Mom's Connection Doula Services

Helpful Links

Postpartum Support

Online support for postpartum, helps when folks say “how can I help?”
https://www.giveinkind.com

Online meal train for postpartum period:
https://www.takethemameal.com

Journal Articles on Doulas

Impact of Doulas on Healthy Birth Outcomes: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3647727/
Continuous Labor Support: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28681500

Contraction Master

This app works with iOS and has a web version for desktop use. If you are using the computer version, you do not need to be hooked up to the internet once the program has loaded. It is also able to print your contractions. This site has been live for a long time and has a long history.

Contraction Timer App

This free app is available on iOS and Android app and works easily. You simply hit start and stop when a contraction begins and ends. This app will calculate how far apart the contractions are for you and how long they last.

Full Term

This iOS app is very basic, but provides you with an easy to use interface. The app has a bright light which can either be helpful or a hindrance. When used at night, it’s bright enough to see the buttons and listings of previous contractions, without waking someone else up.

iBirth

This app is for iOS or Android. It offers far more than a contraction timer including video clips suggesting good positions for labor, comfort measures, and information on nutrition. Developed by childbirth educators and doulas, it is a great tool for all moms. The timer is a mere basic function along with the other goodies provided by this app.

Sprout Pregnancy

This is for iOS or Android. The contraction timer is a part of a larger app that handles pregnancy through postpartum including a kick counter contraction timer.

Promising Apps Postpartum

Mahmee

Website: https://www.mahmee.com
NPR Article: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/08/18/749454254/this-app-aims-to-save-new-moms-lives

Two of my favorite poems about babies, birth, and mothering

A Cradle Song by W.B. Yeats

The angels are stooping
Above your bed;
They weary of trooping
With the whimpering dead.

God’s laughing in Heaven
To see you so good;
The Sailing Seven
Are gay with His mood.

I sigh that kiss you,
For I must own
That I shall miss you
When you have grown.

Morning Song by Sylvia Plath

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry   
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I’m no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind’s hand.

All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.