A word about gender...
I wholeheartedly acknowledge that not everyone who gives birth identifies as being a woman. Their perspective is important.
A word about gender...
I wholeheartedly acknowledge that not everyone who gives birth identifies as being a woman. Their perspective is important.
You will see, though, that as I talk generally on this website I use the term "mother" and "woman" in lieu of "parent" and "birthing person". This is not meant to cause offense or alienate this lived experience. It is because the activism of our birth work movement is majorly in response to a 500 year system of patriarchy which has repressed, vilified, and even criminalized women's traditional healing practices and innate birth wisdom, so I personally find it imperative to keep saying the word "mother" and "woman" as long as there is patriarchy our systems. Whether you believe womanhood is natural, socially constructed, or both, the fact is that being a woman has real effects, responses, and ramifications in our social/political arenas and power hierarchies. And so it is an important conceptual tool to help understand the problems we see as doulas. We need to keep saying it because "mother" is a term that is so laden with meaning and connection. Birthing parent terminology may include, but at what cost?
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Any person who wishes to be referred to differently I will gladly honor.
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This is because womanhood and motherhood is also an important identity and the majority of people who give birth identify at least partly if not completely with being a woman. Sometimes in an attempt to include we end up alienating.
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In addition to my years of professional birth experience, I have undergone continual training gaining knowledge of:
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The biology and physiology of birth
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Emotional and psychological changes in the mother during labor
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How to help her cope with these changes
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Techniques for pain management and relief
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How to keep the mother feeling safe and secure in her birth place wherever it may be
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Enhancing successful communication between her (and her partner) and her care provider
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Lactation and breastfeeding support
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The impact of substance use disorders (SUDs) in pregnant, birthing, and postpartum women
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Basics of the physiology of trauma
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Grounding techniques when a pregnant or birthing woman has become triggered
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The impact that personal and historical/generational trauma (especially sexualized and racialized trauma) has on the pregnancy and birth experience
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How implicit and explicit racism can play out in the birth room
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Personally, with the births of my own three children, I have had a wide range of birth experiences: back labor, water breaking unexpectedly at home, induction, spontaneous unset of labor, care provided by OBs, care provided by midwives, strep-B negative, strep-B positive, epidural and narcotic medications, long births, a short birth, a c-section, and two all-natural VBACs.
Why I Became a Doula
My first birth I didn't have a doula. My second and third I did. The factor that played the biggest role in the way I felt coming out of my birth was my doula. The difference between having one and not having one was so great that she inspired me to become a doula.​​​​​​​​​​​​
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