MyMaine Birth: Mid-Week Midwife Edition -Kathryn Dewar from Moonstone Sunrise in Kingfield, Maine
MyMaine Birth: Mid-Week Midwife Edition - Kathryn Dewar from Moonstone Sunrise in Kingfield, Maine
Join me for episode 6 of the MyMaine Birth Podcast as we hear from Kathryn Dewar of Moonstone Sunrise as she shares her birth stories as they intertwine with her life’s calling to become a midwife. Across the state of Maine there are many midwives who offer services and support to Maine parents, and today, I am excited to share with you my interview with Kathryn Dewar. Kathryn is a Midwife and Lactation Consultant from Moonstone Sunrise Midwifery and Lactation in Kingfield, Maine.
You can find the MyMaine Birth Podcast wherever you normally listen to podcasts or right here https://www.mymainephoto.com/mymainebirth
If you or someone you know is expecting and would like to document the precious moments of meeting your baby for the first time, I highly recommend considering my western Maine Birth Photography services. I am a professional Western Maine Birth Photographer specializing in documenting the beauty and emotion of birth. I also provide all families with a treasured keepsake to cherish for years to come. I create a personalized and intimate photo album with every birth photography session. For more information head over to https://www.mymainephoto.com/birthphotography
Scroll down for a transcript of this episode or you can also - Listen Here!
Angela: Hi Kate, Welcome to MyMaine Birth
Kathryn: Hi.
Angela: So to get started will you share a little bit about you and your family?
Kathryn: Sure, I grew up in upstate New York and my husband grew up in Maine so that’s why we live here. In the beginning of our marriage we lived in an off-grid cabin in New Portland, Maine. Then through life circumstance he was offered a job out in Portland, Oregon. So we moved out there when I was about 33 weeks pregnant. A lot of the reason that I wanted to move there was that I wanted to give birth in a stand alone brith center out in Oregon - there were two that I knew about - so we moved, and about two weeks later I gave birth to my daughter. Then five years later I gave birth to my son. And in the meantime I decided to become a midwife, a home birth midwife. At the time when I was in Maine I was working at a Montessori preschool, and I really appreciated the Montessori method of teaching and guiding young children. But I felt there was something more - I had something else to give to the world. I discovered midwifery through my own pregnancy and learning and birth - and then actually experiencing midwifery care when I was out in Oregon - just for a very brief time before I had my daughter. I met my midwife one time before I gave birth. But that experience was pivotal for me, because when I was living in Maine I traveled about 45 minutes to the maternity center and the appointments always felt very abbreviated. They would always ask of course, do you have any questions, but I just didn’t know what the questions were. So when I went to the birth center to have my first appointment, it was a five minute drive and it lasted about an hour and a half - and they brought up all of the questions that I had - they were like, what do you think about these newborn procedures we are going to do. And I was like - oh, I didn’t know I had choices in that. And they could explain all of the benefits and risks and alternatives to all of the choices and I just didn’t know care could be that way. As a privileged, white, educated woman. I was sure there were other people feeling very similarly. I think another aspect of my care is that my parents were family doctors, and that did Obstetrician work - and they were a sounding board for me - and still, I was lost. So I kind of had all of the resources a person could possibly have about pregnancy or birth, and still - had a lot of questions - but I didn’t know how to ask the question, or what the question was, or that I had the power to ask the question.
And now we are a family of 4, and we have a dog Tao - we got him a few years ago - he was a pandemic purchase. And we first got chickens when the pandemic started - we started with 10, we ended up with 4 - but now we have 22, so that’s kind of how chicken math works. And we have two kittens, and that is our family - here in Maine now.
Angela: And you are in the Kingfield area now, right?
Kathryn: Yes, this was home. New Portland is about 7 miles away - so the cabin that we first lived in is really close. We go to the land often, we do a lot of things - we had 100 taps out with our dear friends, forever neighbors we call them. So we made a bunch of syrup this spring, and we have an apple orchard up there that we pick apples from - and lots of walking trails and things like that, and walking trails everywhere. We still go up there a lot.
Angela: That sounds incredible! It has been a good year for the maple syrup.
Kathryn: Yeah, it has been a good year, I still have a couple buckets out and I am still deciding what I want to do with the last bit of sap.
Angela: Alright, so will you tell me a little bit about when you found out your were pregnant and about the care you chose?
Kathryn: So I found out I was pregnant on New Years Eve of 2011. I had gone home to upstate New York to spend some time with my family - and I noticed every time that I was around food - I felt nauseous. So on the way home - Ben didn’t come with me for some reason at that time - I think he was working at the mountain at that time. Sugarloaf Mountain employ’s a lot of the people in Kingfield and the surrounding areas and he was an electrician up there - so I think he must have been working during that holiday. So I went by myself, and as I was coming home I was feeling really nauseous - I was like - somethings not right, I either have cancer or I’m pregnant, I don’t know which. I got a pregnancy test on my way home and I was pregnant. I was like, well that explains why I feel so terrible. It was not - not planned I guess.
I choose standard maternity care because at the time we were living in a cabin, we were off-grid, there was no running water, it was an outhouse situation. And not knowing anything about birth - I thought - well you can’t give birth in a place like that? Turns out it’s fine. I have learned since - you don’t actually need hot water. It’s helpful sure, but you don’t really need all of those things. Birth is fairly straightforward process. So I chose standard maternity care, that’s what I knew growing up - my parents were family doctors - so it seemed like the thing to do, and I just wanted to learn how to be a good pregnant person. So I went and got a physical at the local clinic here in Kingfield, and then started going to the maternity clinic in Farmington and would see a different provider just about every time. I did all of the standard tests, the blood work, the AFP - which looks for signs of downs - and then I did an early ultrasound, a dating ultrasound, and a 20 week ultrasound. So a lot of those tests, I didn’t understand why we were doing them. Like the AFP test, I remember talking to my mom about it and she was like “Oh you just do it, you just do those”. But I was like - but why? So even that answer didn’t quite answer the questions, and even now I have learned how archaic that test is and it’s not very accurate. And I guess I got the ultrasounds because we have a history of twins in our family and I was really hoping to not have twins. My husband is a twin and my grandmother is a twin. There is just twin energy.
Angela: Wow, twins on both sides!
Kathryn: Twins on both sides - I think I just really wanted to know what to expect, and I didn’t want to be thinking I was having one and then end up with two. Which is Ben’s story - he was a surprise twin. So then when Ben was offered this job after the second trimester of my pregnancy, and I was looking at options - the fact that there was these stand alone birth centers out in Oregon was really attractive to me. And even though I didn’t want to leave my community and my little cabin in the woods - and all that - that kind of over ruled everything in some ways, because I wanted to give birth how I wanted to give birth. And I didn’t feel like that was an option, even though I had a friend who gave birth right down the street, essential - for Maine, you know - and she gave me a book, the Ina May Gaskin’s spiritual midwifery which I read cover to cover and really a lot of light bulbs went off with that book for me.
So it took me about 10 days to drive out there, I was with my Mom. She would only let me drive 8 hours a day, and we stopped every two hours, we did a walk every day - we ate well, and stayed at hotels. And we actually stayed with a lot of friends too , I stayed with a lot of old friends, and her old friends too as we made our way across the states. Yeah, the joke is we went to the birth center that we had essentially hired, more times than I did before we gave birth. He just went and interviewed and I made a list of questions for him to ask and we talked about it. And it just was in alignment with what we were looking for, so I got there and I actually did have two appointments - but only one was with the midwife who actually attended me in birth.
So the week I gave birth, my sister come to visit me, we did a lot of walking, we got Thai food, and did all this stuff - and she had been at a rainbow gathering. I’m not sure if you know what a rainbow gathering is - but she had a bit of a stomach or an intestinal thing going on - when she was visiting me, and this become relevant in a minutes. So she left, and within 24 hours my water broke - and the first thing my midwife asked when I called her was - do you think you have an infection? And I was like - well, it’s possible because my sister was just here with an intestinal bug of some kind. But I took my temperature, I told her what the fluid looked like, and it was all normal. And she was really like, ok well, I really think you should go to a hospital. And I was like - I’m not going to do that. And she re-grouped because I was 35 weeks. And so the midwives in Oregon at that time could go and attend a home birth at 35 weeks. I was 35 and a day. I could not go to the birth center - to go to the birth center you had to be 36 weeks. So there was some talk of, well - maybe you should just come in for an appointment - but oops, you’ll have a baby. But it was pretty clear that wasn’t going to happen because I pretty much went into active labor right away. So I sent Ben out, because I was like - I think we need diapers or something. For some reason, I was thinking we needed those things too - and you don’t. You really don’t need anything to have a baby.
So he came back, and the midwives started showing up after about three hours of some active labor. Then she was born at about 1pm in the afternoon. She was fine. She breathed which was good - we like that, and I didn’t bleed which was great, we like it when that happens. And they decided that we would just transfer to the birth center for observation for the next 24 hours. So they put us in the smallest room at the birth center where it was like - unless the birth center was full - we could use that room. So there was a sweet little room with a tub in it still - so I got some really nice pampered postpartum care at the birth center and I felt really supported and cared for.
Angela: So how did breastfeeding go?
Kathryn: yeah, so with a 35 week baby - they are sleepy. And my milk was a little slow to come in with that. So that was challenging, there was pumping, there were herbs, there was weight loss that was concerning on her end. So I was nursing, pumping - giving her the pumped milk - taking herbs, upping my calorie intake. So that was a bit stressful at first, but they really kept a close eye on us. With midwifery care, postpartum care is very intensive - so obviously I was there for 48 hours. Then they did one or two home visits in that first week. Then at 2 weeks, 4 weeks and 6 weeks I went back to the birth center for appointments. They also had a breastfeeding support group at the birth center that I could attend. It wasn’t well attended, so I didn’t do that too much. But I felt like it was very easy to access my midwife - you weren’t going through this whole telephone system - if I needed to talk to my midwife it was very easy to do so, or really to anybody at the birth center. And everybody was very much on the same page - supportive of breastfeeding - and making sure I got the help that I needed, as needed. I mostly just needed to have education about how to get my supply in, and get it to an adequate amount for her, and how to keep her active at the breast and how often. Just the basic breastfeeding education that I hadn’t quite received because I hadn’t made it to that point in my pregnancy as far as getting the education. We had taken one of the crash course - childbirth education classes and it did not cover breastfeeding very much so it was definitely a learning as I went.
Angela: Yeah, and a lot of times we can be so focused on how the birth is going to go that we can forget to think about what comes after.
Kathryn: Yeah, and I have taken that and I feel that deeply as I have moved through being a midwife and a lactation consultant. And trying to find a way to take that mountain of birth and bring it down a little bit so that people can see over it and see that actually you only spend about a day or two giving birth - but you spend the next 18 years parenting. And certainly the next year is going to be very intensive, and how can I show you how to actually spend more time preparing for that, than this one day event. Which is very important and it is very empowering and how you birth and who you birth with will affect you for the rest of your life - and also having the tools set up ahead of postpartum is maybe more important and often overlooked.
Angela: yes, I agree. Can you tell me now about your pregnancy and birth with your son and how that was different for you the second time around?
Kathryn: yeah, so by the time I had my son, I had three years of midwifery school under my belt. And I had spent about two of that in a private practice with the midwife who had attended me with my daughter. So she was my midwife for Keenan. And I did my prenatal in the car with her. We went and did home visits on Tuesdays, and I loved those Tuesdays because we would drive together to the appointments. As a private practice midwife there is a lot of driving, so we covered some miles for sure, and we grew pretty close just spending time in the car together. So every once in a while I would be like, well maybe you should do a blood pressure. I did an ultrasound with him, I did NIPT so non invasive pregnancy testing/screening which is a much more advanced way of looking for genetic anomalies in fetus - it uses placenta DNA - its’ what I use now with my clients, because the accuracy is almost 99%. It is above and beyond all of the technology that was offered to me in my pregnancy with my daughter. And everything was just so much more laid back. Because I knew so much, I had a doppler on hand at my house - I had an anterior placenta so I didn’t feel him moving as much as I had felt with my daughter. So if I was curious I would just check in with my doppler and listen to him. When I went into labor again, my water broke first. So I was just like - I’m going to eat something and see if contractions start - and they did. So once contractions started I called my midwife and said - hey, I don’t think it’s urgent right now, but just letting you know.. my water broke at this time, the color was clear, there was no odor, it was this amount, and fetal heart tones are this, and contractions are this far apart - I told her all the information she needed to know and then was like - oh you should probably start heading over. So she got there and I had him about 45 minutes later. It was a three hour - water breaking to baby in my arms labor - very much more painful. I don’t wish fast labors like that on anybody, I can still recall the pain - years later, it just is a pain that you can not get on top of. So I very much empathize with people who have precipitous labors and feel like - just shell shocked - because it is just out of your control. Not that labor is something that is necessarily in your control, but usually with a gradual build up, you have mechanisms of getting things on board and there is a cascade of hormones that help you and things like that. So when you don’t have the opportunity for that build up - it feels jarring. And I had a lot of after pains after him - my husband did not have time off after he was born, so he went back to work three days later. That felt hard, but at the time I had more community built up. A lot were midwifery friends - so one came over and gave me an abdominal massage. One held him while I did that, and took him to the grocery store and got stuff for lunch, and they made me lunch. One just kind of checked in a lot. Then we went for walks when I was able to be out more. So having community was really helpful with the second one whereas I did not have community with my first. Luckily I was able to build that pretty quickly with the peer support mama group that I was invited into - which really saved me. I was very grateful that I had that. That is another thing that I have been trying to start here in Kingfield, Maine is a support group and it hasn’t had many participants really. I just keep trying to make that time available for it to hopefully start and morph into something that is meaningful like that was for me as it was in Oregon. Peer support kind of gets you through in those early weeks and months of parent hood. Because it is all really new and you don’t know if you are doing it right - and everybody has different experiences. It’s also helpful to be around people have also been up since 4:30am and maybe were woken up multiple times. And instead of having judgement, having empathy - like, here’s some coffee, want to talk about it.
And that was my second experience, he was definitely a faster baby. The challenge with him was he was a bit tight in his jaw so he really caused some nipple damage which I also had never experienced. So now I have a whole host of empathy for anybody whose nipples are damaged from breastfeeding. I got a lot of cranial sacral support for him and that helped a lot - and improved things. When you are having that kind of challenge with your newborn it feels like a crisis in some ways. Luckily it was just one side, and usually when it is just one side its a pretty clear picture that there is some tightness in his body that needed to get resolved in order for him to be able to comfortable be able to nurse on that side. So we got that figured out.
Angela: So about how long did that take, and what did that support look like for you?
Kathryn: Yeah, so in Portland, Oregon again - there is just so much support, and birth workers, and postpartum workers - so everybody came to my house. The first session was probably about an hour and a half - and she was able to do a lot of release and it definitely improved right after the first treatment. And then I had a friend who had just taken a course - Carole Grey is the guru out in Portland, Oregon - and she just wanted some practice, some hands on practice. So she came over a couple of times and that was helpful. So about a month or month and a half things were much better. Things kept getting better at each appointment, even after the first appointment - the fact that it got better - I knew I was on the right track. Like yes, this is clearly ending the issue - did some position changes and that kind of thing. But knowing that you are resolving the cause of the damage is really helpful moving forward. Whereas if that didn’t help then I would have to do some more investigating like maybe a tongue tie or something like that. Which maybe he did have something like that, but not enough to warrant a fix.
As I was going through the midwifery program, they did offer a lactation program - and we did take lactation classes with the midwifery program. I knew another woman in my cohort who was going to practice out in eastern Oregon which was also very rural - and she was kind of like - Kate if this is your plan it might be a good idea to have the lactation credential as well. It was just a few more courses really - the course work is not really the barrier, its the clinical - the clinical are hard to get, even in a city. It’s 300 hours of in person clinicals - which doesn’t seem hard to get but each visit is about 2 hours and if you don’t have a space where you are just seeing 4 clients in a day - then it is just very peace meal. I worked with different lactation consultants in the city, I did a lactation class with an IBCLC who worked at the birth center - that I had been connected to with my daughter. And later I did clinical there as a midwife student - that was one way I got some hours. I did parent support groups where offered lactation education mostly, and we had a scale - so people could weigh their babies if they wanted to and see where their babies were at - and we would keep a log of babies weight gain over time for people. We would do pre and post feed weights - some parents liked to do those at the parent support groups. So I did a few of those in the city. And then I worked with a lactation group who did more clinical work - we had a warm line so people could call this warm line - so we could give them education over the phone, or triage and see if - no you probably should really see somebody and your baby should probably see somebody. And then we would set up a visit with whichever lactation consultant was on for the day and we could go with the lactation consultant to these visits and I could get hours that way too. So it was very - kind of time intensive to get those hours - butI learned a lot and I’m glad I did it.
Angela: Alright, so your business is Moonstone Sunrise, can you tell me more about thet?
Kathryn: So Moonstone Sunrise - when I was trying to come up with a name for my business, I was kind of pondering lots of names - words are very important to me. I have an English Literature background and have a very deep appreciation for poetry and just word craft. So Moonstone is my daughter, sunrise is my son. Moonstone - I know it’s not the birth stone for July, but moonstones kept coming into my life when I was pregnant with her, and so it felt very much like her stone to me. And then Sunrise is the meaning of my sons name, and he was born at sunrise. And as a midwife you spend a lot of time - your in day and night, and night and day - and time doesn’t really mean anything, but you notice too - so it felt very fitting to this work.
So I have a clinic space in Kingfield, Maine which changes things for me. In Vermont, when I was practicing there - I learned my limit - an hour and a half was really far. At the time I was only doing home visits, I didn’t have a clinic space, so I was only doing an hour from me. But now that I do have the clinic space I would consider taking on clients that are within an hour and a half based on history of the individual and their needs - if I felt like I could make it to their births in time, basically. If they have a history of really fast births then I might feel a little less comfortable being that far away from somebody. So pretty in line with what most rural midwives cover. It’s about an hour ideally, but I will go about an hour and a half. As an assist, I would go even farther if the primary midwife was closer to the person and if it was a 2 hour drive for me I would be ok with that - as long as I knew the other midwife was closer and they could call me in as needed. And I think most midwives in Maine feel pretty similarly based on how heavy their client load is - and that is for midwifery clients. For lactation clients - I always go to them. I don’t want people driving around with a newborn, unless it is an older baby and we are just doing some weight checks or just sort of little things to ensure we are on the right track or something like that. But certainly people with a newborn, I do not want them driving around - so I go to them.
Angela: Alright, I will link all of your information in the show notes so people can find you. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Kathryn: Oh I appreciate that! I do also do Doula work to on ocasion - it’s not my passion but I do feel strongly that people should be able to birth at whatever location they feel safest. I understand completely how that may not be a home or a birth center and that the hospital is the best place for them. I have a lot of empathy and compassion for that, and I am happy to work with people who are planning a hospital birth - and being an advocate for them. As I am building my midwifery practice - I am just passionate about working with families and making sure they have the information they need to make educated choices about their care and that they know they can make choices about their care.
Angela: Alright, thank you Kate for joining me today!
Kathryn: Thank you Angela for having me!
You can find Kathryn Dewar online at https://www.moonstonesunrise.com She is also on Facebook as Moonstone Sunrise Midwifery and Lactation - and on Instagram @moonstonesunrise
Kathryn hosts a weekly parent/infant Feeding Support Group each Monday from 10-11am at the Webster Library in Kingfield, Maine. If you would like to attend please register by email Kate@moonstonesunrise.com Or by phone (207) 491-3783
And that’s the end of another episode of the MyMaine Birth Podcast! Thank you for joining me. I hope the stories shared here have been inspiring and informative to all of my listeners.
If you are looking to document your own birth story, I highly recommend considering my western Maine birth photography services. I am a skilled professional western Maine birth photographer and am very passionate about capturing the raw and emotional moments of the birthing process.
I also design a personalized and intimate photo album, creating a beautiful and lasting memory of one of the most special moments of your life. For more information head over to https://www.mymainephoto.com/brthphotography and schedule a complimentary Zoom consultation with me.
Thank you again for tuning in and I look forward to bringing you more amazing birth stories. Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review! And I will see you back here again next week!