Have you been trying to figure out how your going to pay for a Breast Pump? New from the IRS...
Breast pumps and lactation-assistance supplies are now eligible for reimbursement under flexible spending arrangements and health savings accounts, according to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Announcement 2011-14, released February 10.
The announcement reverses the IRS's previous position that breastfeeding equipment did not qualify as "medical care" under Code section 213(d). Analogizing breast pumps and related supplies to obstetric care, the IRS noted that both "are for the purpose of affecting a structure or function of the body of the lactating woman." Expenses in this category are now eligible for the itemized deduction for medical expenses under Code section 213, and may be reimbursed through flexible spending arrangements, health savings accounts, health reimbursement arrangements, and Archer medical savings accounts.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Childbirth Collective
I'm so excited that the Childbirth Collective has the new website up and running! All of us Collective professionals have our own page that you can comment on or ask us questions etc..
Take a look at my profile page-
http://childbirthcollectiveprofiles.ning.com/profile/MelissaChristenson?xg_source=profiles_memberList
The Childbirth Collective is an amazing network to use, you can find Birth and Postpartum Doula's, Birth Photographers, Midwives, Prenatal Yoga Instructors, Chiropractors, etc... The mission of the Childbirth Collective is to connect parents with information and education about birth and the options available to you. They have PTN's (parent topic nights) at 2 different locattions here in the cities. If your looking for more information and to be more educated on your birth choices I highly recommend making it to some of the PTN's.
I try and make it to a handful of the PTN's every month so maybe I will see you there!
~Melissa
Take a look at my profile page-
http://childbirthcollectiveprofiles.ning.com/profile/MelissaChristenson?xg_source=profiles_memberList
The Childbirth Collective is an amazing network to use, you can find Birth and Postpartum Doula's, Birth Photographers, Midwives, Prenatal Yoga Instructors, Chiropractors, etc... The mission of the Childbirth Collective is to connect parents with information and education about birth and the options available to you. They have PTN's (parent topic nights) at 2 different locattions here in the cities. If your looking for more information and to be more educated on your birth choices I highly recommend making it to some of the PTN's.
I try and make it to a handful of the PTN's every month so maybe I will see you there!
~Melissa
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Jan. 4, 2011
Wow, it's hard to believe it's already 2011! I've been sitting on the computer this evening working on my profile/bio for the new Childbirth Collective website! The new website should be up and running soon and then you can take a look at my bio!
I've got some goals for my doula business that I want to achieve this year. I want to make it to at least 3 Childbirth Collective, Parent Topic Nights(PTN) every month, I want to look into being a doula for Every Day Miracles and hopefully have the opportunity to work with teenage moms. I also hope to have at least 2 private clients every month! I'm so excited about being a doula and helping a mom be confident in her choices of labor! Happy New Years!
I've got some goals for my doula business that I want to achieve this year. I want to make it to at least 3 Childbirth Collective, Parent Topic Nights(PTN) every month, I want to look into being a doula for Every Day Miracles and hopefully have the opportunity to work with teenage moms. I also hope to have at least 2 private clients every month! I'm so excited about being a doula and helping a mom be confident in her choices of labor! Happy New Years!
Monday, December 13, 2010
December 8th, 2010
I got a call that my clients water broke in the early morning and that she was checked into the hospital! I'd been waiting for her call for days :) and so happy it wasn't during one of these Snow Storms we keep having. I got down to the hospital and we started to walk the hospital hallways, and did a lot of the double hip squeezes. After being at the hospital for about 23 hours they had a baby girl! She was beautiful and precious, it's such a miracle being there with a couple while their new baby is coming into this world. I get tears in my eyes every time I'm watching the emotions and love that a couple shares and the excitement to hold their new bundle of joy. Thank you for letting me be a part of your memories!
Monday, November 8, 2010
New Client
I met with some new Doula clients this past weekend! I'm so excited to go on this adventure with them. She's been reading up on Hypnobirthing and goes to Prenatal Yoga so she is hoping to be able to use a lot of relaxation and breathing techniques to work through the contractions.
I can't wait to be there with her and her husband! They gave me the "tour" of their baby girls' room and it such a pretty mauve color, with a lot of pink clothes hanging in the closet and of course a princess picture to hang on the wall from one of the grandma's !
Prayers for the next couple of weeks to go wonderful for the mama to be!
~Melissa
I can't wait to be there with her and her husband! They gave me the "tour" of their baby girls' room and it such a pretty mauve color, with a lot of pink clothes hanging in the closet and of course a princess picture to hang on the wall from one of the grandma's !
Prayers for the next couple of weeks to go wonderful for the mama to be!
~Melissa
Monday, November 1, 2010
Call to Congress for Doula Care- Nov. 10, 2010
I got this information from my Childbirth Collective group!
Please consider supporting us Doula's and of course the Mom's and Dad's that want us with them for their births!
The Mn Better Birth Coalition is sponsoring a Call-Fax-Email day on November 10 to notify our two Congressional Representatives who serve on health care committees in Washington, Al Franken and Betty McCollum, that we want Medicaid payment for doulas. We will ask them to introduce legislation to include doula care in the list of services covered by Medicaid, and to make it available through community-based non-profits such as Everyday Miracles, the Cultural Wellness Center, and Birthing Ways Doula Connection in Duluth. Of course, it could also be available through clinics or other programs not yet formed, but these three are up-and-running models we should support and promote.
Every woman deserves a doula, and taxpayers deserve evidence-based preventive care for our public dollars.
Forward this email to everyone you know who supports doula care for all women. Post it on your website. Put it on your Facebook Page. On November 10, communicate with Congress about doula care.
Senator Al Franken: Washington Office: 202-224-5641; St. Paul Office: 651-221-1016
St. Peter Office: 507-931-5813
Email via website: http://www.franken. senate.gov
Representative Betty McCollum: Washington Office: 202-225-6631;
fax: 202-225-1968
St. Paul Office: 651-224-9191; fax: 651-224-3056
All should call and fax; only her district can email via
Website: www.mccollum. house.gov
Need more info? Read on. Watch for the party invitation at Everyday Miracles, Nov 10, 11AM to 7:30 PM. Email and call from there with friends and families. Special treats!
Why work for Medicaid payment for doulas?
One-third of births in Minnesota are paid for with tax dollars. Doula care improves outcomes and lowers cost, most dramatically for low-income mothers and their babies. Randomized, controlled trials show that women receiving doula care are:
a.. 26% to 50% less likely to have a cesarean birth, at a savings of over $10K per birth
b.. 41% less likely to give birth with a vacuum or extractor, reducing the risk of damage to babies and mothers that is directly related to those procedures
c.. 28% less likely to use any analgesia or anesthesia, saving up to $3000 per birth not including the avoidance of side effects of the medications for mother and baby
d.. Fewer admissions to NICU where costs are typically $1000-$2500 per day not including treatment
e.. Improved outcomes for low-income women decreases disparities in health care.
Why now? Why November 10"
The election will be over, and it’s time to prepare for the 2011 legislative session. Coalition members represent the full range of the political spectrum, but all agree that “every woman deserves a doula” and doula care will save public health care dollars. November 10 is a workday for Congress.
Why contact Franken and McCollum?
Senator Franken and Representative McCollum sit on health care committees in the United States Congress, and thus have shown a special interest in health care. Minnesota has no representatives on either the Senate Finance Committee or the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the committees that oversee Medicaid and Medicare. But our representatives can introduce bills in any area, and these two have a special interest in health, women, and children.
What should we tell them?
Start by saying you want Medicaid payment for doula care, that it should be available to women through community-based non-profit organizations like Everyday Miracles, the Wellness Center, Birthing Ways that serve birthing women and their families, not just clinics because doulas work with all the medical establishments and providers serving pregnant women. Ask them for a positive response to the letter they received from the Minnesota Better Birth Coalition (if you want to see the letter send a request to betterbirthmn@ gmail.com) Add whatever it is that motivates you to support doula care for all women.
How do we contact Franken and Mccollum?
Senator Al Franken: Washington Office: 202-224-5641; St. Paul Office: 651-221-1016
St. Peter Office: 507-931-5813
Email via website: http://www.franken. senate.gov
Representative Betty McCollum: Washington Office: 202-225-6631;
fax: 202-225-1968
St. Paul Office: 651-224-9191; fax: 651-224-3056
All should call and fax; only her district can email Website: www.mccollum. house.gov
Please consider supporting us Doula's and of course the Mom's and Dad's that want us with them for their births!
The Mn Better Birth Coalition is sponsoring a Call-Fax-Email day on November 10 to notify our two Congressional Representatives who serve on health care committees in Washington, Al Franken and Betty McCollum, that we want Medicaid payment for doulas. We will ask them to introduce legislation to include doula care in the list of services covered by Medicaid, and to make it available through community-based non-profits such as Everyday Miracles, the Cultural Wellness Center, and Birthing Ways Doula Connection in Duluth. Of course, it could also be available through clinics or other programs not yet formed, but these three are up-and-running models we should support and promote.
Every woman deserves a doula, and taxpayers deserve evidence-based preventive care for our public dollars.
Forward this email to everyone you know who supports doula care for all women. Post it on your website. Put it on your Facebook Page. On November 10, communicate with Congress about doula care.
Senator Al Franken: Washington Office: 202-224-5641; St. Paul Office: 651-221-1016
St. Peter Office: 507-931-5813
Email via website: http://www.franken. senate.gov
Representative Betty McCollum: Washington Office: 202-225-6631;
fax: 202-225-1968
St. Paul Office: 651-224-9191; fax: 651-224-3056
All should call and fax; only her district can email via
Website: www.mccollum. house.gov
Need more info? Read on. Watch for the party invitation at Everyday Miracles, Nov 10, 11AM to 7:30 PM. Email and call from there with friends and families. Special treats!
Why work for Medicaid payment for doulas?
One-third of births in Minnesota are paid for with tax dollars. Doula care improves outcomes and lowers cost, most dramatically for low-income mothers and their babies. Randomized, controlled trials show that women receiving doula care are:
a.. 26% to 50% less likely to have a cesarean birth, at a savings of over $10K per birth
b.. 41% less likely to give birth with a vacuum or extractor, reducing the risk of damage to babies and mothers that is directly related to those procedures
c.. 28% less likely to use any analgesia or anesthesia, saving up to $3000 per birth not including the avoidance of side effects of the medications for mother and baby
d.. Fewer admissions to NICU where costs are typically $1000-$2500 per day not including treatment
e.. Improved outcomes for low-income women decreases disparities in health care.
Why now? Why November 10"
The election will be over, and it’s time to prepare for the 2011 legislative session. Coalition members represent the full range of the political spectrum, but all agree that “every woman deserves a doula” and doula care will save public health care dollars. November 10 is a workday for Congress.
Why contact Franken and McCollum?
Senator Franken and Representative McCollum sit on health care committees in the United States Congress, and thus have shown a special interest in health care. Minnesota has no representatives on either the Senate Finance Committee or the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the committees that oversee Medicaid and Medicare. But our representatives can introduce bills in any area, and these two have a special interest in health, women, and children.
What should we tell them?
Start by saying you want Medicaid payment for doula care, that it should be available to women through community-based non-profit organizations like Everyday Miracles, the Wellness Center, Birthing Ways that serve birthing women and their families, not just clinics because doulas work with all the medical establishments and providers serving pregnant women. Ask them for a positive response to the letter they received from the Minnesota Better Birth Coalition (if you want to see the letter send a request to betterbirthmn@ gmail.com) Add whatever it is that motivates you to support doula care for all women.
How do we contact Franken and Mccollum?
Senator Al Franken: Washington Office: 202-224-5641; St. Paul Office: 651-221-1016
St. Peter Office: 507-931-5813
Email via website: http://www.franken. senate.gov
Representative Betty McCollum: Washington Office: 202-225-6631;
fax: 202-225-1968
St. Paul Office: 651-224-9191; fax: 651-224-3056
All should call and fax; only her district can email Website: www.mccollum. house.gov
Thursday, October 28, 2010
October 28, 2010
I've spent the last 2 days doing a volunteer shift at Woodwinds Hospital! I doula'd for a wonderful couple that brought a beautiful baby girl into their arms! The mom was amazing and dad was helpful and loving... Still waiting on the little girls name though :) They are supposed to let me know within a couple of days what they named her.
Thank you to Suchi and Arbind for letting me share in their families miracle!
Thank you to Suchi and Arbind for letting me share in their families miracle!
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