Welcome to the world, sweet girl! We are so glad that you are here!

• Zero-waste home products

• This sucked up more of my time this week than I’m willing to admit

• Questions you can ask instead of “how are you?”

• We Have Ruined Childhood

• A special edition Kånken made entirely from polyester recycled from plastic bottles

• Have you considered a daily uniform?

• Make these for me and I’ll love you forever

If you’re in Minneapolis and St. Paul, check out these fantastic businesses:

• Hola Postpartum: a fantastic postpartum meal delivery service

• Soul Lao: Lao food made with heart

• Doula du Nord: an excellent postpartum doula who is now offering tuck-in support and evening support to families in the Twin Cities

Did you do anything fun this week? Do you have any big plans for the weekend? I’m hoping to get out on my bike or my kayak (or both!) for some time in this gorgeous late-summer air.

First: The Amazon Rainforest is burning. The Amazon Rainforest provides 20% of the Earth’s oxygen, is home to more than 400 indigenous groups, and houses 30% of the world’s species. It’s currently burning at an unprecedented rate—up more than 80% from this time last year—thanks in large part to environmental deregulation that has encouraged deforestation.

• Consider supporting Indigenous people and their fight to protect the Amazon rainforest by donating to Instituto Socioambiental (ISA).

• Read more here about Indigenous activists working to save the Amazon Rainforest.

• Purchase Rain Forest Alliance certified goods. Support companies that champion ethical rubber production. Consider the source of agricultural products like beef, soy, and palm oil, many of which rely on deforestation of the Amazon for production.

Now, my weekly links:

• Life with Lyme Disease

• How To Be Successful Without Hurting Men’s Feelings

• Call-Out Culture: is it toxic?

• An app that helps you avoid giving money to the bad guys

• Simple steps to help you enjoy life

• Steven Colbert on grief

• When marriage is war

• “Lonely George died on New Year’s Day 2019. He was a Hawai‘ian tree snail…”

• Do you know the most effective climate change solutions?

• I would have LOVED to have been part of a dropping when I was younger. Still would, in fact!

• Interested in living more consciously? Watch these movies to learn more

• Non-binary and navigating “motherhood”

• The funeral industry is worth $17 billion… Have you considered another option?

Finally, two older links that are still very relevant:

• “10 Books About Race To Read Instead Of Asking A Person Of Color To Explain Things To You”

  • (I own several of these books and would be happy to lend any of them to you!)

• “Why People of Color Need Spaces Without White People”

In integrated spaces, patterns of white dominance are inevitable. These patterns include things like being legitimized for using academic language, an expectation of “getting it right” (i.e., perfectionism), fear of open conflict, scapegoating those who cause discomfort, and a sense of urgency that takes precedence over inclusion.

These patterns happen even when white people are doing the work of examining their privilege. They can happen even when facilitators design and model more inclusive ways of being together. Why?

The values of whiteness are the water in which we all swim. No one is immune. Those values dictate who speaks, how loud, when, the words we use, what we don’t say, what is ignored, who is validated and who is not. Unless we are actively and persistently dismantling these constructs, we are abiding by them. In integrated spaces (where we are less likely to be ourselves given the divisions that white dominance has created), we fall into the roles society has assigned us. As a person of color, and perhaps the only one in the room, it’s exhausting to always be swimming upstream. To survive in this society, we learn to hold our tongue, to “code switch” to fit in. This is about survival and the basic human need to feel that we belong.

If you’re in Minneapolis and St. Paul, check out these fantastic businesses:

• Hola Postpartum: a fantastic postpartum meal delivery service

• Doula du Nord: an excellent postpartum doula who is now offering tuck-in support and evening support to families in the Twin Cities

• Soul Lao: Lao food made with heart

Did you do anything fun this week? Do you have any big plans for the weekend? I’m hoping to get out on my bike or my kayak (or both!) for some time in this gorgeous late-summer air.

• I am not impressed by this response to a recent scandal in the birth community

• Here’s why we need to preserve natural lands

• Clean eating websites

• Two of my favorite authors sat down to talk and…

• The evidence and ethics on circumcision

• Read this if your kids are on social media

• How to give constructive criticism

• Heartbreaking

• Whoa! A photographer captured a near-miss on Lake Superior

• “6 Ways to Talk to Your Kids About What’s Happening in America Right Now”

• On neutral politics and privilege

• Need an icebreaker? Here! Have 200 of them

• Body acceptance in pregnancy

• Let’s talk more about pelvic floor health

• On-Screen Chemistry

• Five ways to cope after trauma

If you’re in Minneapolis and St. Paul, check out these fantastic businesses:

• Hola Postpartum: a fantastic postpartum meal delivery service

• Doula du Nord: an excellent postpartum doula who is now offering tuck-in support and evening support to families in the Twin Cities

• Soul Lao: Lao food made with heart

Did you do anything fun this week? Do you have any big plans for the weekend? I’m shooting the wedding of a former birth client and I am so excited to be there with them as they celebrate this milestone! Gather is doing a special giveaway of some of my absolute favorite products, and you should enter! Visit this post and follow the prompts for your chance(s) to win! A winner will be drawn on Aug 17, so hurry!

• Meal planning with kids

• I am secretly good at and secretly not-so-good at the same as Jo is

• Here’s how to buy ethically responsible souvenirs

If you’re in Minneapolis and St. Paul, check out these fantastic businesses:

• Hola Postpartum: a fantastic postpartum meal delivery service

• Doula du Nord: an excellent postpartum doula who is now offering tuck-in support and evening support to families in the Twin Cities

• Soul Lao: Lao food made with heart

Did you do anything fun this week? Do you have any big plans for the weekend? I’m heading to the Hobo Convention, and rearranging some furniture at home. Have a great weekend!

• I am always into Lizzo content. Have you seen her Tiny Desk Concert yet?

• I love the idea of a “green legacy”

• “…the ability to forget is crucial to how the brain works.”

• “The tattoo doesn’t need to mean anything, unless I want it to.”

• I made these for dinner one night this week and I’m adding them to the permanent rotation

• Have you ever read a book about menopause?

• Worth a read, and then another read

• “I Had A Miscarriage”

• Do you hem and mend your own clothes? Here’s a tutorial

• What do you care about?

• I loved seeing so many of my favorite ceramicists featured here

• On creating better connections

• Speaking of beautiful objects, how GOOD are these!

• A safe and simple way to add bees to your backyard

If you’re in Minneapolis and St. Paul, check out these fantastic businesses:

• Hola Postpartum: a fantastic postpartum meal delivery service

• Doula du Nord: an excellent postpartum doula who is now offering tuck-in support and evening support to families in the Twin Cities

• Tare Market: helping the planet by providing resources to reduce waste

On a personal note, I’m offering a special on my intimate Real Postpartum sessions in celebration of World Breastfeeding Week. I’d love it if you’d spread the word! Have a great weekend!

• “In so many cases rapists have help in the moment and forever after, and the help is often so powerful, broad, and deep—well, that’s why we call it rape culture.”

• The rise of coffee shaming

• #IStandWithIlhan

• “Lord Almighty,” she says, “folks of privilege don’t understand how $17 can ruin you.”

• What the media gets wrong about racism

• On cultivating joy in the face of injustice

• If men carried purses…

• Diverse toys for the kiddos in your life (again, representation matters!)

• Speaking of kids: be a sportscaster, not a referee

• A trip to France, anyone?

• Here’s why you should read what your kids are reading

• I look forward to these nature photos every year

If you’re in Minneapolis and St. Paul, check out these fantastic businesses:

• Hola Postpartum: a fantastic postpartum meal delivery service

• Northern Natural Gardens: a sustainable landscape company specializing in native plants, pollinator gardens, and invasive plant removal and I am so stoked about their mission

• Tare Market: helping the planet by providing resources to reduce waste

On a personal note, I’m offering a special on my intimate Real Postpartum sessions in celebration of the upcoming World Breastfeeding Week. I’d love it if you’d spread the word! Have a great weekend!

Welcome to the world, sweet boy! We’re so glad you’re here!

Meredith Westin: Birth Photography and Doula Services in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota

• Home fertility test options

• MightyNest is a company committed to helping households on the path toward living more sustainably at home

• A necklace for activists

• The God of Small Things is one of my all-time favorite books. This conversation with author Arundhati Roy is goooood stuff.

• Whoa. Sailing with toddlers for crew

• Myths about cast iron pans

• Tips for traveling responsibly in an era of climate change

• A good way to clean off sandy baby bums

• Socially responsible investing

• The 3.5 rule (and how a small minority can change the world)

• What’s on your summer checklist?

• Would you order your birth control online?

If you’re in Minneapolis and St. Paul, check out these fantastic businesses:

• Hola Postpartum: a fantastic postpartum meal delivery service

• Northern Natural Gardens: a sustainable landscape company specializing in native plants, pollinator gardens, and invasive plant removal and I am so stoked about their mission

• Tare Market: helping the planet by providing resources to reduce waste

On a personal note, I’m offering a special on my intimate Real Postpartum sessions in celebration of the upcoming World Breastfeeding Week. I’d love it if you’d spread the word! Have a great weekend!

• Children’s books about families crossing the border

• On being the financial breadwinner

• Green flags

• “I’m scared of giving birth.”

• “Created in the anger-fueled, politically fiery months following the 2016 election of Donald Trump to the presidency, the Resistance Revival Chorus, and activist choirs like it, ask one question: can music be a tool for social change? The answer: absolutely.”

• One of the most underrated ways to measure your professional success

• Real life

• We often say “yes,” when we should be saying “no” because we are concerned that we will hurt someone’s feelings.

• On Myers-Briggs and Tinder

• 7 signs you’re an introverted interior decorator

• “My best friend left her laptop to me in her will. Twenty years later, I turned it on and began my inquest.”

• I’ve been managing the takeovers of the Birth Becomes Her instagram account and I’m so thrilled by the work the hosts have been putting in. If you don’t already follow BBH, click on through and press the Follow button. :D

• Speaking of gorgeous birth photography, have you seen this photo? So serene and lovely!

• Taquitos!

• Do you share finances with your partner?

• Read the comments on this post for amazing terrible date stories!

If you’re in Minneapolis and St. Paul, check out these fantastic businesses:

• Hola Postpartum: a fantastic postpartum meal delivery service

• Northern Natural Gardens: a sustainable landscape company specializing in native plants, pollinator gardens, and invasive plant removal and I am so stoked about their mission

• Get Organized.: a non-judgmental Minneapolis-based professional organizer

On a personal note, I’m offering a special on my intimate Real Postpartum sessions in celebration of the upcoming World Breastfeeding Week. I’d love it if you’d spread the word! Have a great weekend!

When this strong mama reached out to me and Gina several months ago about booking our doula support + birth photography package, we were thrilled. Our meeting at a Starbucks in downtown St. Paul was full of laughs and I was able to look forward to capturing her birth in photographs for ages because she planned ahead and secured our services before we booked up. Smart mama! The day finally arrived and we met her at the birth center bright and early. When I walked in, I could hear the telltale signs of a woman in active labor. She powered through HOURS of labor and finally finally finally got to meet her baby in the middle of the afternoon after utilizing sterile water injections (twice!), the TENS machine, and all the doula tricks Gina could muster.

Doula: Gina of the sown seed

Welcome to the world, sweet boy! We are so glad you’re here!

• This is important: things you can do today to help children at the border

• Is your favorite company greenwashing?

• On laying fallow

• Living that zero waste life, or participating in #plasticfreejuly? I adore Ambatalia’s products and just added her Jar Tote to my wish list

• “Here is what I know to be true about humans: We want to change; we want to be good, better, best.”

• I really like these toys for kids

• Related, one family’s methods for keeping toys under control at home

• I’ll take one of each, please

• The Classist, Sexist Reasons Critics Keep Latching Onto Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Service Background

• The importance of empathy - with great links at the bottom of the article, too!

• On avoiding buyer’s remorse

• A stunning before and after by one of my favorite designers

• Do you know about the Be My Eyes app? Sign up to receive video calls from blind and low-vision people when they need assistance with a task.

• Three easy summer recipes

• “Sometime on new year’s day, as the people of Hawaii recovered from a night of revelry, in a trailer on the outskirts of Kailua, Oahu, a 14-year-old snail named George died.”

• You should grill heads of garlic

• 18 Questions, 21 Candidates

• Did you watch the USNWT beat England on Tuesday? “They play the game as a form of incursion, as a battle for female sovereignty, and so the stakes have always been higher for them than just the final score.”

• Advice for new parents

If you’re local, check out these fantastic businesses:

• Hola Postpartum: a fantastic postpartum meal delivery service

• Northern Natural Gardens: a sustainable landscape company specializing in native plants, pollinator gardens, and invasive plant removal and I am so stoked about their mission

• Hairy Poppins: a Dog Trainer Professional who geeks out on dog behavior and training. She uses evidence-based positive training techniques, and understands the importance of effective communication and consistency while working with and walking dogs. Serving South Minneapolis for walks and training.

Don’t forget to watch the World Cup final at 10 am on Sunday the 7th! Regardless of who you’re rooting for, supporting women’s sports is always a good call. On a personal note, I’m offering a special on my intimate Real Postpartum sessions in celebration of the upcoming World Breastfeeding Week. I’d love it if you’d spread the word! Have a great weekend!

• This is important: things you can do today to help children at the border

• “I don’t care if you recycle”

• I’m heading to Portugal in the fall and I’ve started researching what to do while I’m there. This, this, and this were at the top of the search results. Have you been? I’d love to hear from you! So far, all I know is that we’re flying in and out of Lisbon.

• While we’re in Portugal, we might also dip down to Morocco for a few days! I’ve been browsing gorgeous photos on Instagram tagged with different cities in Morocco. I’m obsessed with the idea of visiting Chefchaouen. Doesn’t it look amazing?

• Size-inclusive clothing brands

• Karl Lagerfeld’s library is WOW

• “While we make 35,000 conscious decisions in a given day, it turns out that about 45 percent of what we do is rooted in habit.”

• Summer books for kids

• “We're waking up to talking about the uncomfortable things and sharing what really matters. We're moving towards a more emotionally intelligent world where people get that YOU CAN FEEL MORE THAN ONE THING and that tending to our tender little hearts as much as we tend to these squishy, amazing bods is important and life-giving.” An amazing Ted Talk by my first birth client!

• On dinner parties

• Stylish tabletop items for kids

• Would you like to have a bunch of extra money? This shit works, dude.

• Data bias against women

• Old but good: “Hair removal, at its core, is a form of gendered social control.”

• Body positivity in the Twin Cities

• From Wear Your Voice: the list of companies profiting from detaining migrants at the US border.

If you’re local, check out these fantastic businesses:

• Hola Postpartum: a fantastic postpartum meal delivery service

• Northern Natural Gardens: a sustainable landscape company specializing in native plants, pollinator gardens, and invasive plant removal and I am so stoked about their mission

• Hairy Poppins: a Dog Trainer Professional who geeks out on dog behavior and training. She uses evidence-based positive training techniques, and understands the importance of effective communication and consistency while working with and walking dogs. Serving South Minneapolis for walks and training.

On a personal note, I’m offering a special on my intimate Real Postpartum sessions in celebration of the upcoming World Breastfeeding Week. I’d love it if you’d spread the word! Have a great weekend!

Welcome to the world, sweet girl. We’re so glad you're here!

• “…we’ve raised a generation that believes all news should be wonderful, plentiful and free. There is the increasingly false hope that online ads are keeping newsrooms afloat.”

• Why apologies matter

• I’ve had this recipe pulled up for weeks but I still haven’t made it. It’s time!

• “Data from a federal program designed to compensate people harmed by vaccines shows how rare it is for someone to claim they were hurt after getting vaccinated.”

• A new natural deodorant with refills

•  What is this thing we call meaning, and why might we need it so badly?

• I’ve been a fan of David Sedaris since middle school and I just added his new book to my wishlist

• Swimwear for breastfeeding mamas

• One of the most influential public health officials in the world said last week that he will no longer speak on scientific panels if they don't include women

• Yum!

• Ways to help out a new mom

• The scary future has already arrived. Here’s why people don’t care.

• The Secret Rebellion of Amelia Bedelia

• I’m digging this new home accessories line

• “I hear, see, and smell things in the world where others also hear, see, and smell me. And it takes a break to remember that: a break to do nothing to just listen, to remember in the deepest sense what, when, and where we are.” Also on my wishlist.

• Being present requires singular focus

• “…the placenta might hold the key to one of the most enduring mysteries in human medicine: Why do women suffer much higher rates of autoimmune disease than men do?“

• 101 simple ways to fight climate change

• Here’s why Juneteenth should be a national holiday

• What is the most common language in your state (other than English or Spanish)?

If you’re in the Twin Cities, check out these fantastic businesses:

• Hairy Poppins: a Dog Trainer Professional who geeks out on dog behavior and training. She uses evidence-based positive training techniques, and understands the importance of effective communication and consistency while working with and walking dogs. Serving South Minneapolis for walks and training.

• Hola Postpartum: a fantastic postpartum meal delivery service

• Northern Natural Gardens: a sustainable landscape company specializing in native plants, pollinator gardens, and invasive plant removal and I am so stoked about their mission

On a personal note, I spent some time with a different kind of client this week doing a Website Review. If you are a doula, birth photographer, or other kind of birth worker in Minneapolis, St. Paul, or the surrounding areas and you’d like to grow your business, get in touch! Also, I’m offering a special on my intimate Real Postpartum sessions in celebration of the upcoming World Breastfeeding Week. I’d love it if you’d spread the word! Have a great weekend!

Welcome to the world, sweet boy! We’re so glad you’re here!

Meredith Westin Photography: Birth Story Films + Birth Announcement Films in Minneapolis and St. Paul