Be transformed instead of traumatized by birth

 The first time I witnessed a baby being born was in a small rural clinic in Kenya. I was 13 years old, spending the day with my dad while he provided medical services when a local woman walked in looking tired and very pregnant.

Beads of sweat on her forehead were the only visible signs of her discomfort, and soon she delivered a healthy baby into her own hands.

Thirteen years later in the USA, preparing for the birth of my own first child, I e...

Hi! I’m Heather Dvorak. I am an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and the owner of A Baby Place. We are a team of 4 IBCLCs and we provide office visits in Lombard, IL and Dallas, TX, home visits throughout the western suburbs of Chicago and the Rockwall, TX area, and telehealth all over the world. My husband and I have twin daughters who are now 11, an 8 yr old son and a 4yr old son.

I returned to work fairly quickly with each of my pregnancies.

I was back to full ti...

We have been working to help families transition in the postpartum period for sometime now and with over 2000 hours of postpartum work have learned a thing or two. Whether you are a new parent about to embark on the journey into parenthood or planning to visit a new baby, here are a few things to keep in mind.

10 things that we have learned as postpartum doulas

1. New parents want to be heard, and your birth story is valid and important. The glorious stories, the traumatic births, and the ones ...

Our bodies are in a constant state of fight or flight. Everyday stressors impact our nervous system from birth and on, impacting the way we move, think, develop, and feel on a daily basis. It’s easy to fall into a cycle of just getting by as the physical and mental symptoms pile up.

What if instead of just getting by, you could thrive?

That’s our goal for you and your family.

At Lifetime Health & Wellness, located in Naperville, Illinois, we use gentle, neuro-focused chiropractic care to rese...

Owning our Truth in a Culture of Niceties

People react in so many different ways when they find out that your family is expanding. Most of these conversations start with “Congratulations,” but for many parents-to-be, it’s not as straightforward as people assume.

We live in a culture that tends to tell us how we “should” feel instead of holding space for how we actually feel.

There may be a part of us that is in shock, a part that is excited, a part that is worried, or a part that is confused...

Happy Healing Post Surgery

Scar Tissue and C-Sections

Hi! My name is Krysia Tscherewik and I have the most wonderful job in the world. I have had the honor to work with thousands of women for the last seventeen years. My job? I am an abdominal therapist. I know it sounds weird at first but when I tell you what it can do for you, you will be signing up.

Abdominal therapy helps with reproductive and digestive issues, such as PCOS, Fibroids, Irregular periods, Period pain, Infertility, Crohn's d...

From the Theater Stage to the Birth Stage

22 years ago, while performing 6 shows a week as a cast member in one of the longest running shows in the history of Chicago theatre, I had no idea that just over 2 decades later, I would have supported close to 1,000 women as they gave birth!

Really…how does a girl with a BFA in musical theatre, end up owning her own business as a Licensed Massage Therapist, birth doula and lactation educator?!

My clients over the years have asked this question many...

I was 3 weeks postpartum and finally starting to emerge from the new mom haze. My soreness was starting to subside, and despite my engorged and leaky breasts, I felt the motivation to resume my standard and familiar workout routine which was corroborated at my 6 week postpartum visit when I was given a greenlight to resume the exercises I was doing before. As a Women’s Health Physical Therapist, I knew I couldn’t just jump back into regular workouts, but I really didn’t know where to start. My h...

Have you met Michelle Mansfield, author of The Honest Mom Project and host of The Honest Mom podcast?  Let me introduce you to one of the most “real” women you will ever meet.  Unafraid of the narrative that the journey to motherhood should be bliss, Michelle tackles topics that shatter the shame most women feel when questioning the expectations in their lives as mothers.  My love for tackling taboo topics combined with her no-holds-barred style of interviewing led to one of the most honest disc...

I’ll never forget giving birth to my first baby and taking a bath sometime that first week. 

I poked, prodded, and pushed my new belly around in the water, wondering if I would ever get my old body “back.”  I remember feeling disconnected, un-tethered, and weak. 

As I slowly re-introduced exercise, I felt different, and I quickly realized that I couldn’t just jump back into my old, familiar exercise routine.  I felt like my 6-week postpartum check-up was anticlimactic:

“What birth control...