We offer guidance for a holistic pregnancy experience. You will need another doctor can provide the prenatal care.

Natural pregnancy advocates understanding that pregnancy, labor and birth are normal, physical experiences, not medical diseases or disasters waiting to happen.

Holistic management of pregnancies is important because our medical system has been taken over by the idea of “medicalized” birth–that birth must be managed with modern medicine. That the natural process is inadequate. That more technology is automatically better. That caesarean section is smart because it is “modern medicine”.

This leaves many doctors and hospital personnel unaware of what true natural birth looks like. For them, these “normal operating procedures” are far afield from the safe and healthy rhythms of natural birth. Undrugged, nonsurgical births are not even covered in medical schools. Most doctors have no idea what natural birth looks like or acts like, even if they are sympathetic to the idea.

This is why so many stories abound of doctors meeting with well informed mothers-to-be and agreeing to things like a drug-free or intervention-free birth, only to leave the new mother grieving afterward, realizing the doctor’s choices were what sabotaged the birth they envisioned. It’s important to interview birth doctors and midwives.

Dr. Ginsburg offers a free 20 minute pregnancy consultation to help you learn more about natural pregnancy. This helps answer any questions you may have as well as she can recommend practitioners she trusts that you can move forward with for prenatal care. Dr. Ginsburg does not currently provide prenatal medical care, although she has done so and delivered many babies in years past.

Women receive support in the following areas:

• Help you evaluate that your practitioner is really on board with natural birth, understand the medical system and be better empowered to deal with it. If necessary, Dr. Ginsburg can help guide you to a competent practitioner for the birth. The importance of prenatal care is large. The importance of competent guidance through the modern medical system is even greater.
• Validate and discuss your own research. Those who have done some research may already have questions that lean into the area of holistic medicine, which many doctors and midwives are not able to handle.
• Prenatal body preparation, exercise and fitness. This includes prenatal yoga poses that facilitate labor and birth, as well as other movement and exercise to make pregnancy and labor easier.
• Nutritional guidance to strengthen and enrich your pregnant body to support the baby.
  • Includes prenatal vitamins/minerals, including dosages that may be customized to your situation.
  • Covers foods to eat and foods to avoid.
  • May uncover food sensitivities or allergies you need to be careful around.
• How to avoid the most common toxin exposures while your baby is growing within–and toxins are everywhere.
• Use of herbs. In prenatal care, this usually is done with herbal teas that support pregnancy, such as ginger tea to cope with nausea.
• Getting the good sleep which is so essential.
• Other medical support. Often, other modalities are valuable for a natural pregnancy, such as chiropractic, acupuncture, prenatal massage, and other tools. Dr. Ginsburg helps find the ones important for you.
• Learn more about recommendations for medicine and vaccines during pregnancy, and that is often not the wisest course.
• Emotional readiness. Healing or clearing out lingering grief or other feelings, possibly resulting from previous hospital birth experiences that were traumatic.
• Preparation for breastfeeding. Especially valuable if you are a first timer or have no older, experienced woman to guide you.
• Development of a birth plan.
• Use of a doula. This is an area of support you may want to consider.
• Guidance on childbirth education classes such as Bradley, hypnobirthing, Lamaze, and other breathing techniques.
• Managing (and avoiding) obesity in pregnancy and labor.
• Preparing your home for the new baby.
• Preparing for postpartum. Tips for a joyful and peaceful postpartum experience with your new baby.

This is holistic prenatal care. A natural pregnancy should provide for all these things. To read about one woman’s experience, check out her interesting post on natural pregnancy.

NOTE: Just because we link to it, does not mean Dr. Ginsburg or Healing Oceans endorses everything she says. It’s one woman’s experience and point of view.