Henna Artwork by Mad Ink by Stripes - Maddie Pflugh - https://www.facebook.com/maddie
Up to 3 prenatal visits and 1 postpartum follow-up.
Attendance at prenatal care visits with the birth team you have hired.
Constant contact by phone, text, messaging, and email.
Is This Normal, or Just Accepted Common Practice?
Only when we step outside the norms of typical maternity care do we begin to see how profoundly we’ve been conditioned to accept medicalized birth as normal.
For decades, we’ve been conditioned to believe that pregnancy is a risky medical event making birth best managed by professionals in a sterile environment. Few questions have been ask as routine interventions—like inductions, continuous monitoring, restricted movement, epidurals, and cesareans—have become the norm. The truth is, the more they’re repeated, the more they’re accepted. Not because they are always necessary, but because they have been normalized.
We see that what is marketed as standard care is often rooted in liability fears, hospital efficiency, outdated tradition, or convenience for staff—not evidence or respect for the birthing person.
We’ve been led to believe that the current maternity system is the safest and most responsible way to have babies. But when we listen to the stories of those who labored and birthed with autonomy—free from unnecessary interventions and interference—we begin to see birth differently. Within the current system, this kind of experience is rare. For many, the only way to truly birth on their own terms is to step outside the system.
This realization about the maternity system is not an indictment of every provider, but a call to ask better questions—to stop mistaking the norm for what is right. And when it comes to birth, reclaiming our understanding of what should be normal starts with stepping outside the system we’ve been taught not to question.
I believe your childbearing year should be centered on you—not protocols, pressure, or profit.
The CYR mission is to provide intimate, inclusive, and socially conscious support throughout pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum. To honor the diversity of experiences and identities that shape the journey to parenthood and meet each client with care that is respectful and rooted in trust.
CYR childbirth preparation emphasizes:
· Bodily autonomy
· Informed choice
· True informed consent—and refusal
· Compassion over compliance
I know that too often, the maternity system overlooks the voices and rights of birthing people. That’s why CYR exists: to offer a space where your values are heard, your questions are welcomed, and your decisions are supported without judgment or coercion.
You're not just giving birth. You're growing, learning, and becoming. I am here to walk with you because your experience matters.
When is the best time to hire a birth doula?
- As soon as you find out you are pregnant.
- Before jitters about what will happen next becomes overwhelming.
- Before CYR is already booked with another client during your birth month.
- Anytime a maternity care provider or support staff attempts to control who you can hire as a support person for your labor and birth support.
- When you recognize your maternity care provider is not as supportive as you first thought.
- Any time prior to anyone on your birth team suggesting you [a healthy pregnant person and healthy fetus] schedule a labor induction. Labor induction definition -the use of medications, non-pharmacological methods, or a combination of to prompt the uterus to contract during pregnancy before natural hormonal shifts have prompted the body to signal labor to begin on its own.
- As soon as you recognize you will need enhanced support on your birth team for better/best labor, birth, and postpartum outcome.
- Any time you have apprehensions about your birth team giving evasive answers to your questions, not listening to your concerns, being coerced or bullied, or a gut feeling that anyone on your birth team is giving you passive nods, exasperating signs, or passive aggressive eye rolls when you express your needs, wants, and desires for labor and birth.
- Anytime you are ready to get serious about connecting with a seasoned doula willing to be fully present and fully invested in a better/best pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum outcome for you and your baby.
Story of an Elder Doula's Hands
My hands are not as smooth as they once were. They are lined, a little slower, but they carry memories. These hands have held trembling ones in hospital corridors, stroked damp hair during long labors, cradled newborns still slick with the wonder of arrival, and guided families through homebirths and hospital settings with steady guidance.
When I first began as a doula, I thought my role was about what I did, the techniques, the positions, the knowledge. Over the years, I learned it is not just what I do, but the way I show up. I have sat quietly in corners when a birthing person needed silence more than sound. I have stood tall as a shield when their voice trembled in the face of authority. I have laughed with families when joy spilled over, and I have wept with them when things didn’t unfold as they dreamed.
I’ve worked in homes where midwives moved gently, letting birth unfold like a tide. I’ve also stood alongside families in medicalized systems where providers held protocols tightly. There are many myths: that doulas only support homebirths and have no role in hospital births, or that their guidance is only valid if they hold certification. In reality, doulas are needed in all birth settings, home or hospital, because medical staff or midwives cannot provide everything a laboring person may need, and a doula’s presence offers essential support, guidance, and advocacy. A seasoned elder doula brings years of wisdom, presence, and guidance that transcends certification. With the increasing medicalization of childbearing and the rise of non-evidence-based interventions, having a doula in medical settings is more important now than ever before. A doula belongs wherever a birthing person is. We walk with families whether they birth under their own roof or under fluorescent lights, always centering the family’s voice. And as an elder doula, continuing education has been a constant, I have never stopped learning, never stopped listening.
And the benefits of a doula? I have seen them again and again: a reminder of options when choices feel hidden, a steady presence when the environment is overwhelming and the heart longs for calm, a bridge between clinical language and the language of intuition, and the roar of bringing a baby earthside. Prenatally, I spend as much time as needed preparing my birth doula clients for labor and birth, ensuring they feel informed, supported, and confident before the journey even begins.
There is a rhythm to birth, like a song that plays beneath the surface. The more years I’ve been present, the more clearly I hear it. Some doulas count contractions or track progress. I listen for the hush that comes when a laboring person drifts inside themselves, for the softening of a partner’s shoulders when they realize they, too, can do this.
If there is one truth my years have taught me, it is this: birth is not something you must conquer, but something you are invited to surrender into. And in that surrender, you discover a strength you never knew you had.
So, I stand, still, after all these seasons, offering the same hands, older now, steadier still. Not to lead, not to push, but to walk with you. To remind you that you carry within you the wisdom of all who birthed before you. And to whisper, when the time feels right: You are more powerful than you realize.
Is a doula a midwife? Video short by 60 Second Doulas
Do You Doula? This 7-minute documentary discusses the role of doulas during childbirth.
Evidence on Doulas
- The Effect of Doulas on Maternal and Birth Outcomes: A Scoping Review - PMC (nih.gov)
- Evidence on: Doulas (evidencebasedbirth.com)
- ASPE-Doula-Issue-Brief-12-13-22.pdf
- Evolutionary mismatch in emotional support during childbirth: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic | Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health | Oxford Academic
Birth Doula Service $1,200.00
Connect with CYR for more information and an interview appointment TODAY!