimilacRecall.com.

18/02/2022

I’m still in the process of writing down my thoughts and experience surrounding my baby’s birth but here is one truth that keeps resurfacing as I do that.

MY “PLAN” FOR BIRTH WASNT WHAT I WAS ANTICIPATING BUT IT WASNT TRAUMATIC.

And it wasn’t traumatic because….I made informed decisions that were best for me and baby in the moment, I trusted my care team, my midwives worked with me and were always respectful of my body and getting my consent before any sort of exam/touching, my doulas helped to support and advocate for me when I could not and my husband supported and validated my decisions, emotions and physical labor the entire way through.

I am thankful that, in spite of pretty much everything going sideways, birth trauma is not a part of the experience. It was an extremely hard and emotional experience, but also one that I treasure and honor because it brought my baby to me.

Birth trauma, unfortunately, is a reality for many. If this is a part of your story, I see you and the complicated emotions around your birth are valid. If you need help getting connected to a therapist in the Pittsburgh area, please don’t hesitate to send me a DM. I would be honored to help connect you with someone who can help you process your experience. And if you are freshly postpartum like I am, and don’t have a family/friend support system nearby, I strongly encourage you to hire a postpartum doula. They can help ease that transition to parenthood for you and your partner. ✨ ❤️

18/02/2022

There is no “wrong way” to birth your baby. There can be more favorable and powerful pushing positions depending on how your baby is positioned, but don’t be afraid to listen to your body and push how and where you need to push.

I tried pushing in multiple positions and eventually felt I had the most power, and the most rest in between contractions, on my back.

It may not be the most “trendy” pushing position but at the end of the day it’s how I needed to birth my baby. And that’s pretty effing powerful to me. 💪🏼

What position did you give birth in? Do you think it was helpful?

📸:

18/02/2022

✨Little Remy is HERE! ✨ As I know all too well, labor is hella unpredictable. I’ll share my birth story in time but it was a WILD ride. The best and hardest thing I ever did in my life. SO thankful for my husband’s amazing support during labor, birth and in the postpartum so far… (because wow. 🤪) Also so so thankful for our doulas and our birth teams at and Jefferson hospital. Could not have made it without the prayers, support and encouragement of a whole army of family, friends and loved ones. The Lord was definitely my strength. We are so in love with our little guy!

23/01/2022

Infertility may be one of the most difficult challenges a couple can face together. It has the potential to impact many aspects of a relationship as your future identity together has been altered from what you originally imagined. Come out and meet other people who "get it". Dinner will be provided! Click the link below to sign up for more info or to find the link to RSVP at the bottom of the form.
https://forms.gle/NjosRaKX59nM47DL8