by Ashli Crew Rodriguez | Apr 27, 2026 | Labor, Personal Stories, Postpartum, Pregnancy
There is a stretch of time in a person’s life that doesn’t always get named for what it truly is. It begins, for some, with the thought of becoming—with fertility, with trying, with waiting, with wondering, with questions that don’t always have immediate answers. And...
by Ashli Crew Rodriguez | Apr 10, 2026 | Labor, Personal Stories
There are moments in birth where things don’t unfold the way someone imagined. Not all at once, and not always in a way that’s easy to name in the moment. Sometimes it’s subtle. Sometimes it’s after hours of labor, or quiet conversations, or a growing awareness that...
by Ashli Crew Rodriguez | Feb 20, 2026 | Labor, Postpartum, Pregnancy
In my last pregnancy, there was a clear moment when I realized my body was asking for something different. What I could do easily in the second trimester—the movement, the pace, the keeping up—I simply couldn’t sustain in the later weeks. And instead of pushing...
by Ashli Crew Rodriguez | Feb 13, 2026 | Labor, Pregnancy
We never stop learning in birth work. Every family, every labor, every conversation teaches us something new. Research evolves. Language shifts. Our understanding deepens. And still, in the middle of all that learning, there are moments when it’s comforting to fall...
by Ashli Crew Rodriguez | Feb 1, 2026 | Care Providers, Caring for Baby, Labor, Postpartum, Pregnancy
It usually happens after an appointment. You walk out of the office, get into your car, and suddenly remember everything you meant to ask. Or maybe you did ask, but the answer felt rushed. Maybe you nodded along, trusting it would all make sense later — and later came...
by Ashli Crew Rodriguez | Jan 21, 2026 | Care Providers, Labor, Personal Stories
At some point in pregnancy — usually after the excitement settles — a quieter question shows up. Who can I really turn to through all of this? Not just when labor starts, but now. When your body is changing in ways you didn’t expect. When appointments feel rushed....
