Scare on the Square Fliers...

Hi, I realize that I put a different time on the Scare on the Square fliers than I did up here for meetings--so in order not to confuse people--we will go with the 5:30 p.m. time to start our meetings on First Fridays at Hobby Lobby unless I say otherwise later (like if I get a job that would require me to be at the job at this time). Thank you and sorry for the confusion. (Also, if I am "on call" for a birth than I might have to skip a meeting or postpone it--but will try to let everyone know through this blog.) Thank you. :)
Signing out now...Julie Larsen

Meeting Change Location--Hobby Lobby and this is final for now...

Sorry, we had the pastor back out at Unity Church, and I really do not know why. So, I am going to hold our meetings at Hobby Lobby because they do not mind if someone uses the back rooms as long as there is not a cake class going on at the same time and we are not disruptive to the customers in the store. (Please do not feel obliged to buy anything).

Meeting Location: Hobby Lobby off North Street (almost to Wal-mart) in Nacogdoches, TX
Time: 6 p.m.-7 p.m. 
Dates: 1st Fridays of every month (unless I say otherwise). 
Note: Room is located straight back a little to left of framing department. I will stand near front to greet you as you come into the store in the breezeway area. (Look for a petite young lady with glasses and probably 2 kids and my husband in a ball cap.)
Please do not call the store and bother them (they asked not to be bothered).
If you need more information about meeting topics, how to get to store, etc. please call me--Julie Larsen--email me for my phone information (I don't want to put it on this blog).
Email: trustbirthnac@yahoo.com

We still plan to have our booth at the Scare on the Square on Saturday the 29th, please stop by. Thanks!

Meeting Location--Unity Church off South Street

We are going to have our meetings on First Fridays of the month @ the Unity Church in Nacogdoches, TX. I will post more information soon. 

 Email: trustbirthnac@yahoo.com to confirm that you are coming to the meeting. Thank you.

Meeting Minutes for October 2011--Oct. 9, 2011 Trust Birth of East Texas

Today, we had our Trust Birth Meeting of East Texas at my home (Julie Larsen Facilitator) around 5 p.m.. We had a small group--hubby, kids, and Joy Childs came to our meeting this time. Since it was small and intimate I asked Joy if she had any topic she wanted me to address to help her out about birth and trusting in birth. She mentioned that she was looking into various doula programs out there and wanted to know more about doula work and helping mothers trust the birthing process.

I told her that I just learned about a new doula training program titled "Doula Trainings International" and it sounded like a good program to look into. They have mentors that work with you throughout the process and I would like that myself. They offer birth doula and postpartum doula program. It is not all online though--you will have to go to a workshop--right now they offer them in Austin, TX, New York and Florida. However, there is an option to host a workshop in a more local region. (Joy can look more into this).

We also addressed the issue of helping mom's trust birth as being a doula. Sometimes a mother will be in a hospital birth situation and a nurse will come by and suggest "Are you ready for your epidural now?" Perhaps this mother didn't want one of them, but hearing someone just suggest it might trigger something to her mind thinking she can't do it without pain medication or epidural. This is when a doula can step in and say, "Remember your birth plan said that you didn't want an epidural. You are doing great. Why don't we think about trying a little longer before considering anything else. You can trust the birthing process." Just a little bit of encouragement can go a long way. Also, you might tell that nurse not to come back in with negative energy. Try to keep things positive. As a doula you can try to remind the hospital staff of using positive words such as "pressure waves" instead of "contractions" etc. This will help keep the atmosphere positive.

We also discussed our booth for Scare on the Square. We are going to have a free booth at Scare on the Square at the end of the month. We hope to pass out some literature about Trust Birth and come up with a flier about "What is a Doula?" just to get information out there to others. I plan to use the Trust Birth flier that Angela sent me (I might make it a one page flier to make it easier on my budget of printing things.) I will have information on how to contact me for future Trust Birth Meetings and I want to find a location before I print up this stuff for at least our November and December meetings so I can put it on the flier. So, that is going to be my goal to find a good location for meetings. And I will also decide on a couple of topics. I had some topics listed on our website...I plan to probably continue a doula discussion for next month and maybe have a combined topic of Blessing Way and Birth Plan for December. I want to talk about Interventions in January...so maybe we can get a place at least for the next three months and try to get a firm location to keep our meetings going.

Joy enjoyed our little gathering. She said she would tell some friends in Center, TX about our meetings. (That's another town over from here).

We ended our meeting after that.
Thank you!