“In giving birth to our babies, we may find that we give birth to new possibilities within ourselves.”

—Myla + Jon Kabat-Zinn

Birth is all about potential. Meeting your own in a safe space with support from those you know, love, and trust with your body and babe – there is nothing quite like it! Some of the most wise bodies and beautiful souls welcomed our Labor Doula team into their birthing spaces in 2022. And in return, we honored the wants, needs and desires of our birthing families!

Join us for a reflection on Cherry Blossom’s birth stats.

In our 9th year of service to Arizona families, our Labor Doula team celebrated the support of 186 birthing families! This year contained quite a few “faith leaps” for all of us. For me, it was embracing community, doula trainings, education for clients and mentorship for our growing team. The result? With expert doulas working alongside newer doulas, we were able to show up present and whole for your births.

All of us. We embraced personal capacity and professional growth as a team. This matters because you – our families – matter. In showing up as our best selves at home and in the world, we get to offer something unique to Arizona… and perhaps the whole profession! Doulas who aren’t burnt out. In fact, we often attended births well-rested.

Who and how we served

This year, we served families who desired Birth Doula support, birth photography, and placenta encapsulation. We cared for families who have been trying to conceive for years, LGBTQIA couples, single mothers, those with previously traumatic births and almost every experience in between. We met rainbow babies and held space for mothers, fathers, siblings, and grandparents as babies made their way back home.  We saw plenty of miracles; and, we didn’t take a single one for granted.

Each birth is firmly imprinted upon our hearts.

As always, we held first time mothers and those bringing earth side their third, fourth, fifth, and sixth babes. 61% of our families were first time parents! We believe this amplifies what we already know – having a Birth Doula changes the trajectory of not only your pregnancy, labor, and birth… but your entire life. (You can read more about why Birth Doulas matter right here.)

Another year on this journey in serving women, mothers, partners and birthing families leaves us not only encouraged by what we’ve seen and experienced, but enthusiastic for the road ahead.

In 2022, our Labor Doulas attended 186 births. 119 hospital births, 31 birth center births and 32 homebirths. In addition, 53% of the births attended were unmedicated. This is a reflection of offering our families appropriate education and information based upon personal values. We support your autonomy, and therefore your choice to birth your way.

87% of our families birthed vaginally. We honored 26 surgical, cesarean births and10 VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) journeys. Depending on the study, Birth Doulas have been shown to reduce cesarean rate by anywhere from 25-39%.

Overall, people who received continuous support were more likely to have spontaneous vaginal births and less likely to have any pain medication, epidurals, negative feelings about childbirth, vacuum or forceps-assisted births, and Cesareans. In addition, their labors were shorter by about 40 minutes and their babies were less likely to have low Apgar scores at birth.

Evidence Based Birth

The statistics we share are meant to affirm and normalize your personal experience of birth. We also hope they give you hope as to what is possible for you, if you’re dreaming up a birth in 2023!

We’re so glad to be here with you.

If you have questions about an individual Birth Doula’s statistics for last year (and years previous), please feel free to ask you doula or send us an email. We value every opportunity for transparency!