New Boston native walks the path of pregnancy with local mothers to show them there is Moore than Birth
By Kenny Mitchell
Pregnancy and having a child can be one of the most beautiful experiences a mother can have, while at the same time being one of the biggest challenges of their life.
Whether those months are easy for the mother, or filled with challenges, having someone there to help face all that may come with having a child is a blessing.
That is where Channing Moore and Moore than Birth comes in.
Moore is a New Boston native that is now a Certified Childbirth International Birth Doula and the heart behind Moore Than Birth. A doula is a trained, non-medical professional who provides ongoing physical, emotional, and informational support to a person and their family before, during, or after childbirth.
A doula does not deliver a newborn child or replace professional medical care but rather takes part in the process of pregnancy by providing much needed support for the mother.
Channing says she created Moore Than Birth out of a belief that childbirth is a transformation, a preparation, a surrender and the beginning of a new chapter…each one contributing to it being “Moore than Birth.”
Moore says that as a doula, her heart is to walk alongside mothers and families with compassionate support, encouragement, and faith throughout their birth journey, while assuring those that she cares for that they deserve to be heard and informed while they receive compassionate support. She wants them to know that they have someone to walk alongside them during their journey to childbirth.
As a Christian doula, Moore is guided by words found in Genesis 8:11 which state, “When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.”
She explains the importance of that verse by saying, “Each contraction rises and washes over you just like the flood waters, but each time the contraction recedes just as it came. That message of hope and renewal is one I hold close. Birth holds so many emotions such as anticipation, excitement, uncertainty, strength, fear, joy, and surrender. Then comes the moment when everything changes. A new life. A new beginning. A new chapter.”
Moore drew the inspiration to follow on her path to be a doula from personal experience.
She says when going through her pregnancy with her first son, Beau, she knew she wanted to utilize a doula and a birth center to help her through the process. She now credits that birth experience to Stacy Hutchins, her doula and then birth education teacher in the Dallas area. She gleaned from Hutchins’ teaching and experience that mothers today need to be prepared for marathon length labor and be prepared to go past 40 weeks gestation. “We try to teach them to be prepared to have the endurance and for the pregnancy to go longer than expected.”
Fully certified now through Childbirth International, Moore states that the self-paced training allowed her to get her certification while she worked to support her ever growing family, that now includes Beau and his twin sisters Ava and Ellis. Beau is now five years old and the twins are now three.
It was the birth of those twin girls that led Moore back home to Bowie County where she is surrounded by her family and a community that loves her and her family. Coming home gave Moore the time she needed to finish her training and to receive her certification in March of 2026.
It was also in March that she began Moore than Birth, and since that time, Moore has been busy, walking the path through pregnancy with multiple mothers in the last few months, while she is also in the process of earning a certification in childbirth education.
She says, “That certification will allow me to help first time mothers and many others as they deal with all of the things that come with childbirth and motherhood. Working in the labor and delivery area of a local hospital, I saw the need, and I want to help.”
Moore wants all of the mothers that she helps to know that birth preparation can be about so much more than medical preferences, and that it is also about knowing what helps them feel grounded, supported, peaceful and encouraged through one of life's biggest moments.
She also encourages those that she walks with to make space for faith in their birth and notes, “As a Christian, I believe God is present in those moments, even when birth doesn’t look exactly the way we imagined it would.”
If you would like to learn more about Moore than Birth, look for her on Facebook, email her at moorethanbirth@gmail.com, or give Channing a call at 903-908-0392.
Comments