Fill Your Cup Birth + Wellness
Supporting families in St. Augustine, Jacksonville, and surrounding areas in Florida. Office located within the heart of St. Augustine within the St. Augustine Birth Collective.
Fill Your Cup
Taking care of yourself = Keeping your cup full
We can only provide care for others when our needs are fully met - when we have grounding nutrition, daily self-care practices, body and breath work, a supportive and understanding community, as well as movement. This can be a tough concept for many birthing people and even us all navigating all seasons of parenthood. We often feel like we are over-extended, pulled in many directions, and seeking tranquility. You owe yourself the love you give others. We’ve been programmed genetically and socially to be the caregivers, to put others first; but, self-health is key to providing emotional, mental, and physical care for others. Fill Your Cup Birth + Wellness offers education and guidance towards optimal health, comfort, and daily grounding practices based on one of Earth’s oldest medicines (Ayurveda, the science of natural law) - helping keep your cup full! This not only impacts birth outcomes, but health in womanhood for years to follow.
Our mission is to help fill the cup of our modern-day mother through traditional medicine lens and to improve birth and postpartum outcomes by providing a continuity of care.
⋒ When her cup is full, she has so much more to give. ⋒
☼ Childbirth Education ☼ The Well-Informed Birth Team
☼ Childbirth Education ☼ The Well-Informed Birth Team
Bringing a combined 24 years of education together, Alyssa and Katharine have designed an in-person, interactive, physiological birth focused course for families birthing in the hospital, birth center, and homebirth settings. They noticed a huge need for education here after moving from Colorado and California - two states that have higher vaginal success rates and a more modernized approach in comparison to the state of Florida.
Classes are four hours long, a light, organic meal and refreshments served, and a community container for families to expand their knowledge on childbirth and postpartum education. Hosted at the St. Augustine Birth Collective and The Playgarden in Jacksonville Beach. Both hospital provider and homebirth provider approved!
What is a doula?
A doula is a highly skilled companion and support person who works with both the birthing person and partner during labor, childbirth, and the postpartum period. They provide Physical, Informational, and Educational support (think of “pie”) while utilizing positions to help with fetal position and descent in the pelvis, enhance mom’s comfort, and to help provide an unbiased sounding board to help the parents make the best choices for their family! The goal of a doula is to help bridge the gap between medical providers and parents - trust is simply enhanced when all parties are able to communicate fluently. They often have various continued education and certifications to bring to the table and each one has something beautifully unique to bring to the laboring room and immediate postpartum time (experience, collaboration with those in the birth community, offerings, community support, and monthly birth attendance load).
Overall, the evidence shows that families who have doula support (other than a family member or friend), have a higher likelihood of having a vaginal birth, shorter laboring time, less interventions, less perineal trauma, higher breastfeeding success rate and are a form of pain management.
Located within the St. Augustine Birth Collective
An empowered birth and postpartum experience occurs when there is transparent, collaborative, and cohesive care between all team members! Alyssa enjoys having the support of Florida Homebirth Licensed Midwife, Tiffany Martin, LM, CPM, Bluebird Pediatrics, New Wave Chiropractic, Love Bug Lactation, and Sarah Karsmarski Acupuncture by her side within a community-oriented space here in the heart of St. Augustine. Alyssa runs free pregnancy and new mother circles within this space for those birthing within all settings: homebirth, birth center, and hospital. Even if you are not a client of hers or Tiffany, all are welcome to these groups! Space holding is the goal of these groups - the art of holding a safe, non-judgmental, and accepting environment where mothers and mothers-to-be can share both their differing and unique experiences and emotions without feeling pressured to fix problems while being seen and heard. We all more more in common than we think and building our community starts in pregnancy. Alyssa is planning to host more circles at the space for women in all seasons of life in the future…
In addition to her groups and seeing birth and postpartum clients in this space, she also sees clients of all ages for both Ayurvedic Medicine consultation and for Craniosacral Therapy as well. In her office space, she has a small herbal apothecary with health and wellness products and individualized formulas for sale.
About Alyssa
Alyssa Megeath is a DONA International Certified Birth Doula, Certified Ayurvedic Medicine Prenatal, and Postnatal Specialist. Alyssa is the only certified holistic birth and postpartum doula in Jacksonville and St. Augustine, Florida area with alternative medicine training, focusing on preparing for conception, pregnancy, and the postpartum window.
Philosophy
Warmest welcome and congratulations during this exciting time! Whether you are trying to conceive, expecting a child, seeking additional support during the healing time after birth, or looking to take charge of your overall health and wellness, I am honored to serve you and stand beside you. Chances are, if you have stumbled upon my website, you or a loved one are searching for an experienced Birth and Postpartum Doula or an Ayurvedic Medicine Practitioner in St. Johns County, St. Augustine, or Jacksonville, Florida. Over the last eight years, I have practiced in Boulder, Colorado full-time from 2017-2021 and have re-located to the heart of St. Augustine in 2021. It has been a blessing to work within the state of Colorado, where Vaginal Success Rate and Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Rate (VBAC) is extremely high and access to doulas, body workers, and cutting-edge maternity care is the norm. Working in Colorado has allowed me to bring this fresh perspective here to the South, where birth and postpartum outcomes are some of the last rated in the country.
Since relocating here to the nation’s oldest city, North St. Augustine, I have worked with families all throughout Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, St. Johns County, St. Augustine, St. Augustine Beach, Vilano Beach, Nocatee, Ponte Vedra, World Golf Village, Shearwater, Green Cove Springs, Palm Coast, Daytona, and every where in between.
As someone who holds space for and supports all families from various walks of life, my goal is to help educate and build a close relationship with you so that I can help you have an empowered birthing and postpartum experience as well as help you achieve your health goals. For those seeking to take charge of their health and treat the whole body, not just the symptom, we work together to help you feel vibrant through daily routine, individualized nutrition, and herbal support.
Working within all birthing and postpartum atmospheres is important to me, from hospital, birth center, and homebirth, along with being in the home supporting the whole family unit during the sacred postnatal period, the First 42 Days. According to Ayurvedic Medicine, this time sets the tone for the Birthing Person’s health and wellness for years to come along with establishing the family’s balance.
Each of us has a special pregnancy, birth, and postpartum story - I look forward to helping you create yours!
EDUCATING YOU. EMPOWERING YOU. NOURISHING YOU. ADVOCATING FOR YOU.
“I know Alyssa as a colleague and see her on the back end of things (aka: not during births and in between postpartum meal prep) and I see the dedication she has for her clients. She goes far beyond “above and beyond” for her clients. I am continuously amazed at the love and support she gives Mothers and families on a daily basis. I feel blessed to know her and even more blessed to be able to have a quality resource for my pregnant and postpartum patients.”
— Dr. Nichelle Gurule, Live Loud Chiropractic
