COVID-19
IMPORTANT RESOURCES
EVIDENCE
From Evidence Based Birth®, resources plus the latest guidelines and research, updated Mondays
GUIDANCE FOR PROFESSIONALS
From the American College of Nurse Midwives, information for healthcare professionals
ADVOCACY
From Birth Monopoly, an article with tips and thoughts on responding to changing hospital visitor policies
CDC (CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION)
COVID-19: Pregnancy and Breastfeeding
WHO (WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION)
Clinical management guidelines, including pregnancy
HOSPITAL POLICY TRACKER:
DOULAS AND VISITORS (united states)
Please continue to add to/update the tracker as we intend to use it throughout the crisis and as policies change back to normal.
It’s going to be okay. We are in this together.
VIRTUAL TOWN HALL:
COVID-19 AND DOULA SUPPORT
Guests:
Rebecca Dekker, PhD, Evidence Based Birth®
Latest Evidence and Guidelines for COVID-19 and Pregnancy
Emily Fontes, Tiny Giant Marketing
5 Tips to Take Your Business Virtual
Chanté Perryman, Baby Dreams Maternity Concierge
Statewide Advocacy Efforts re: Patient Support in Hospitals
With:
Reports from advocates who have successfully advocated to have doulas designated “essential” in their areas
Evidence Based Birth COVID-19 page [link]
Childbirth International Course on Infection Control and Prevention [link]
Tiny Giant Marketing on “Birth Professionals Go Virtual” [link]
Contact Tiny Giant Marketing [link]
Baby Dreams Maternity Concierge video on how to offer virtual support [link]
Contact Baby Dreams Maternity Concierge for consultations on how to offer virtual support [link]
Kentucky letter to hospitals [link]
Michigan blog post on advocacy efforts [link]
Michigan petition to the governor [link]
Illinois petition to enact licensure for Certified Professional Midwives [link]
A note from Cristen:
There are many unknowns right now, and we are all doing our best with limited information and resources.
But things are changing quickly. We will need to remain flexible as more information comes out that helps guide our decision-making about birth settings, whether and how to provide doula support, and what “safe” means during an unprecedented public health crisis.
I so appreciate that we are at a time in history when we have more ability than ever to connect and support each other even while we are physically distant.
We’ll get through this together.
March 20, 2020
RELAXATION FOR PARENTS AND PROFESSIONALS
A Guided Meditation for Uncertain Times from the Birth Ease Podcast - please read safety instructions!
As the few last weeks have unfolded in regards to the pandemic of the Coronavirus COVID-19 and the uncertainty we are facing; becoming quiet, going within, and eliciting the relaxation response is even more crucial. Multiple studies have the benefits of meditation and the relaxation response. This response reduces the impacts of stress and inflammation within the body, and reducing stress is one of the recommended actions to take to help strengthen your immune system.
In this special episode, Michelle created this guided imagery meditation to assist whomever is interested in listening to help mitigate the stress that most all of us are under, to reconnect with your own inner wisdom, and return to love. This meditation is more spiritual than religious in nature. In order to help each person listening find space for their own belief structure as it relates to their personal relationship with their higher power, Michelle refers to the Divine as God, as Creator of All That Is, as Source… What is comforting to one, may not be for another. Michelle encourages you to please use the name for God or Creator that resonates for you while listening to the meditation.
“There is a part of you that is your inner knowing, your own inner wisdom. This wisdom comes from the Creator and has been within you always. Often we forget to listen to it, or even how to listen to it. The beauty is you can remember how to listen. You can learn to trust yourself once again. One way to do that is to go within… relaxing the body… quieting the mind…. The mind doesn’t have to be perfectly still, it is simply listening for the voice that speaks to you with compassion, with love instead of fear or consternation or judgement… You can find that compassionate voice, you can remember the love that is there for you, and you can return to who you really are.” —Michelle Smith
As a gentle reminder, please avoid listening to this guided meditation while engaging in an activity that requires your full attention. Please stop the podcast and return to it when you can be safely seated or reclining in a supported position. Unless you are the passenger listening to this guided meditation with headphones on, for everyone’s safety never listen to it while driving or riding in a vehicle.
"Instantly Calm" from HypnoBabies - please read safety instructions!
A message from HypoBabies:
Hi friends, to help in this challenging time we find ourselves in, we are providing a DropBox link to our Hypnobabies free “Instantly Calm” track that anyone can download.
* No account needed or sales of anything, etc., just a free hypnosis/relaxation track that helps everyone who needs a way to become emotionally calm and release tension.
* It is 33 minutes of deep relaxation with powerful hypnosis suggestions and ***needs to be listened to every day for the full benefit*** (SAFELY), and then *use* (say or think) your hypnotic cue/anchor for becoming instantly calm when you need it throughout the day.
HOW TO GET THE FULL BENEFITS OF THIS TRACK:
*The first time* you listen to this track, you’ll stay a bit more alert (maybe sit up a bit more instead of lying down) and it will guide you to relax deeply and enter hypnosis.
* Then you’ll choose a pleasant and comforting word that will become your special word cue from then on. Suggestions for that word include “peace” and “love”, but it can actually be any word that you emotionally associate with feelings of calm and emotional comfort.
* The track then reinforces that when you say or think that word, you will become calm and relaxed and able to handle conflict and difficult emotional situations, and this will work much better when you listen to this track *every day* to reinforce your inner mind’s acceptance of it.
* This is not a replacement for therapy or counseling for those of us who have experienced trauma and/or PTSD, it simply allows us to become more calm during challenging situations and handle our reactions better, which will help us feel better in many ways.
* Remember to *use* (say or think) you special word cue in times when you need to become more calm and relaxed. ***The more you listen to this track, the stronger this cue word will become for you***, so keep listening to your ”Instantly Calm” track every day (SAFELY).
ALWAYS LISTEN SAFELY!
*This hypnosis track physically relaxes you and creates powerful hypnotic effects in the mind and body so that your inner mind can become re-trained with new “software”. This track therefore can *NEVER* be listened to while driving, walking, running, swimming, operating machinery of any kind, cooking, showering, doing yoga or doing anything else that requires your full attention.
* It *MUST* be listened to in a fully relaxed and fully supported position such as sitting in a cushy chair or lying down with the ability to relax all muscles, eyes closed, and undisturbed.
* Yes, it works when practiced and used AS DIRECTED.
* If you don’t have time to just sit down during the day and listen to it as described here, you can put it on at night when you are just about to go to sleep and it will have the same effect as long as you listen to it once every day/night. Sleep training can be very effective since your inner mind is always listening and absorbing the hypnosis messages. Please do NOT play it on repeat throughout the night since your mind uses sleep as a way to process and rest, and playing it many times in a row is not only unnecessary, it could interfere with normal sleep cycles and processing.
Hypnobabies Inc. and its representatives are *NOT* responsible to the use or misuse of this hypnosis track – Instantly Calm.
Please feel free to share this *link* (not file-sharing the track itself) with anyone you feel might need some calm in their life right now, and please share *all of this information as well, so that everyone can listen *SAFELY*!
Hugs and love from Hypnobabies ❤