Rebekah Porter

859-533-4667

 Hello! I am Rebekah Porter, mother of 10 kids (yes, I gave birth to them all myself).  I love children and birth. I believe that every woman should have the support she needs mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. How and where women give birth has changed drastically in the last 100 years. Care used to be specialized and personalized by care providers. They had a smaller client base and were be able to give them truly personalized care. Now there is often a gap due to offices serving a large number of women and the amount of info to learn.  As a doula, I can help fill that gap to compliment the care your OB/Midwife gives to you. I strive to minimize regrets and improve your birth experience by giving personalized birth support that educates & empowers you to create the safest, gentlest, most loving birth experience for mother, baby, & family. What that means for each woman is very unique and she can't be given a standard one size fits all package.  I believe that by empowering families to be better consumers of their future health care and to trust their inner wisdom will affect generations and shift the current medicalized culture to be more mom and family centered. I also run a unique birth agency because we are Christian and we strive to live the values taught by Christ's example. We strive to listen to you and nurture you during pregnancy and beyond as if you are our family. 

I have experience with:

• First time moms

• C-section moms

• Medicated birth

• Non-medicated birth

• VBAC support for moms

• Preterm Labor

• Breech

• Advanced Maternal Age

• Premature Babies

• Home and Hospital Birth

• Worked with Midwives and Doctors

• Miscarriage

• IUGR

• Pregnancy after cancer

• Thyroid issues

• Breastfeeding complications

• Newborn ICU babies

        Rebekah is mother to 10 children, birth activist, doula, and childbirth educator. She is the owner of Blissful Birthing TN and has been the co-leader of Nashville BirthNetwork for 4 years. She has worked hard to change the birth culture in Nashville by educating doulas, improving birth and baby loss care in the local hospitals, organizing Empower Your Birth conferences, donating peanut balls to 14 area hospitals, and changing the TN newborn eye ointment law to be more favorable to parents.

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        She has over 24 years of experience with pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding. Rebekah has given birth to 10 living children and 12 angel babies in a variety of settings and states including large and small hospitals and her home. Her care provider choices have ranged from OB's to Midwives (CNM, LM & CPM). Rebekah has gained much insight from personally dealing with complicated pregnancies & miscarriages including preterm labor, months of bedrest, gestational diabetes, antepartum hospitalization, placental abruption, bleeding during the second trimester, low amniotic fluid, IUGR, no thyroid, and breech presentation. Many of her babies were in the NBICU for Hyaline Membrane Disease, Prematurity, Hypoglycemia, Bradycardias, Apnea, Breech, and Respiratory distress. Two of her pregnancies resulted in vaginally born frank breech babies including one in the hospital and one at home!

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     Rebekah became interested in breech support after her own first successful vaginal breech birth in 1996 and since then, has fought hard to advocate for and educate other breech moms. In 2013 Rebekah started using rebozos and fell in love. Since then she has used rebozos to relieve discomfort in pregnancy, help dads be more involved with pregnancy and birth,  flip breech babies before labor, and ease labor pains. She strives to advocate for and educate other birth workers and moms to realize the amazing power of the rebozo. In 2015 Rebekah trained as a loss doula through Baby Loss Family Advisors and has since then volunteered many hours to serve families who are going though infant loss.

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       She is a church going Christian and loves to serve the Lord through helping people each day. She is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who loves working with families to help protect and remember the sacredness of birth.     

Education

Bachelor of Science, Elementary Education,

Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

Rock the World Attachment Parenting/  La Leche League Conference • Nov 2019

Evidence Based Birth Conference • Sep 2019

Beautiful Midwifery Conference • Apr 2019

     Penny Simkin: Birth Trauma

     Claudia Book: Racial Disparity

     Melan Smith-Francis: Barriers to Care for Women of Color

Ina May Gaskin: Emotions at Birth Course • Aug 2018

Beautiful Midwifery Conference and Workshops • Apr 2018

     Mary Cooper: Sacred Ground of Birth

     Carol Gautschi: Alternative Therapies

     Taylor Broggie: Pelvic Floor Restoration and Alignment for Birth

DONA Birth Doula Certified • Feb 2017

Spinning Babies Workshop • May 2016

Premier Birth Tool Peanut Ball Training • 2016

Baby Loss Family Advisors • Oct 2015

Gena Kirby Rebozo Training • Jan 2014

DONA Birth Doula Training • Oct 2012

Experience

Blissful Birthing TN Private Doula Practice • Jan 2013 to Present

Volunteer Centennial Hospital Doula • May 2019 to Present

Nashville BirthNetwork Co-Leader • Oct 2013 to Feb 2017

Volunteer Vanderbilt Hospital Doula • April 2013 to July 2018

Doula Practice • May 2006 to Jan 2013

Teaching

Developed and Taught Doula Training Course • Aug 2018 to Present

Business Skills

Realities of Doula Practice

Advanced Doula Skills

Developed and Taught Rebozo Training Course • Sep 2014 to Present

Basic Techniques for Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum

Spouse Support Skills

Breech and Occiput Posterior Techniques

Developed and Taught Childbirth Education Courses • Apr 2014 to Present

Developed and Taught Baby Loss Doula Training Course • Jan 2018 to Present

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Accomplishments

Note that events and courses were taught in the Greater Nashville, Tennessee area..

• Birth Doulas Do's and Don't at Tennessee College of Applied Technology OB Symposium • December 2019

• Making Room For Breech Babies To Flip at Evidence Based Birth Conference KY • Sep 2019

• Respectful Maternity Care at Tennessee College of Applied Technology OB Symposium • Aug 2019

• Created a Volunteer Doula Program at Centennial Hospital • May 2019

• Rebozo Reborn at Beautiful Midwifery Conference • Apr 2019

• Advocate for Yourself at Tennessee College of Applied Technology OB Symposium • Mar 2019

• Collaborated with nurses, administration, and educators to create volunteer doula program at Centennial Women’s Hospital • May 2018 to Present

• Prepared resource binders for labor floors of 13 area hospitals • Nov 2016 to Present

• Mentored developing doulas • 2014 to Present

• Administrated Facebook Groups for Moms and Birth Professionals • 2013 to present

• Birth Workers Networking Events • 2013 to 2018

• Organized and conducted annual Empower Your Birth conference • 2013 to 2017

• Developed Prepared Families Event • Jul 2018

• Raised funds to donate peanut ball sets to 14 area hospitals • Aug 2016 to Jan 2017

• Consulted to improve loss support at Vanderbilt Medical Center and Nashville General Hospital • Nov 2015 to May 2016

• Changed Tennessee law to support parents’ rights to decline newborn erythromycin ointment • Jan 2016 to May 2016

• Facilitated meetings to establish refugee birth support program • Nov 2013 to Jan 2016

• Donated books and media to establish a birth library to Baby + Co Birth Center • Jan 2016

• Monthly parent education nights • 2013 to 2016

• Set up a toll-free parents’ support number for the Nashville Birth Network • Dec 2015

• Hosted Enhancing Loss Care class for hospital staff from Vanderbilt, Centennial, St. Thomas, Baby and Co., and Nashville General Women’s Hospital • Nov 2015

• Raised funds to buy a CuddleCot for use in area hospitals • Aug 2015 to Nov 2015

• Meet the Childbirth Educators Event • Nov 2014 to Nov 2015

• Funded a scholarship to sponsor training courses for 6 loss doulas • Oct 2015

• Organized and led ImprovingBirth.org Rallies • Aug 2013 to Sep 2015

• Birthed 10 children naturally • Aug 1994 to Oct 2014

• Vaginal Breech Births in 1996 and 2014

• Managed Mentor Moms program to pair expectant mothers with more experienced mothers for support • Oct 2013 to May 2014

• Hosted midwife appreciation day with Healthy and Free TN organization • Mar 2014

• Created a birth plan template for the use of WIC and refugee organizations • Jan 2014