Rebekah Mustaleski is a Certified Professional Midwife with Roots & Wings Midwifery in Knoxville, TN, where Rebekah promotes evidence-based maternity care for families seeking an out of hospital delivery. She is working to improve maternal outcomes during the childbearing year and to promote a sustainable business model for midwifery practices across the country. Rebekah is co-owner of Roots & Wings Midwifery, LLC as well as Treasurer for the Tennessee Midwives Association.
Once you find out you're pregnant, one of the first things you'll need to decide is who you will see for prenatal care and to attend the birth of your baby. You can choose an obstetrician-gynecologist (OB-GYN) or a midwife. Most people are familiar with OBs, but what is a midwife and what kind of care do they provide?
Having a newborn baby in your home is fun, exciting...and exhausting! There are so many things to keep track of--their sleep schedule, diaper changes, feeding times and duration or amount...the list goes on! New parents have a full time job trying to figure out what their baby needs, so we've put together this printable schedule to try to make it easier for you to keep track of it all.
Having a well-balanced nutritional plan is one of the foundational pieces to having a healthy pregnancy. What you put in your body not only affects your health, but your baby's future health and can have an impact on your labor and delivery, too. Which is why it is so important to make sure you know which foods are the best ones to eat during pregnancy and what makes one food a better choice over another food.
The postpartum period is a time of transition and a lot of change. If you’re a first time parent, you’ll be figuring out how to care for a tiny human and if you already have a child or two, you’re learning how to integrate the new sibling into the family.
Growing a new person inside of you is exciting, but it can also be exhausting. Pregnancy fatigue is often one of the first signs of pregnancy, and the first trimester and third trimester are notorious for that can't-keep-your-eyes-open tiredness. So what causes this common pregnancy complaint, and is there anything you can do to give yourself more energy?
Baby To-Do List:
Get Pregnant. Go see my Doctor or Midwife. Hire a Doula...wait, what? What's a doula? What do they do, and how can they help me? Learn all about the benefits and roles of a doula that can help you in your entire pregnancy, delivery, and even postpartum journey!
Once you’re pregnant or in pre-pregnancy planning, you start learning about all sorts of things that you’d never thought about before, like diastasis recti, which sometimes it needs special attention. But many expectant and new moms wonder how do you know the difference, how it affects your health, and is there anything you can do to prevent it or treat it?
Sometime in your 3rd trimester, you’re going to start packing a bag or two in preparation for your baby’s birth day. It can be overwhelming to try to decide exactly what you need to have with you—that’s why we made a checklist to make packing your hospital bag easier!
One of the first things people do when they find out they are pregnant is figure out their estimated due date—when will their baby be born? Everyone wants to know that! Some people have scheduled c-sections, which may give them more control over their baby’s birth date, but even then, babies have a mind of their own and sometimes they choose to come sooner than expected.
A lot of changes happen in your body while you’re pregnant! Swelling, or edema, is extra fluid that collects in your tissues. It is considered a normal part of a healthy pregnancy and is caused by the increased blood volume your body makes to be able to provide baby with all of their nutritional needs. This increase occurs between 20 and 28 weeks of pregnancy, which is also when people begin to notice swelling.
