Friday, January 28, 2011

Hello All!

Greetings from Tuba City, AZ (me) and Pittsburgh, PA (Meg)!

We are finishing up our midwifery training and "integrating" at two very different practices (me at a small hospital on the Navajo reservation, Meg in a birth center), but looking forward to heading home to New Haven in the beginning of April to get graduated and get certified as CNMs.

BUT...in the meantime, we would love to talk to any families interested in having a doula form the end of April on.

Interested in labor support in the hospital? at home? postpartum support, childcare and meal preparation? Have questions about your pregnancy and birth? Let us know!

Thanks,
And love to all,
Lizzie

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Welcome Tobin!

Tobin Ry, Born April 11th 2010.
Here's Meg with the glowing new family.
Congratulations!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Reviews!

We love to hear your feedback, and are thrilled that our dear friend and client Hillary wanted to share hers with everyone--we are so grateful for her support!

I highly recommend Lucina Doula Services. Megan Sloat helped me deliver my son in December 2009. I don’t know how my husband and I would have made it through my 20 hour labor without Megan’s support. I know at least I wouldn’t have been able to have as wonderful an experience as I did. It was very important for me to have a natural childbirth and around hour 17 and 18 I came very close to giving in and getting epidural. Megan encouraged me and helped with some natural pain management and labor augmentation techniques. It was in these difficult hours that Megan’s experience as a doula really showed. Megan was there from beginning to end. She was up with us in the middle of the night when my contractions began—and then let my husband and I labor on our own for a while. She came to the hospital with us later in the morning.
While at the hospital Megan was indispensible. She walked the halls with me while my husband caught a much needed nap, ran errands so my husband could stay by my side, held my hand and put a cold cloth on my head while I got stitched up after delivery so that my husband could be with our newborn, and last but certainly not least, took amazing photographs of our experience.
Megan made a post-partum visit a week after the birth and helped with laundry, cooking, and cleaning, and holding the baby when I just needed to take a shower or an uninterrupted nap.
Megan did an amazing job of being present when we needed her to, and absent when my husband and I needed time alone. She not only supported me, but supported my husband so he could be there for me. I’ll certainly be calling on Lucina Doula Services when it’s time for
number two.

Hillary


Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Our Name

For the curious...
Lucina is the name of a Roman goddess, sometimes associated with the goddess Juno. Her name is related to the latin words 'lux' (light) or 'lucus' (grove). She was said to safeguard women in labor ('bringing their children into the light,' as the Romans put it) and is also associated with a sacred grove of mythic lotus trees on the Esquiline Hill.

Welcome, and Introductions.

Lizzie Herskovitz and Megan Sloat are the Lucina Doulas. Together we have over 8 years of experience as birth and postpartum doulas and a wealth of passion for empowering women and families. We are thrilled to offer our services to families in the New Haven area.


About Megan:
I trained as a doula in the winter of 2005 in Portland, Maine. It was while working with HIV+ women and their babies in Namibia, Africa the previous year that I first began to work with childbearing families. Since then I have worked as a doula with families in Portland, Boston and Baltimore. I have also done extensive work in community health and received a master's degree in public health in 2008. I am now in CT studying to be a midwife. I am so very excited to be a doula again this summer and to work with women as they grow their babies and their families.

About Lizzie:
I've been involved with birth since 2007, when I trained as a birth doula with Felica Roche in San Francisco, CA. After working with women in the criminal justice and mental health care systems, as well as serving on the volunteer doula service for San Francisco General Hospital, I came east to CT to begin my studies as a nurse midwife. I am also a student of Iyengar yoga, and have trained as a yoga teacher. I am passionate about helping women and families birth their way: present, embodied, and powerful.