http://www.empoweredchildbirthed.com/

Empowered Childbirth Education, Chicago, IL (2026)

10/22/2026

Planning a C-section? Your recovery preparation can start BEFORE your baby arrives! 🤰💛

One thing I wish more pregnant moms knew is that preparing your body for birth matters, even when you’re planning a C-section.

As a certified nurse-midwife with over 20 years in labor and delivery, I want you to know that there are things you can do during pregnancy to support your body before and after surgery.

Here are 4 places to start:

💪 1. Keep moving. Staying active during pregnancy, when medically appropriate, helps maintain strength, mobility, and endurance.

🥑 2. Nourish your body. Balanced nutrition, including adequate protein, supports your body’s needs during pregnancy and tissue healing after birth.

🌸 3. Don’t forget your pelvic floor! Yes, even if you’re having a C-section! Pregnancy itself affects your core and pelvic floor, regardless of how you give birth. Learning how these muscles work together can be valuable during pregnancy and postpartum recovery.

🧠 4. Prepare your mind, too. Understanding what to expect, practicing relaxation techniques, and knowing your options can help you feel more confident heading into surgery.

Here’s what I really want you to remember: A C-section is a birth AND major abdominal surgery. You deserve preparation and support for both. 💛

✨ Want to learn more about protecting your pelvic floor, preparing your core, and supporting postpartum recovery?

👇 Comment PT below, and I’ll send you the link to our Pelvic Floor Expert Course for Understanding Pregnancy & Postpartum Breathing and Exercises, taught by a pelvic floor physical therapist!

💛 FOLLOW for our new C-section series! In Episode 2, we’re talking about how to have an empowered C-section, including choices you may not even realize you have in the operating room.

Because an empowered birth isn’t about HOW your baby is born. It’s about feeling informed, supported, and included in your care.

Save this for your birth prep and share it with someone planning a C-section!

10/06/2026

Midwives do a lot more than catch babies. 🤍

One of the most common misconceptions about midwifery is that we only care for people during pregnancy and birth.

In reality, midwifery care can span the entire lifespan…from first period to menopause, and everything in between.

Midwives provide care that can include:
Menarche + adolescent reproductive health • Contraception + family planning • Preconception care • Pregnancy, birth + postpartum care • Sexual + gynecologic health • Wellness + primary care • Perimenopause + menopause

And yes: midwives are clinicians. We’re trained to assess, diagnose, manage normal physiologic processes, identify complications, and collaborate with or refer to other providers when additional care is needed.

Midwifery is a model of care that centers the whole person, education, informed choice, and continuity across the lifespan.

So if you thought midwives were just for birth, consider this your sign to learn a little more. ✨

Happy National Midwifery Week. 🩷

09/30/2026

The NICU changes you. 💜
Today, on National NICU Awareness Day, I’m thinking about every parent sitting beside an isolette right now.
The parent watching monitors instead of sleeping beside their baby.

The mom pumping at 2 a.m.

The parent trying to understand rounds, medications, oxygen levels and medical terminology while also trying to process the fact that this is not how bringing their baby into the world was supposed to look.

And the families carrying NICU stories that ended differently than they hoped.

Our NICU story did not end when we walked out of the hospital.
There were readmissions, appointments, two and a half years of therapy, worry, setbacks and some really hard days.
But now that tiny NICU baby is walking into preschool and running around our house pretending to be Superman. 🦸‍♂️
I share our story not as a promise of how anyone else’s story will unfold, but as one NICU family’s story of what came next.

And if you’re in the thick of it right now, please know you don’t have to carry all of this alone.

💜 NICU parent support resources:
• Postpartum Support International (PSI) offers support and resources for NICU parents and families experiencing postpartum depression, anxiety, birth trauma and other perinatal mental health challenges.
• Hand to Hold provides free NICU parent support, peer mentors, support groups, podcasts and resources for NICU and bereaved families.
• March of Dimes offers NICU education and resources for families navigating hospitalization and the transition home.
• Ask your baby’s NICU social worker, nurse or care team about parent support groups, mental health services, lactation support, financial resources, transportation assistance and early intervention resources available through your hospital or community.
And please remember: needing support does not mean you aren’t strong.

You are allowed to be grateful AND scared.
Hopeful AND exhausted.
Strong AND struggling.

To every NICU baby, every NICU parent, every NICU graduate, and every family remembering a baby who should be here today, your story matters.

09/30/2026

An induction is a plan. It is NOT a loss of your voice. 👏

If you’re being induced, here are 5 questions I wish every pregnant patient knew to ask before it starts:

1️⃣ Why are we recommending an induction, and why now?

2️⃣ What is my cervical exam, and how might that affect the plan?

3️⃣ What is the plan for my induction, and what are my options?

4️⃣ What can I eat, drink, and do during the induction?
Can I walk, shower, change positions, or use a peanut ball?

5️⃣ If things aren’t progressing as quickly as expected, what happens next?
If you and baby are doing well, ask what options you have before deciding the induction isn’t working.

And remember this:

Being induced does NOT mean giving up your autonomy.

You can ask questions.
You can ask about alternatives.
You can ask about benefits and risks.
You can ask what happens if you wait.
And when it isn’t an emergency, you can ask for a few minutes to think.

An induction can take time, especially when your cervix isn’t quite ready yet. The goal is to understand what’s happening and feel like an active participant in your care.

That’s what an empowered birth looks like. ❤️

📌 SAVE this in case induction becomes part of your birth story.
🤰 SEND it to a pregnant friend.

👇 Comment BIRTH and we’ll send you our FREE Empowered Birth Guide with practical birth-prep information + scripts you can actually use with your care team.

And you asked, so we’re doing it…

C-SECTIONS ARE NEXT. 👀

Follow for evidence-based, practical birth education from a nurse + midwife team with decades of experience caring for families through labor and birth.

09/29/2026

“The easy way out.”

Can we retire this phrase already?

A cesarean is major abdominal surgery.

And within minutes of that surgery, there may be a baby on your chest who needs to be held, fed, changed, soothed and loved.

Then you go home and “recover” while caring for that newborn.

As a midwife, I think we need to be able to hold two truths at the same time:

We should work to prevent cesareans that aren’t medically necessary.

AND

We should honor, support and validate the women who give birth by cesarean.

Those beliefs are not contradictory.

In fact, the U.S. cesarean rate reached 32.5% in 2025, according to provisional CDC data. The low-risk cesarean rate reached 26.9%. That deserves serious conversations about how and why we use cesarean birth.

But none of those conversations should diminish the woman who needed one.

And here’s another conversation I think we need to have:

Why does recovery support after birth still feel like an afterthought?

ACOG recognizes that recovery after cesarean takes weeks and recommends gradually resuming activity based on mode of delivery and complications. Yet routine individualized postpartum rehabilitation or pelvic-health physical therapy is not automatically part of care for every person recovering from a cesarean.

Meanwhile, other healthcare systems build more postpartum contact into routine care. UK guidance, for example, recommends a face-to-face midwife visit within 36 hours after a mother transitions home and specifically incorporates physical recovery and pelvic-floor health into postnatal care.

I’m not suggesting every country has solved postpartum care.

They haven’t.

I’m asking why we accept a system where someone can undergo major abdominal surgery, be handed a newborn, and then be expected to simply “bounce back.”

A cesarean is not a failure.

It is not the easy way out.

And it does not make your birth less worthy of being celebrated.

You gave birth. Full stop.

If you had a C-section, what is ONE thing you wish someone had told you about recovery?

👇 Tell us below.

And follow for evidence-based pregnancy, birth and postpartum education from a nurse

09/23/2026

Being induced does NOT mean you have to spend your entire labor lying in a hospital bed. 👏

I’m a certified nurse midwife and mom of 2, and I’ve been helping women in the labor process for over 20 years.

You can move. Change positions. Use comfort measures. Lean on your support team. And as labor gets more intense, you can continue adjusting what you need.

Here are 3 of my favorite ways to reduce discomfort during an induction:

1️⃣ Movement matters.
Walk if you’re able. Rock on a birth ball. Sway. Stand. Try hands and knees. Change positions frequently. Even if you have continuous monitoring or an epidural, ask your team what movement and position changes are possible.

2️⃣ Use heat + hydrotherapy.
A warm shower can feel AMAZING as contractions become more intense. You can also try a warm compress or heating pad on your lower back. Ask what’s available where you’re delivering.

3️⃣ Bring a support team.
Your partner, doula, family member, or friend can be a huge part of your comfort plan. Think massage, counterpressure, position changes, encouragement, breathing with you, and helping you communicate what you need.

And when the intensity starts picking up, try layering your comfort measures:

✨ Birth ball or peanut ball
✨ Counterpressure or hip squeezes
✨ Massage
✨ Slow, intentional breathing
✨ Low sounds or vocalization
✨ Dim lights and a calm environment
✨ Music or a labor playlist
✨ Warm or cool compresses
✨ Shower or tub, when available
✨ Frequent position changes
✨ Rest between contractions whenever you can

Comfort measures give you tools to work with your body as labor changes.

An induction may have some extra steps, medications, monitoring, or equipment, but once contractions become established, induced labor can still include many of your preferences. You still deserve options, movement, support, and an environment that helps you cope.

🎓 Comment “WEBINAR” and we’ll notify you about our next FREE live birth-prep webinar, where you can learn from our midwife and nurse team and ask your questions live!
👉Follow for our next induction video and more evidence-based informa

09/18/2026

Your baby may know you by your smell before they really know you by sight. 🥹🤍

Newborns have an incredible sense of smell and begin recognizing familiar scents very early.

And here’s the really cool part...

Your scent may actually help your newborn find the breast and begin feeding. 🤱

When a newborn is placed skin-to-skin after birth, they use multiple sensory cues, including your smell, warmth and touch, to help orient toward the breast. Natural scents and secretions around the ar**la may also help guide them toward the ni**le.

Your voice.
Your warmth.
Your heartbeat.
Your smell.

So much of YOU is already helping your baby navigate their brand-new world. 🥹

Another reason we love those early moments of uninterrupted skin-to-skin when parent and baby are able to do so!

Did you know your scent could play a role in those first feeds?

Follow Empowered Childbirth Education, LLC for more Fun Fact Fridays + evidence-based information about pregnancy, labor, birth, postpartum and newborns from a nurse + midwife team.

And send this to an expecting parent who would love this little newborn fact. 🫶

09/17/2026

Pregnancy doesn’t come with a shortage of information. It comes with SO MUCH information that it’s hard to know what actually matters. 😵‍💫

One person says, “Never get induced.”
Another says, “Get the epidural.”
Another says, “Don’t get the epidural.”
And suddenly you’re 34 weeks pregnant with 47 saved Reels and somehow more overwhelmed than when you started.

Birth prep shouldn’t be about memorizing everything that could possibly happen.

It’s about understanding your options, knowing what questions to ask, and having the tools to advocate for yourself when a decision comes up.

Because confidence in birth doesn’t come from knowing everything.

It comes from feeling prepared for what may happen and confident to know how to ask for clarification and be an active participant in your care.

We created a FREE Guide to a Confident Birth to help you do exactly that.

Inside you’ll find:
✨ Practical ways to prepare for labor + birth
✨ Questions to ask your care team
✨ Scripts for difficult or uncomfortable conversations
✨ Tools to help you feel informed, prepared + empowered

Comment BIRTH GUIDE below and we’ll send it to you FREE. 👇

And follow Empowered Childbirth Education, LLC for evidence-based, real-world birth education from a nurse + midwife who have spent decades helping families prepare for birth.

You don’t need more noise. You need information that helps you feel ready. Ready to go ALL in and take our course with 6+ hours of videos and education? Click on our link and use code EMPOWERED20 for 20% off!

09/15/2026

They’re putting a BALLOON in my cervix?!” 🎈😳 Yes, really and it’s actually one of the most common tools used to help start labor.

Episode 2 is here, and we’re breaking down cervical ripening: what a Foley balloon actually is, how it works, and the two prostaglandin medications (misoprostol + Cervidil) you might hear about during an induction.

Here’s the thing no one tells you enough: these methods aren’t “one size fits all.” What’s used depends on your Bishop score, your body, your baby, and your location. That’s part of why inductions can stretch over hours or even days (if you caught Episode 1, this will click 🧩).

⭐️⭐️And the most important reminder in this whole video? Having an induction does NOT mean you have to lie in bed the whole time or abandon your birth preferences. You are still able to move, ask questions, and stay informed every step of the way. 🤰

👉 What questions do you have about cervical ripening or your own induction experience? Drop them below: I read every comment and it might just become a future episode.

👉Follow so you don’t miss Episode 3, where we’re getting into the questions EVERYONE asks: Does induction mean more pain? When does Pitocin start? And what can you actually do about the pain? The answers might surprise you.
*(For education only. Discuss all medical questions with your healthcare team.)

09/13/2026

If you’ve been told you’re going to be induced, there’s something I really want you to know: an induction is a PROCESS, but you are still an active participant in that process. You don’t have to throw out your entire birth preference list.

🌟 If this helped you Comment “Webinar” to join our waitlist for our FREE LIVE webinar to go over how to best prepare for your labor and birth. 🌟

Depending on how ready your cervix is, an induction may begin with a cervical exam and assessment of your cervix. If your cervix isn’t ready, cervical ripening with medication or a balloon catheter may be recommended before or along with oxytocin.

And yes, an induction can take time. Many patients are not prepared for the length of time an induction may take.

But here’s the part I really want you to remember:

Being induced does not mean you have to stop being an active participant in your birth.

ACNM emphasizes that informed consent and shared decision-making should be part of induction care, including discussing the process, benefits, potential harms, and available options.

You can still ask:

✨ What is the plan?
✨ What happens next?
✨ What are my options?
✨ How long might we try this before changing course?
✨ What positions can I use?
✨ What are my pain management options?
✨ Do you have telemetry monitoring?
✨ What parts of my birth preferences can we still incorporate?

An induction changes how labor begins. It doesn’t mean you have to give up your voice, your questions, or your preferences.

And this is just Part 1.

In Part 2, we’re getting into the medications and the Foley balloon, including what cervical ripening actually does and what you may experience.

👉 Follow so you don’t miss Part 2.

And share this with someone who has an induction scheduled. They deserve to know what to expect before they walk through those hospital doors.

This information is for education and does not replace individualized advice from your maternity care team

Empowered Childbirth Education

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