(home)birth, family building, and reproductive health at every size in Oak park

Are you looking for a midwife to support your birth, family building, or reproductive health who uses a Health at Every Size (R) (HAES) framework? You’re in the right place!

Birth Roots proudly offers inclusive, affirming, and respectful care throughout the reproductive lifespan, including pregnancy, birth, and postpartum to all people regardless of body size. Recognizing the intersections of racism, ablism, anti-fat bias, and sexism, this midwife celebrates diversity in body size and strives to create safety in care by putting the HAES principles in action.

HAES in Action

Here are the foundations of HAES at Birth Roots:

• Discretionary use of assessing client weights

  • I do have a scale in the office, but we only bring it out with consent; and if we have a particular concern — typically rapid weight gain that might be associated with a blood pressure problem, or weight loss associated with hyperemesis of pregnancy.

  • The default is that weight assessment is not part of my routine care.

• No weight loss talk — EVER

  • You will never hear me recommend dieting or weight loss, ever. Period.

• Accessibility

  • Waiting area and office furniture is able to accommodate a high weight limit. Unfortunately, at this time, my office is not ADA compliant (hopefully coming soon), and I would like to ensure that bathroom fixtures are accommodating to people of all sizes. I am able to provide care in accessible locations if my office is not accessible.

• No weight or BMI cut-off for my care

  • I truly support birth at every size.

• Informed consent and refusal

  • Decision-making in the healthcare setting belongs to you, my client. I believe you have the right to accurate, evidence-based information in order to make the best decisions for you, based on your values and priorities.

  • While in my care, there may be instances in which your specific risk factors for a health concern may be related to your body size. As a clinician, I will share this information, and your options related to that information, with respect and without judgement.

• Celebration of intuitive eating

  • As a clinician, I believe everyone should have access to a wide variety of healthy and pleasurable foods to meet your nutritional needs.

  • I am happy to support you to meet your health goals through intuitive eating.

• Celebration of joyful movement

  • Essential wellness needs like nutrition and exercise are in the purview of everyone that wants to feel well and don’t have to be tools for weight loss and its industry. I work with my clients to find ways to move joyfully to meet their personal goals but do not impose any “shoulds.”

• Humility and accountability

  • As a healthcare provider — and especially as a white person — I am very mindful of my role in a medical system that was founded on racism and colonization. I recognize that power dynamics inherently interrupt the humanity between client and provider. I seek to subvert that by receiving your invitation to support you with humility. I am open an available for repair in the event that you feel harmed by anti-fat (or other implicit) bias in my care.

intersectionality

Outside of my clinical role, I support efforts for fat liberation, and embrace initiatives for climate justice; gender justice; against war; for immigrant and worker rights; anti-racism; and for disability, queer, and trans rights. I am privileged to be in a role to hold space for clients that seek to partner with me in care, but that care does not exist in a vacuum.

I am a proud member of the Association for Size Diversity and Health, and encourage fellow clinicians to examine their anti-fat bias and commit to efforts to make their practices welcoming and safe for folks of all sizes.