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tess williams

@localmidwife

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🇵🇸
Midwife.
Lyme life.
Permaculture.
Tiny house.
Endless renovation.
TX ➡ WA

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My brother and sister-in-law came all the way from Boston for their first visit since Dinah was still tucked up in my belly. 🥹

We had the sweetest time playing, catching up, welcoming the autumn weather, peeping the changing colors, and gathering around our first fire of the season. A little slower, a little cozier, a whole lot of play, and the kind of ordinary magic that makes a season feel special. by @localmidwife

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4 days ago

Cora's first day of her last year at farm school 🌲 🦌 🌸🖌️🪺☀️ 🏔️ by @localmidwife

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a month ago

Part one of @kurinadele and Valencia’s birthday story 🥹

I walked in and it was already so peaceful, Kurin was focused and her best friend was supporting her while her husband rested. As contractions picked up her midwife @localmidwife showed up and supported her and baby in such a gentle way🤍

#spokanebirthphotographer #birthphotography #birthbelongstowomen by @localmidwife

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a month ago

It’s one of those things that feels very dramatic for something that usually comes back completely normal.

In 15 years of midwifery, I’ve had two newborn screens come back positive.

One was a false positive.
The other? A baby who was born without a thyroid. 😳
That second one is exactly why I’m a firm believer in newborn screening.

Most of the time, it’s boring. Beautifully, wonderfully boring. You get the “everything looks fine!” result and move on with your life.

But very occasionally, it catches something that you absolutely want to know about before the baby starts showing obvious signs that something is wrong.

So yes, I know. It’s one more heel poke. One more little cry. One more thing on the postpartum to-do list when you’re already operating on approximately 14 minutes of sleep.
But in my opinion?
Very rarely scary. Always needed. ❤️ by @localmidwife

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a month ago

Birth can look sudden from the outside while being built slowly, intentionally, and tenderly for months beforehand.
Sometimes the fastest births have the longest beginnings. 🤍
& Sometimes the work of birth happens long before labor.
In the relationship. In trust. In softening. In belief. In feeling safe and secure.

So when birth finally comes, it can roll quickly.
Not because the work was done, but because so much groundwork had already been laid.
Feeling grateful to sit on my hands and watch birth unfold in all of it's wonder for this one.

I'm off call for a whopping two weeks so ✌🏼 while I go camp and unplug for a bit. by @localmidwife

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2 months ago

There are seasons in midwifery that ask everything of you: your hands, your heart, your belief.

Tonight, the moon turns red (&& I took this photo with my freaking phone how even), and I’m reminded that even darkness has a rhythm.
Midwifery has taught me that there are seasons of birth. Seasons of loss. Seasons of simply learning how to keep showing up.
The moon moves through shadow and still finds its way back to light.
So do we. by @localmidwife

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2 months ago

Two years of Dinah. 🥹🌿

She consumed the first ripe peach from the tree planted over her placenta: naturally, it had to be hers. 🍑

I smoked a whole stack of “meat” for her because this girl has been a carnivore from the beginning, happily sustained by meat and blueberries.

Then came her first taste of cake… and the faces were *everything*. She gave it a valiant effort, but ultimately chose the peach. Of course.

Her big sister helped decorate for her birthday and then her Puq gifted her a bamboo fuzzy blanket to match her sister's.

And after all the excitement, there she was: still my little baby, all cozied up and nursing in my arms....

Two years of watching this wild, funny, strong, opinionated, tender little soul become exactly who she is.
Happy birthday, my Dinah girl. 🤎 by @localmidwife

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2 months ago

Most people don’t plan a vacation around wildfire season… but when your brother gets assigned to a fire suppression helicopter in Libby, Montana, and it happens to line up with your one weekend off call, you take the stars as a sign. 🚁🔥

My parents (freshly relocated to Spokane) tagged along with the camper my brother lived in last year at a Washington helibase while flying cherry drying missions last year. Because apparently our family vacations come with a side of aviation stories. 😂

Watching my girls crawl around that pop-up camper was pure nostalgia as I spent nearly every weekend of my childhood camping in one with my parents. Full circle moments hit differently.

Also… pretty cool watching my brother live a dream of flying helicopters for firefighting.❤️

Highlights include:

-witnessing my brother's "on-call" life, swinging in a hammock- to blades up in less than fifteen minutes.

-catching the sound of his helicopter from the splash pad and watching him head back to base to refuel then back to the fire- all while Cora screams excitedly waving at her "Cha Cha Ian".

- exploring the Koocanusa and the Kootenai for "toddler-friendly" beaches. taken in Libby, Montana by @localmidwife

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3 months ago

Cora called it "girly day" in Kettle Falls. We had a prenatal/playdate for a family up north whose baby we're meeting very soon.

Slide 3 is my favourite : "Mama! I thought the crawdad was dead .. BUT IT'S ALIIIIIVE!"
The sweetness of summer is sleeping in and I am basking in it. taken in Meyers Falls by @localmidwife

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4 months ago

Pregnancy doesn’t simply grow a baby. It transforms a mother.
Layer by layer, season by season, we are reshaped into the exact mother our child is arriving to meet.

A pink glitter flower pressed onto a growing belly. A peony opening itself fully after months of unseen work beneath the surface. Reminders that becoming rarely looks dramatic while we’re inside of it. Most of the sacred work happens quietly.
We are softened and strengthened. Broken open and remade. Blooming, too. 🌸 by @localmidwife

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5 months ago

Day 3/4 post tongue-tie release. by @localmidwife

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5 months ago

Before my daughters,
there were three small souls
who brushed against me
like candle smoke.

People speak of motherhood
as though it begins
with a crying infant laid upon the chest.
But motherhood began for me
in longing and loss.
And I speak of this because of women before me who swallowed their sorrow whole, and shrank themselves until everyone else was fed.

Recently I heard the lyric,
“the mother comes first,” (the song on this post)

and something ancient in me stirred.

Because maybe that is the shift we need,
a world where mothers are not asked
to disappear to prove their love.
Where women are nourished too.
Where care is sacred, not self-erasure.
I want my daughters to inherit that world.

One where the mother is not the afterthought,
but the heartbeat. The pulse. The breath. by @localmidwife

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5 months ago