There is a lot to think about when finding support for your baby’s birth. The first thing to understand is the different roles that people play in a birth setting. What is the difference between a doula and a midwife anyway? And what about a baby nurse?!
We sat down with Stephanie Heintzeler, a German educated midwife and acupuncturist as well as US-educated doula and Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). She is the founder of the New York Baby where she puts expecting parents/mothers in touch with doulas and baby nurses. Stephanie educated us on the importance of care by doulas and other support people during labor and delivery. She shares that doula-supported births result in 40% less rates of cesarean intervention and 70% increased likelihood of the baby being breastfed!
Stephanie is a proponent of staying educated and making decisions that are right for you, your baby, and your family. She discusses how preparing for birth with conservative treatment from PTs, acupuncturists, chiropractors, and more, allow for better births overall. She also chimes in on how things are done differently in the birth space in Germany compared to America.
Stephanie cares for women with all kinds of births- whether her clients choose a hospital birth, birthing center or home birth; she wants them to follow their own intuition about which birth place feels best. Stephanie has seen it all- breech births, many successful VBACs (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean), planned and unplanned c-sections, vaginal twin births and LGBTQ-families.
With her “former midwife-approach” her clients feel taken care of from a holistic-medical perspective. She uses breathing techniques, TENS and positions to open the pelvis as well as her acupuncture background and massage techniques to make birthing as comfortable as possible- whether it is a natural or medicated birth. Using evidence-birth-techniques she and her doula-partner Alice (who is a midwife from the UK) make sure their clients have continuous support during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum weeks. As of 2022 Stephanie has delivered over 2,500 babies and attended over 3,200 births.
Connect with her:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-heintzeler-303a39/