#A Birth Collective

[mumsjourney]

Worst experience with a Doula: Empower — A Birth Collective

I’m Dolores and I just want to share our experience with Empower A Birth Collective in Virginia. They assisted me during my first pregnancy. I was able to talk to Hope Rooyakkers and discuss our goals, what to expect since we’re first time parents. At first it went well and it seems like they’ve answered all our questions. Back then I’m trying for a natural birth, so I think it will be very helpful to have them there. My husband was very nervous and that’s the reason why we hired a doula to help us through the process with comfort techniques and answer the questions we may have.

Here’s my issue, since it’s our first time I thought their program was really good, and didn’t even check other doulas. Then along the way we felt like the support was not really enough, it’s almost we’re on our own. Some of our questions were not answered, not sure if it’s intentional or what. We were really upset that time, our first contact with Hope Rooyakkers was good but it seems like it just ended there. Her coordinator was not that really accommodating which is what we need for the time like this. My husband then asked some of our friends about this doula and it got mixed reviews. Somehow it’s also our fault not checking other doulas. We should’ve compared their programs to other doulas and also the rate. It shows that they are really expensive. So if someone will ask me if i will recommend Empower A Birth Collective? It’s a BIG NO!

[thesecretsofthedivine]

Pick a Pile Reading | Messages From Your Future Spouse 💍🪐

Business Carrd 🍶🧺

Paid Services 🍇⭐

Tip Jar 🍾🎱

*Disclaimer: This is a collective reading - take what resonates and leave the rest. If this resonates with you, please show support by reposting (with credit), tipping, or booking with me! :)

*Exchanges with other intuitives/readers are available via dm's

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PILE 1 COLLECTIVE

• I love the sound of your laughter.

• You’ve turned me into a more carefree person.

• Let’s spend the day baking/cooking then heading right back to bed to cuddle!

• I feel like we could never have enough quality time together.

• You’re my favorite person in the world.

• I’m addicted to your scent.

• We should start a family (🐾/👶).

• You’re my lock screen.

• I tell all my friends about you. If you checked my notifications, all you’d see is a group chat roasting me for how obsessed I am with you.

• There is no place I’d rather be than here with you in my arms.

• I like to watch you sleep. You just seem so peaceful and still that it’s intensely captivating. I hope you don’t mind 😵‍💫.

~ miscellaneous: earth sign placements. homebodies. 2 introverts or an introvert & an extrovert. hard-working, masculine qualities in your spouse. wholesome domestic moments.

PILE 2 COLLECTIVE

• I want to drown in the sea of your existence.

• Dedicating poetry and art to you — my favorite muse.

• There is nothing in the world that I wouldn’t give to have more time with you.

• I’m afraid of loss/dying, but entering old age with you would make my existence complete.

• Please don’t leave me.

• Can I wake you up early if I’m craving your attention? It’s hard for me to contain my excitement when you look this beautiful/attractive.

• Let’s watch the sunset together and stay up late talking for hours.

• Every detail of your existence does not go unnoticed by me.

• We were meant to love each other in this life/I know that we are past life lovers who have found one another again.

• Come on, baby. Don’t be shy with me.

~ miscellaneous: water sign placements (especially scorpio or for their moon sign). 2 night owls or a night owl & a morning person. hozier songs. romantic moments caught on camera/posted online. artist x muse trope.

PILE 3 COLLECTIVE

• You light me on fire with desire.

• I love teasing you more than anything else in the world.

• You’re my best friend and lover, all wrapped into one.

• My heart feels warm and glows from the inside whenever you’re around.

• I can’t lose you. If I do, I’ll go crazy.

• Let’s go for a drive, listen to music, eat food, and forget about our worries.

• I want to be the first person you call when you’re in trouble.

• I will never judge you.

• We will travel everywhere and make the world our own.

• I want to surprise you with grand gestures (especially via gifts or shared experiences).

~ miscellaneous: fire sign placements. ready or not — bridgit mendler. sneaky smirks that make you smile uncontrollably. spontaneous memories or communication. fluffy hair & tan skin features for some.

PILE 4 COLLECTIVE

• Pulling out all my best jokes just for you.

• Give me a nickname and I’ll give you one back.

• How can I possibly deny your charm?!

• Your style is impeccable. Every time we’re in a shop together, I just want to watch you pose in front of the mirror.

• I’ll make you homemade snacks and share my family’s recipes with you!

• Spoiling you with acts of service.

• We don’t even have to speak to understand one another. Mere eye contact is enough.

• You bring out my (good) crazy side 🤪.

• I love how we can always bounce off each other’s energies so well.

• I wanna give you expensive jewelry or items with my initials on it.

~ miscellaneous: air sign placements. a quirky sense of humor. distinct eyebrows. friends to lovers trope (Monica & Chandler came to mind). latin/hispanic backgrounds for some.

[fleshwerks]

This is my late summer wildfire season fey eladrin (more like yeahladrin). His name is 7th of August. Those locust legs will send him flying for about 20 times his own body length. Thus far he's sent himself to fey jesus four times because he is very cool and very stupid. Thrice by his own fireball and once by fall damage. Overshot the cliff's edge by five meters because he can't see shit, lenses thicker than bottle bottoms.

[waining-crescent-moon]

the black swan all drawing what they think sophie will look like and joking about her having brown eyes because she’s part horse

the room was very quiet when forkle and livvy got back from her birth

[mournfulroses]

Chelsea Wolfe, from her song titled "Mother Road," featured in the album Birth of Violence

[unknownarmageddon]

[ there’s something in these woods, and no one knows where they came from or what they are. all they know is that they need to be fed. ]

[lewdssyum]

JAKE MATTHEWS | THE MORTUARY COLLECTION

PLAYED BY JACOB ELORDI

[greenlaut]

it's desmond's birthday 🎉

(inspired by @miralyk 's prof that thought desmond is a deceased friend, here's something to validate that thought sksjkd)

offerings' meanings: *i'm javanese in hokkien + ke diaspora so this is in my culture's context

can of grass jelly drink; i know he's a bartender but i'm not drinking alcohol on an afternoon—plus, grass jelly has herbal purposes here to keep you in good health. desmond definitely needs health. drink up king.

jempiring incense; a type of jasmine flower incense—the smell is sweeter than regular jasmines (in a good way). i reserve this incense for dead people and spirits. it has connotations with the space between the dead and living, ghosts, and innocence of the soul so that you can pass on peacefully.

3 stones i got from forest walks or beach walks. i correspond the colours to altaïr, ezio, and connor. i have no clue what the stones are though.

i don't usually celebrate dead people's birthdays (i celebrate deathversaries mostly), so i don't know how different it is to treat it than regular deathversary kdjskfkdsk

happy birthday desmond miles 💐

[gingermintpepper]

Happy Thursday! Have a list of some of my favourite underrated Apollo factoids!

Father of the Lapiths (and by extension the Centaurs)! While Chiron wasn't Apollo's by birth, an alternate telling of the genesis of centaurs did place Apollo as their father when his lover Stilbe bore him twin sons - Lapithes and Centaurus. Much like the more popular version of the centaurs' genesis which has them as an analogue for wild and untempered desire, this version also features the centaurs causing chaos - both by choosing to mate with the wild mares of the mountainside which resulted in their half man-half horse appearance and by causing a terrible uproar during a wedding ceremony (which, of course, is an alternate telling of the centauromachy wherein Apollo himself comes to quell the wedding quarrel as opposed to Heracles) There's a whole great deal of psychomachia embedded in the opposing of the centaurs with humanity and I've always loved this version due to the way it highlights that centaurs do have the same capability for good that humans do as they have the parentage, but it's their choices that make them beastly - not the circumstances of their birth.

Eurytus, the original owner of the Apollonian bow Odysseus uses and the one Penelope sets apart for the suitors to string in her challenge, was Apollo's grandson. He was such a skilled archer that Apollo gave him one of his own bows and he was even believed to have taught Heracles archery. Unfortunately, he became rather prideful about the whole thing and declared himself an even better archer than Apollo and proceeded to challenge his grandfather to an archery contest wherein Apollo gave him the honour of shooting first and then promptly shot him dead with his own arrow for his insult. Apollo passed the bow on to his much sweeter great-grandson Iphitus who later gave the bow to his good friend Odysseus.

Despite boars usually being regarded as creatures of wild, raging temperament, there's a particular curiousity about the Erymanthian Boar not being called to be slain by Heracles but instead retrieved alive. According to a couple different versions, the Erymantian Boar was either the boar Artemis summoned to kill Adonis for Aphrodite having killed Hippolytus (and thusly, was named after Erymanthos, the marshy region sacred to the goddess where it wandered) or Apollo himself transformed into a boar to kill Adonis because Aphrodite blinded his son Erymanthus (which, accordingly, would be the reason for the boar's name) who saw the goddess bathing after she'd had sex with Adonis and tattled on her (this, naturally, would've occurred between Persephone and Aphrodite's 'cold war' for Adonis). Either way, the Erymanthian Boar was a sacred animal to the twins and provides a very interesting bit of depth to what is one of the more overlooked labours of Heracles. (There's even a bit about a particular temple of Apollo's claiming that they had the boar's tusks enshrined there)

According to Nonnus' Dionysica, after the whole Hyacinthus affair, Apollo had a bit of a phobia of the wind. In particular, there's a passage that describes "...when Zephyros breathed through the flowery garden, Apollon turned a quick eye upon his young darling, his yearning never satisfied; if he saw the plant beaten by the breezes, he remembered the quoit, and trembled for fear the wind..."

In the early days of the Bohemian Grove (that is, an exclusive American gentleman's club) one of the earliest productions put on at their annual meeting is an original work by early American author Will Irwin. His work, which was played at the 1904 meeting, was called the Hamadryads and features a Greek myth OC called Meladon who kidnapped the titular hamadryads (who were actual spirits in greek myth) and trapped them in trees. The play ends when Apollo descends and slays Meladon with an arrow, freeing the hamadryads. This isn't strictly related to classical greek myth but it is also, by far, one of the wildest things I've ever learned while researching modern theatric adaptations of greek dramas and tragedies because the Bohemian Grove is also the center of many conspiracy theories which involve concepts like the New World Order and other such secret society beliefs. Naturally, I had to share this information.

[nursemimosa]

I have something ultra cool and special to share today!

These are the Nov. 2023 and Feb. 2024 issues of Nintendo Dream that, upon me seeing them, resulted in me dropping everything I had to buy them instantly 😅

Both of these focus on the SV DLC, with the second issue pictured above containing some exclusive goodies (a full Jan 2024-Jan 2025 calendar!! and a double sided poster). I'll do a little in depth dive about these below the jump and include some pictures. (also forgive me for the quality of the pictures, I'm just a lil fella with an almost four year old phone...)

The November 2023 issue provides some info about the Teal Mask and things that were to come from the Indigo Disk. Having completed both now, it is really nice to relish in these pictures, trying to imagine what it would have been like to still be waiting in anticipation for the second part!

The February 2024 issue goes a little more in depth about what there is to do in the Indigo Disk, with a (curious, to me) focus on both of the Elite Fours from S/V. I really like this issue a lot more since there are more pages dedicated to the game than the previous one (and not my Paldea Elite Four bias, I swear).

My most favorite things were the included goodies found in the February issue. There was a (giant!) double sided poster and a full year calendar!

The poster on one side contains the promotional art for the Indigo Disk. The second side displays the Paldea Elite Four (my favorite side. As someone who's most favorite characters happen to be the Academy Staff and the Paldea Elite Four, I feel like I happened to stumble upon a holy grail (｡T ω T｡) if only they'd give the academy staff more merch and actual official art though..)

The calendar is small but is packed with cute little tidbits and info about the game. They managed to assign every single day a Pokemon in the S/V dex (my birthday was assigned grafaiai... in case you were wondering).

Even though I wish the magazines kinda focused more on SV (especially the Nov. issue), I'm super elated to have these in my collection :> they're really precious and so bold. The goodies are especially something I will always hold onto.

I'll end the post with a lil' Kieran! have a good one!

[limitbreaker23]

Everything is destiny. When a series of fateful events leads Lan Wangji atop a remote mountain, he stumbles across a blindfolded wanderer looking familiar and close to toppling down a slope. When Jiang Cheng refuses to take off his blindfold, there truly is no other choice.

"Hold onto the ribbon and follow." "Immortal master?" "Hmph!" "L-Lan Wangji?!"

A pair of lost chibis I commissioned @yustinamishka to draw for me! Aren't they cute? Let's follow them down the mountain.

[ultyso]

•Birth by Sleep Final Mix Master Navigation Guide•

[chaosciara]

latest update on my portrait of dorian gray collection

[ultrameganicolaokay]

DC Finest: Harley Quinn - Birth of the Mirth by Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, Kelley Puckett, Mike Parobeck, Karl Kesel, Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson. Cover by Timm. Out in February 2025.

"The Maid of Mischief stars in her very own DC Finest collection featuring her very first comics appearances in the pages of The Batman Adventures #12 and The Batman Adventures: Mad Love #1, plus her follow-up wacky escapades from Batman: Harley Quinn #1, Harley Quinn #1-8, Action Comics #765, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #126, Azrael: Agent of the Bat #60, Batman #570 and #573-574, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #93, Detective Comics #737 and #740-741, Catwoman #82-84 and #89, and a story from Batman: Gotham Knights #14."

[aethergy]

12th House Placements:

“ We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.”

— Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

[loafthecat]

Hey hey see this lil fella-?

His name is Danny and it’s his birthday-!

So uh yeah- I drew the funni Italian man because it’s his b-day-

Everyone wish him a happy birthday ok-?

He is very traumatised and he needs it.

Oc is NOT MINE. Danny belongs to @capturecharlesau ))