Testimonial for Jo Ann Bishop CD/PCD(DONA) Body Ready Method Pro from Trish Brauer

Testimonial for Jo Ann Bishop CD/PCD(DONA) Body Ready Method Pro

It has been nearly 8 weeks since we brought our baby boy home, and I am still trying to put into words everything that Jo Ann did for our family during our pregnancy and birth journey. We engaged her very early on in my pregnancy (when we were living out of state!), and from the moment we "met" over Zoom, we knew she was going to play a very special role in our lives and in bringing our baby into the world. We found her comforting, extremely knowledgeable and to be someone we could absolutely trust to protect our interests. We ended up switching to a hospital based midwifery practice at Jo Ann's suggestion - which ended up being absolutely amazing. Through several "meetings" and sessions, Jo Ann coached us through making a birth plan and preparing my body for labor through the Body Ready Method. I had a more complicated pregnancy than anticipated, and my exercise ended up being limited to walking and Body Ready Method prep. At the time, it didn't feel like I was really "doing" anything, but once labor started - it was very apparent how wrong I was. My water ended up breaking at 35 1/2 weeks, and after 18 hours, I needed to be induced (complete with pitocin), which was everything I wanted to avoid. Despite not being "on-call" for us for another few weeks, Jo Ann made it a priority to show up and support our family. She coached us through various positions to make labor as "effective" as possible and had SO many comfort measures up her sleeve. Thanks to Jo Ann, we were able to have the unmediated birth that we hoped for, despite all the medically necessary interventions, and welcomed our son into the world 4 short hours after active labor began. The suggestions Jo Ann made during labor and the work we did together to prepare allowed me to have a dream postpartum experience, and I was able to focus exclusively on caring for our baby. We will forever be greateful to Jo Ann and couldn't recommend her more highly.

-Trish Brauer

November 14, 2023