Here's how it works: $15.00 shows up in your bank account when encapsulation services have been completed and paid for.  Simple. Easy. I will transfer the money to you via PayPal. 

Come join us at the Natural Parenting Expo Sunday, March 23 @ the Monona Terrace.  LOTS of children's activities and loads of healthy information.  

I will be running an Expo special. Anyone who signs up, day of, will receive encapsulation services for $185.00! This also includes anyone who can't come but who books an encapsulation service that day via my website.  How will they find out???  You can spread the good word! 

Happy Spring

I was recently asked how I live off of $288 excess cash bi-weekly.  At first I couldn't answer it.  I wasn't really sure and sometimes it feels like I can't.  After bills this is how much we are left to pay for groceries, gas, coffee, entertainment, etc. 

What my friend, Sarah, was really curious about is how we manage groceries.  My first response was I make all of our condiments: mayo, mustard, ketchup, horseradish, etc.  I make our bread (4 loaves every couple weeks), I make Kombucha, Yogurt, I buy in bulk, I buy things that are on sale unless it's a favorite brand we can't compromise.  We still buy just about everything organic and we still only spend about $85 bi-weekly. As all of the effort stated above is beneficial to our grocery bill what has the largest impact is WE USE WHAT WE ALREADY HAVE TO MAKE FOOD!! The pantry items get used, freezer food gets used, perishable items get used BEFORE we replenish or buy more. 

We also belong to a Dairy CSA, Veggie CSA, and Meat CSA.  Our dollars here go directly to the food produce and we get a TON of food for our dollar. 

AND, everything is so easy to do and takes minutes besides the mayo which is a little more time consuming.

I am scared.  This parenting thing is getting a lot harder as Harper gets older.  I was so terrified of the first few weeks of having a baby that I thought once I got over that the rest would be easy.  HA!  The first few weeks were hard in their own way and these weeks (Harper is 15 mts.) are WAY harder then I imagined. 

Yes, mobility added an element of challenge and speaking added another--which I was so excited for, because I thought it would make things easier which it did sort of-- BUT the real kicker, what makes this age  hard is the constant need for attention.  Long gone are the days of getting lost in a book or making a really nice meal.  But, it's not even that.... we all knew that would happen right!? 

 WRONG.  I thought I would be different.  I thought I could do everything I still wanted to do the only difference would be I'd have a child.  I couldn't understand why people made such a big deal out of kids and why everyone lost themselves in the process.  

Until now and that is what's hard.  Admitting defeat, processing these feelings of guilt, inadequacy, sadness, and depletion because I have indeed lost a part of me which I love.  Yes, I feel bad for myself and I find myself longing for quieter days and looking forward to her growing up and being more independent while I am simultaneously tearing up as she walks herself to the car because she is getting so big!

What the fuck?!  

This is the point where I feel I have to disclose I would give this sacred part of my being up over and over again because my love for Harper is so incredibly sustaining but I am not because today I do not feel that is true. I can't always run on love (did I really just type that, whoa) and at this point in parenting, today in parenting, I feel overwhelmed and filled with guilt for not being able to run on love and not being able to let "me" go easily.

But, being who I am and being me (smiley face) I will find a way to embody me with child, Harper and even my husband.  I am  not who I was.  I cannot be who I was and that is my reality.  What will this new world look like for me?  Where will I find my peaceful moments?  Other then beer when Harper goes to bed :) 

Placenta Energy has changed their name to MADISON PLACENTA SERVICES.  Many exciting changes coming in the year 2014 for Madison Placenta Service and the placenta services brought to Madison, WI and the surrounding areas.  What's on the horizon?  Madison Placenta Services is looking to donate a certain percentage of each encapsulation to a charitable organization and they are also looking at at including a handmade-hand stamped necklace for each mama with charm and birth stone of baby included in services. 

Madison Placenta Services has already included online payment directly through their new website www.madisonplacentaservices.com via Pay Pal. Madison Placenta Services has also set up an email list to keep current, future, and past clients up-to-date on birth/child events, news and happenings of Madison Placenta Service .  Anyone interested can subscribe on the website.

This is also means the Facebook page will also be changing.  Look for the new redirect soon.  Thank you for your love, support, friendships and placentas.   This is what I do, and this is what I love!

So, this is my third attempt at writing this post. You can read  the article to see what it says. I don't have to summarize it for you. You  are able to come to your own conclusions based on your own experiences; this post  is based on mine. What I really want to address is Dr. Melius's statement, "New mothers are such an easy target, and many unscrupulous people take advantage of  their pursuit of a better childbirth experience".

This gets me. Not  because I am taking the reference to being dishonest personally but because he  used 'unscrupulous' and 'better childbirth experience' in the same sentence.  This is a loaded statement and to me resonates on such a personal level that I  hesitate in writing this but then I would not be honoring my authenticity in
feeling the need to discuss or at least bring attention to a conventional  medical doctor using "unscrupulous" and "better childbirth" in the same  sentence.

My experience and bias says to me that this statement means  placenta encapsulation bad and planned C-sections, lots of drugs, and timelines  good. If I were using "unscrupulous" and "better childbirth" in the same  sentence I would be referring to conventional, new methods of childbirth (yes, I  refer to hospital births w/ episiotomies, C-sections, pitocin, epidurals being  routine procedures as new because women have been giving birth far longer than  hospitals have been hosting childbirth) The people who take advantage are the  people who push fear into mamas when they are pregnant, coerce them into making descisions and 'trusting' the experts when their souls and cells are filled with
a synthetic fear purposely played out to manipulate the system and the pawns in the system to have the upper hand.

I DO understand that there is a time and place for all medical intervention and I am thankful for that because it has
saved mamas and babes (and I had medical assistance at my homebirth) but to the extent that it has brought so much fear and manipulation to mothers when they are "an easy target" like Dr. Melius states is what should be cause for concern. 

Why not encourage mothers to have a better childbirth experience? Placentophagy has no ill effects on mama or babe. It was made by the mama to  harbor the child safely through pregnancy! Yes, you could speak to your  lactation consultant when you experience problems with milk production, yes, you can simply speak to your doctor about post-partum blues, depression and anemia, yes, you can buy supplements for lactation, yes, you can be prescribed
pharmaceuticals to elevate your mood, yes, you can surrender to sadness as a  normal side effect of childbirth OR you could encapsulate your placenta first. 

My favorite thing about the encapsulation process is being with the  family hours after their child is born. There is a gentleness and love that is indescribable and incomparable to any other experience I have had. I am so honored to be invited into that space. And then, so honored to work with the placenta, to work with life, to work with the organ that is so ancient, so fragile, so temporary, so wouldn't have a baby, wouldn't have life without it, that I ask why not try encapsulation before buying the other things or talking  to the other people? The placenta is a gift from our child, a gift from our body, the placenta is sustaining even after birth.

The placenta is not something you have to "believe" in.  The proof is in our existance.  The proof is demonstrated by 99% of the animal kingdom that consume their placentas,  and has been practiced in Chinese medicine for thousands of years. Today, MiMedx, the Georgia company the article refers to uses donated placentas as injections to treat inflammation and heal wounds, if that isn't proof?!

The coldness of winter, the calmness in the first snow fall, the warmth of family gatherings, the hue of grey that blankets us a majoirty of the winter and the brightness in the sun that pokes through the clouds making the snow glisten, the frost light up and millions of rainbows of colors come alive in frozen dew drops and isicles all in an environment which says:  December.  Within all this beauty a baby boy was born midweek; to a mama that was so surprised by how easy labor and delivery actually was. 

The architecture of birth is transforming. 

As light rejuvinates winter birth rejuvinates life.

As November came to a close  a mama who was anxiously awaiting the arrival of her baby solemnly had to say good bye.  As with all things including birth we do not always have the answers or knowing as to why something happens.  It resonates deep in my cells though that this baby who has not taken  human form will remain a big presence with us throughouth the length of time.  The body was just too small for this child's bigness.  A soul essence has been born and we will forever be able to receive her gifts. 

All you have to do is ask, so I am asking... Can encapsulate your placenta?

There are still more children to welcome this month but so far it has been such a blessing to see all of the wonderful, beautiful babies that have come to meet their mamas and papas.  I am always so grateful to be with the families at this precious time of their lives.

My first November baby was actually a little lover that was nearly two weeks past his maybe baby date.  When he finally did arrive the joy he brought to his parents was overwhelming.  The mama so happy with her birth experience and a placenta that was still so healthy and strong that it confirmed the knowing that babies will be born when they are ready.

My second November baby was a little fella who wanted to be born his own way and stayed breech in his mamas belly.  They had a successful birth as well and were surrounded by loving family and friends and this babe so precious and warm, so loving.

My third November baby, yes, another little boy gave his mama a run for her money with a long labor and challenging birth but in the end brought so much love and gratitude to their family field it nearly toppled me over when I walked into their room.  There is a story behind every birth and while they all might not be flawless they are also so signficalntly purposeful giving the mama, family and babe exactly what they need to begin.

My fourth November baby came this morning.  Induced early due to pre E and a couple hiccups along the way another beautiful BOY was born healthy and strong.  Although I haven't been able to meet him yet I can feel the impact he is making on all of us and his mama, such a strong mama.

There is a fifth and sixth baby with a "maybe baby" date of November.  One of which will be here so soon and one of which who is also soaking up his womb space for an additional, nearly, two weeks.  The other is November 30th, so we will see....