LightHouse Birth Collective assembles expert staff

Expectant mothers in Delaware and across Maryland's Eastern Shore have a new resource for surviving and even enjoying childbearing and the months that follow.

For months, the LightHouse Birth Collective has been assembling a directory of lactation consultants, doulas, birth photographers and many other birth and baby professionals in the region.

LightHouse founder Sarah Culver said the collective was developed to help expectant mothers know their options and find birthing experts. Culver said she felt the need for a centralized resource after navigating the world of birthing as a mother and also in her role as a doula, or birth coach, during and after childbirth.

"When women in Delaware find out they are pregnant, I want their next thought to be, I have to go to LightHouse," she said

Over three pregnancies, Culver said, she discovered trials and tribulations many women face, first as a new mother shuffled through the hospital system and then in later pregnancies, as a better-informed mother who was searching for resources that seemed unavailable.

Once she became a birth worker as a doula, Culver said she knew more should be done to centralize the information so mothers could find the services they want, whether they feel most comfortable in a hospital setting or want to explore alternative birthing practices and locations.

"Birth is beautiful wherever it happens, and as a birth professional it is our job to make sure a mother gets whatever she wants," Culver said. "I chose the name LightHouse for our collective because of the symbolism of a light house to help women navigate."

Less than six months since she opened LightHouse, Culver has assembled more than 15 birthing specialists who offer a wide range of services for mothers and babies.

Members of the collective own and run their own businesses as lactation consultants, doulas, herbalists, childbirth photographers, baby chiropractors and even baby-wearing specialists.

"We offer every kind of support and care no matter what kind of birth a mother wants to have," the collective founder said. "We place an emphasis on birth and will care for a mother before, during and after."

For now, the only male practitioner in the collective is a chiropractor and new father, who Culver said has perfected his own practice of prenatal and infant care on his own family. Chiropractors can help babies with colic, sleep and even gas pains since the cramped quarters of the womb may result in misalignment of the spine, she said.

Harrington herbalist Cindy Collins is a doula who joined the collective this year to gain more exposure for her services, which include placenta encapsulation -- or dehydrating the afterbirth and putting it into pill form -- for later consumption.

Though few clinical trials have tracked the benefits or effects of mothers consuming their placenta after giving birth, Culver notes its common among other mammals.

As a practicing birth worker for more than five years, the herbalist said she has encapsulated more than 150 placentas including her own, following her third pregnancy. Collins now wishes she had taken advantage of the process sooner.

"With my second, I regretted not doing it, not looking into it," Collins said. "I had an emergency appendectomy days after the birth, and so when I was released I was trying to recover and care for an infant, and a toddler."

Collins said the practice is linked to increased milk production, better iron levels in anemic mothers, averting postpartum depression, higher energy levels and hormone balancing.

Professionals at the LightHouse Birth Collective run the spectrum from those with close ties to traditional Western medicine to those with a focus on alternative medicine and practices, Culver said.

All are trained and certified for their varying roles as birth professionals, she added.

For more information about the LightHouse Birth Collective, go to lighthousebirthcollective.com, email lighthousebirthcollective@gmail.com or call 302-690-3784.