Who I Am

Hi!  I'm Janel Miner - a birth doula and HypnoBirthing Practitioner in the Quad Cities.  I am the mother of two beautiful girls and married to a wonderful man.  I have been studying birth and breastfeeding since 1999.  I am a certified doula, breastfeeding educator, and HypnoBirthing Practitioner.  I am also studying to be a Certified Nurse Midwife.  I am a member of DONA, La Leche League, Illinois Families for Midwifery, Citizens for Midwifery and the Quad City Doula Association.  I like to spend my free time with family and friends, educate myself about birth, breastfeeding and natural healing methods, read my email, and volunteer.

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My Philosophies

I believe that women have an innate ability to give birth, and that ability is enhanced by the love and support of the people around you.

I believe that birth can be an empowering (or disempowering) experience.

I believe that parents make the best decisions for themselves and their families.

I believe that birth is a life changing event.

I believe that a doula can enhance the birth companion's participation in the birth.

I believe that alert and active pariticipation in birth gets breastfeeding off to the best start.

I believe that women don't deliver babies - they give birth to babies.

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My Birth Story

I was a freshman at the University of Iowa when I found out I was pregnant with my first daughter.  I was so overcome with emotions - fear, apprehension, excitment, joy.  I knew that I wouldn't be allowed to move back home and finish my education, so Tim and I found a small apartment, and I enrolled at Augustana the following fall.  I knew that I wanted to have a midwife for my birth, so I started to see the midwives at Trinity.  I've always been the type of person who wanted to make decisions based on educating myself - so I read all the books and magazines that were recommended to me, took the Childbirth Preparation class at the hospital and waited.  Two weeks after my due date, I started to feel surges.  To make a long story short, I had a long, hard birth.  I ended up with three doses of narcotics, an episiotomy that tore almost through my rectum, and a deep fear of ever giving birth again.

When I found out I was pregnant for the second time (two weeks before Tim and I were to be married), I was ecstatic.  I had already attended the birth of one of my close friends, and my best friend was going to have a baby any day.  Both of their births were so easy and simple.  I remember asking them how they did it.  Both commented that they weren't scared of birth - that was the first seed planted in my head that fear of birth can lead to a longer, harder and painful birth.  

At my first appointment with my midwife, I had a pap smear done.  Believe it or not, the speculum got stuck inside of me (my muscles spasmed or something)!  I couldn't push it out; the midwife couldn't pull it out.  Finally, I was able to relax my body enough for the midwife to remove it.  I walked away shaking - scared more than ever of giving birth again.  I knew I had to do something to alleviate my fear.

I started to read as many birth stories on the Internet as I could.  I read about highly interventive births, c-sections, natural births, unassisted births.  I knew I wanted a natural birth, and through these women's stories, I realized that birth can be wonderful.  I was inspired and propelled to find out as much as I could about birth.  I started to believe and trust my body.

At this time, I had heard of doulas but didn't know of any in the area.  I was watching the Baby Story on TLC one day, and the woman who was giving birth had a doula.  I had seen this episode before, but this time I focused more on the doula.  She was really helping the mother to stay calm and focused.  

After the show, I had to go get some more Red Raspberry Leaf Tea (Red raspberry leaf tea is great for pregnant women.  It helps strengthen and tone the uterus).  On my way to the health food store, I noticed a sign for a store named Tranquility, and one of the services listed was doula!  I took this as a sign.  I talked to the owner (Linda Inch - another doula in the area), and right before I was about to leave, she recommended the book Birthing From Within and directed me to the DONA website.  After I bought my tea, I went and bought the book.  After I finished that book, I was fascinated.  Here was the information I was looking for!  I read about 12 other books throughout my pregnancy, and I was further empowered to trust my body and my baby.  I hired a doula (Trudi) and a postpartum doula (Jen - who first introduced me to La Leche League).  Throughout the pregnancy, I practiced relaxation everyday.  I fully trusted that my birth would unfold the way it was meant to.  I kept an open mind and heart.

I began my birth experience on April 20, 2000 around 3 in the morning.  I watched a movie, spent some time on the computer and enjoyed just being by myself.  At around 8 in the morning, my surges were still about 5 minutes apart, but they were about a minute long and pretty strong.  I knew this was IT but was kind of curious at what I should do.  I called the midwives office, and they wanted me to come in and get checked.  I complied and was found to be about 3-4 centimeters open.  They recommended that I go immediately to the hospital, but I still felt it was too soon to go in (I feel that I went to the hospital way too early with my first, and I was determined to avoid that again).  I told them I was going home but would go to the hospital in a couple hours.  I called my best friend and husband, went home for a couple of hours, took a bath and ate.

A couple of hours passed, and I felt obligated to head to the hospital.  I called Trudi to meet me there.  When I got there around noon, my cervix was unchanged.  I was still having surges, and they were still long and strong.  I was a little worried about having a malpositioned baby (my first had been OP), but trusted that my body would tell me what position was best to turn her.  A few hours passed and I had opened another centimeter.  I decided I was hungry and wanted to leave.  I checked myself out of the hospital against medical advise (AMA).  I knew that it was too soon to be at the hospital.  I refused any type of intervention to enhance the birth process (breaking my bag of amniotic fluid, pitocin, etc).  I just wanted to let my birth unfold how it was meant to be.  I knew birth worked best when it was left to nature and God's hands.

I decided to go to my best friend's house, since she lived close to the hospital (I sent Trudi home until I went back to the hospital).  We stopped at McDonalds on the way to her house.  After we ate, we went to her son's room.  It was raining that day, and I sat in a rocking chair in front of a window watching the thunderstorm.  I just rocked in the chair and stared out the window watching the rain fall on the trees (the window faced a wooded area).  

Eventually, I felt tired and went to lay down.  After a couple of uncomfortable surges laying down, I decided to take a bath.  While I was in the bath, I checked myself - I was still only 5 centimeters open.  Even though it was heading into the evening, my slow progress didn't bother me at all.  I knew my body would do what it needed to do to bring my baby in the world.  I was also greatly enjoying my birth experience.  Even though I didn't use HypnoBirthing, I now know that I was putting myself into a hypnotic state through every surge (a hypnotic state is just a state of deep relaxation).  I was staying relaxed, and my body was birthing my baby the way it was supposed too.

I decide around 7 that it was time to head back to the hospital.  My doula was there when I walked into the room.  I immediately had a surge and fell into her arms relaxing and swaying through the surge.  I had agreed to a 20 minute "strip" (when they place the mother on the external fetal monitor).  After the strip, I got into the big bath they had in the bathroom.  It felt wonderful, but I still felt like getting out and moving around.  I spent a lot of time on the toilet, the birth ball, walking around the room, in the bath.  The whole three hours before I gave birth, I just moved.  At sometime it was discovered that my baby was slightly malpositioned.  She was coming down the birth path with her head a little tilted.  This was one reason why my birth was slow but it didn't matter.  I just listened to my body and had faith.

I remember sitting on the toilet thinking I was so ready to have my baby.  I started to breathe down a little.  The midwife wanted to check my cervix.  I was about 7 centimeters open.  She told me to listen to my body -  if I felt like pushing, I should push.  I wanted to try.  After about 15 minutes, my membranes released.  The midwife wanted to check me again (looking back, I would have requested no vaginal exams unless I asked for them).  I was 9.5 with a lip (a bit of cervix).  She wanted to try and hold the cervix back, but I refused.  She recommended switching to my right side (I had been in a frog position when I was breathing down and rocking on my hands and knees between surges).  As soon as I moved to my right side, she entered the birth path.  This is when I started panicking.  

During my whole birth, I had remained so relaxed and without discomfort.  It was hard work but enjoyable.  I remember feeling like I was on top of the world.  I could feel the endorphins (a hormone that is released when a woman stays relaxed during her birth experience) circulating throughout my body.  I was giving birth like nature intended, but when she started crowning, things got pretty intense.  I felt my whole body tense up, and it took everything I had to try and relax.

When my baby's head was coming out, I felt her eyes, nose, ears, mouth.  The midwife had me open my eyes and reach down for her.  I received my baby onto my chest.  Her cord was beating strong (no reason to clamp and cut a cord immediately - best to wait till it stops pulsating) and here she was in my arms, yet part of her still inside.  She was calm and alert.  I was overjoyed by what I had experienced!

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Why I Do This Work

After I gave birth to my first daughter, I was disillusioned.  I just felt a deep sense that birth wasn't meant to be that way.  I started to feel the pull to help moms, but I couldn't put my finger on how I was going to do that.  So, God blessed me with another child to help show me His path for me.

After her birth, I kept reading books about birth!  I felt a strong sense that I wanted to make a difference in the Quad Cities.  I wanted women to know that they had options and choices during their pregnancy and birth (I don't care what a woman chooses for her birth.  Just to know that there are choices available).  With my first, I thought I was educated, but I had failed to really learn what was important to me.  Since I wasn't educated about my choices, I really couldn't make any.  

I couldn't attend births as a doula since I had a nursing baby, so Trudi, Jen and I formed the Quad City Doula Association in October of 2000.  We wanted women in the Quad Cities to know that they had the option of using a doula for their birth or postpartum period.  We also wanted to help women who wanted to become a doula fulfill their dream.

I took my doula training in January of 2001.  Kaity still needed me to be home with her, so I didn't attend my first certifying birth until June of that year (I had attended 3 of my friends births at this point).  I was nervous.  I had just met this woman a week before she started her own birth experience.  I didn't know what it would be like to attend the birth of a practical stranger.  I just prayed that God would show me what to do and what to say.  The birth was amazing, and I really got God's message that this is what he wanted me to do with my life.  I was to serve women.

The calling to become a midwife kept getting stronger and stronger throughout the year.  So, I enrolled back in school part time in January of 2002.

Let me back up a little - the whole time I was thinking about midwifery, I was thinking that I wanted to become a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) not a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM).  The training is different.  A CPM's practice is strictly home birth.  This is where I wanted to serve women, but God had another plan for me.  It took a particular birth to change my heart and open my eyes.  I worked with an amazing couple who was planning on having a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC).  This mom switched from an OB to a CNM towards the end of her pregnancy so she would have the best chance she possibly could at a vaginal birth.  The CNM was Gayle Wallace.  Gayle was amazingly supportive.  I'm convinced that with almost any other care provider, this woman would have had another surgical birth.  Gayle believed in her; I believed in her; she believed in herself.  Two months later, this birth was still in my mind.  This birth changed my heart.  I realized that I was needed more as a CNM than as a CPM.  It had been God's way of showing me that my path was to become a CNM.

Things have been coming together for me so well now.  I started assisting a homebirth CNM in August of 2002.  She has taught me so much about birth.  I'll never be able to thank her enough.  I remember talking to her one day about God's path and how to know if you're following it - more specifically, how to know if I'm following what he wants me to do.  She pointed out how everything is starting to come together for me (in regards to my birth work) and how if this wasn't his plan for me, it would be a struggle to find women who would want me at their births.  I truly believe that there is a reason for every birth I attend.

I knew I wanted to teach childbirth education classes for a long time, but I couldn't decide exactly what I wanted to teach.  I looked at many programs and asked God to guide me in the program I should choose.  I didn't want to teach Bradley, because I couldn't get over their tag line "Husband Coached".  I feel that birth isn't a sporting event, and people don't coach a birthing woman.  I almost certified with ALACE.  I even started to take the first steps toward certification, but something kept holding me back.  I kept having this nagging feeling that I should check into HypnoBirthing a little more.  I guess I didn't understand the program.  In fact, I was still a little unsure the first day of my training, but the founder (and my instructor - Mickey) explained the HypnoBirthing philosophy - and I knew why God had kept nudging me in this direction.  The HypnoBirthing philosophy is the same philosophy I have about birth.  I am so excited to have found a program to teach people in our community that is based on the belief that birth works!  That teaches women why birth is a beautiful and wonderful life changing event.  A program that teaches people how women are designed to give birth; trusting that their bodies are designed for an easy and comfortable birth.

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For More Information

If you would like more information on the services I provide, feel free to contact me (if you send me an e-mail, please put "Better Birth Services" in the subject line, or I may think it is junk mail) or call my cell phone at 309-269-8166.  I can send you a free information packet, and/or we can arrange for an interview.