Homegrown Families hosts sweet potato contest and fundraiser Oct. 1

  Something sweet is in the air. The seventh annual sweet potato cooking contest and fundraiser is happening Saturday, Oct. 1. This event will also double as the fall open house for the new Homegrown Families Health and Education Center at 201 Charlotte St. The center houses a variety of integrative family health services, including licensed […]

New birthing center highlights Asheville-area services

Although New Dawn Midwifery closes at the end of March, safe and supported birthing options abound in the Asheville area, including hospitals with obstetricians, hospitals with midwives and the WNC Birth Center, which is set to open this spring on South French Broad Avenue. Professionals across the region continue to advocate for education and support as the keys to making choices during childbirth. […]

Dancing with spirit: Birth dancing fosters a connection among women

Michelle Dionne, who teaches birth dancing and belly dancing classes in Asheville and the surrounding area, says that giving birth doesn’t have to look like it does in the movies. In classes and workshops, Dionne encourages women to give birth standing up and teaches core-based movements derived from ancient belly-dancing techniques. The goal is to help ease the pain, quicken labor and “keep [women] in their bodies, keep them focused where the action is.”

Photos: Local mothers graduate from nurse-family partnershi­p program

As children played and laughed, proud mothers and nurses smiled, too. After spending more than two years together, 10 local mothers graduated from the Buncombe County Nurse-Family Partnership program. The public health program pairs registered nurses with low-income, first-time mothers. As one mother said, “It is a bond that I will never forget.” (photo by Caitlin Byrd)

Labor of love

A handwritten thank-you note dangles on the wall of the Charlotte Street office where Chelsea Kouns spends most of her time. When the 27-year-old isn’t clocking in at her two part-time jobs, she’s there working for free on her labor of love: Start From Seed, an Asheville nonprofit organization that provides free birth and postpartum […]

On birth and becoming

It’s spring again in the mountains, and my daughter, Karoline Lucinda Johnson, is almost 1 year old. It’s hard to believe. She came in the month of May, when the mountain laurel was blooming. People tried to tell me how profoundly giving birth would change my life, but I could never have fathomed the incredible […]