Hello, meet Alexandra. She’s a mama, writer, yoga instructor, and DONA-certified Birth Doula.
The two phrases that define her practice are holistic and evidence-based. She works with each family from pregnancy through birth and into early postpartum ensuring they feel safe, confident, and informed every step of the way. Whether it’s figuring out if your due-date is accurate, to resolving a newborn’s tongue-tie, she is there to inform and connect families to the resources that will help them flourish. For instance, Alexandra always provides ideal fetal positioning exercises for pregnancy–because a well-positioned baby encourages the body in a faster, easier labor. Before becoming a doula she was a journalist and professional writer, so she’s also a research nerd. Because of this, it’s important to her that she makes sure her clients have up-to-date, evidence-based resources so they can be sure they are making informed and reliable choices for their birth and baby.
Alexandra has attended hospital births, home births, natural births, medicated births, ideal births, complicated births and everything in-between. She prides herself on being open-minded and working to prepare my clients for the birth they want, the scenarios that could arise, and how to advocate for their rights at each step of the way. She supports her clients in keeping body-autonomy during labor, giving informed consent for any procedures, and helping to protect the sacred space of labor. This extends to the postpartum where she gives her clients tools to be aware of and reduce their chances of postpartum depression and how to encourage a successful breastfeeding experience.
Her journey to becoming a doula began unexpectedly when a friend-of-a-friend gave her a ride during a visit to Albuquerque. The half-Navajo mother told her about her empowering experiences in natural birth and my curiosity was so piqued, it spiraled out to become my life’s calling. Alexandras own stories, years later, of birthing her two daughters were both empowering, but very different, situations. Her first was a sudden hospital birth when she developed unexpected preeclampsia. She hired her home-birth midwife as her doula, fought for a gentle, slow induction and three days later she delivered her girl naturally into the arms of that midwife while standing. For her second, she chose a home-birth and as the pregnancy went completely normal, she birthed her in the lunge position after an intense but empowering 4 hour labor. In both scenarios her doula training made a huge impact in her preparation and advocacy for herself and her baby. It left her feeling calm and encouraged that she was making good and sound decisions for her baby and her body.
Alexandra also is a co-founder of Better Birth Jackson and is passionate about making doula services affordable to as many families as possible. To that end she offers one unpaid doula package a year to a family in need and is currently working to find more grants and programs that bring doula services within reach of everyone. When she’s not helping people rock their births, she loves to garden, read, travel, cook and volunteer for causes that support the environment, build community, or promote social justice. She also really loves hiking. Her husband and her hiked the Camino de Santiago across Spain with their first daughter when she was 10 months old and it was the 2nd most empowering experience of her life after giving birth.
CONTACT INFORMATION
517-917-0090
alexandra.harperbrees@gmail.com
Bearandnurture.com
FB & Insta: @bearandnurture
Lansing Doula Network 