About Amanda
Amanda has been serving women and children in Orange County since 2011. Her career began with work in homeless shelters for pregnant women as a birth coach and lactation counselor. Because of this experience, Amanda developed a sensitivity to varying cultural practices and expectations of the body through pregnancy and the postpartum period.
Today, Amanda continues to volunteer and donate to Casa Teresa in Orange while running a private doula practice, Your Birth Team. Amanda is also a prenatal yoga teacher and has seen first-hand how much change occurs over the span of an entire pregnancy. She understands the need for physiological support for the back and midsection after birth, but she also seeks to validate the natural want for the belly to shrink to its pre-pregnancy form.
With belly binding services, Amanda encourages clients to care for and love on their postpartum bodies. She believes the birthing person's body has done incredible work in growing a baby and that it should be celebrated and adorned! Ultimately, Amanda's goal as a Belly Binding Specialist is to help women take their post-birth recovery into their own hands. She doesn't just bind you-she teaches you to bind yourself so you can benefit from daily wrapping.
Amanda offers a variety of additional services to families in Orange County, including Placenta Encapsulation & Car Seat Installation.
About Belly Binding
The concept of wrapping or binding during pregnancy and the postpartum period is not new; many traditional cultures around the world have been belly binding mothers for centuries; the practice has been found in Asian, West African, & Latin American cultures, to name a few. It is often regarded as the crucial first step in the healing process after birth. Belly binding is typically performed with pieces of leather, strips of cloth, long woven material, or braided grasses.
The reasons for wrapping the abdominal area differ slightly from place to place; In Ayurvedic tradition, new mothers are encouraged to wrap tightly in order to expel extra "wind" or "vata" energy in the abdomen, which is thought to cause illness if acculumated. Elsewhere, belly binding is done to encourage the uterus to shift back into its pre-pregnancy position within the body. The constant hugging sensation provided by the binding helps prevent excessive bleeding after birth. More recently in Western cultures, the most common motivation for belly binding is to bring the weakened abdominal muscles back together following pregnancy and slim down after the birth of a baby/babies.
The style of binding most commonly being taught today in Western doula circles is Malaysian Bengkung Belly Binding. Bengkung-style belly binding is performed with long pieces of material, either muslin, batik, or some other form of light cotton. Knots or twists up the midline help secure the material each time it passes around the body, providing structure and cohesiveness in the binding process. Bengkung belly binding is the style of postpartum belly wrapping Amanda most frequently utilizes because it's simple and effective.
Additional Trainings & Certifications:
Recent research has provided a helpful focus on the postpartum recovery and healing needs of women. What we know from these studies is that changes to the body's hormone composition, body posture, and some separation of the rectus abdominis muscles are normal and necessary in order to accomodate a growing baby during pregnancy. But 9-10 months of gradual transformation means time, patience, and lots of self-care are required for proper healing after birth.
In many areas of the world, women are expected to have a "lying in" period of at least one month after birth to jump start postpartum recovery: this is a period of time in which new mothers are in resting positions most of the day, only caring for the most basic needs of her baby and herself. In today's world, the modern mother rarely experiences the immediate postpartum period as a healing one. Often exhausted and overworked, the new mother's body takes much longer than a few weeks to fully repair itself.
Coupled with increasingly sedentary lifestyles that modern pregnant women lead (think sitting at a desk most days or relaxing with Netflix in free time), this lack of adequate down-time for new mothers has led to an increase in the incidence and severity of diastasis recti. This separation can be temporary, but often women find themselves dealing with weak abdominal muscles for months or even years after pregnancy. A weak core leads to chronic back pain, and the most recent research indicates that pelvic floor dysfunction, such as urinary incontinence, is more commonly found in women with diastasis recti.
The goal of belly binding in the first few weeks postpartum is to quickly support the body and discourage further separation of the muscles as life with a new baby gets busy. Along with a healthy diet, lots of rest, and self-care practices, postpartum belly binding can may help you prevent long-term diastasis recti, back pain, posture issues, and pelvic floor muscle weakness.
Amanda is a Birthing From Within practicioner, offering truly non-judgemental support to any family in Orange County, CA. She is LGBTQA embracing, has experience with genderqueer folks, does not discriminate based on any religious, ethnic, or cultural characteristics, and is plus-size friendly/all-body friendly. Wraps by Amanda cost the same whether you are a size 0, 22, or anything else on the spectrum.
She is sensitive to families who have had high-risk pregnancies, care for children with special needs, those with fertility treatment history, and families who are expecting loss-whether by miscarriage, abortion, or stillbirth.
