Skip to main content
What is a doula like?  What picture or words come to mind when you hear the word?  Someone old, young, a midwife, a hippie, super mom?

A doula is any person who provides support to women in their time of birth and postpartum.  This role can be served by women and men, young and old, those who have experienced birth, and those who haven't. These people have a heart for women, birth, and their families.

So what words would describe your doula?  I have been blessed by clients, fellow doulas, and friends with the following words. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Relaxation, Rhythm, and Ritual during the time of Uncertainty

As a doula I am often speaking with my clients about the importance of the Three Rs in Labor.   The terms coined by Penny Simkin refer to Relaxation, Rhythm, and Ritual as the essences of coping in labor in place of Fear, Tension, and Pain.   As our society is in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have found myself turning to these techniques in my own life as a way to cope during this time of uncertainty.   I wanted to share these thoughts in hopes that like with birth, we can embrace the uncertainty one day/contraction at a time until the birth of healing arrives for our nation. Relaxation Uncertainty can make even the calmest person feel some stress.   The key to relaxation is understanding what is and isn’t in your control.   The simplest thing you have control over is your body and mind.   Check in with yourself.   Are you feeling tense in your body?   Are your thoughts racing?   Take time to acknowledge these feelings and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The night the Operating Room went dark…

Have you ever seen an OR room with the lights turned off?   Everything put away in its place?   All is clean and sterile?   All is quiet?    Empty…? I must confess that in my own experience I had never seen it happen.   I am sure it is the case; an ordinary occurrence for the staff of the hospitals.   But for me, my view of an OR has been quite different.   When I visualize an OR, it is bright, filled with people, lots of noises, and it is very cold.   You often see more of the ceiling than you do of the floor, or even the surrounding walls.   The color of blue scrubs and screens fill one’s view. And yet…there was the night the OR went dark. It was a late night supporting a client that needed baby delivered in a hurry.   Everyone was prepped, mom was taken in, baby made her arrival, and mom slowly rejoined the conscious world as she felt her baby on her chest. I notice over my shoulder that staff were finishing u...
Post a Comment
Read more

Scenes from Birth

As a doula, we see many things in our line of work.  We see people at their most vulnerable, and at the same time at their strongest.  We see the inside of lives and bodies.  We see a rainbow of moods and emotions.  We see the balance between life and death.  The transformation of persons into parents and grandparents.  But there are other things we see. We see the everyday beauty of the moment.  The full moon on the way to the hospital.  The close conversations between the birth giver and partner.  And we also see the art in the birthing space. Pictures of nature.  Flowers opening up into bloom.  Tender moments of motherhood.  Cute photos of babies.  All decorate the halls of the maternity wards and designer birth spaces at birth centers.  Little details to provide subtle encouragement for laboring women to open up and embrace labor and motherhood.  As the laboring mother holds tightly to the hallway ra...
Post a Comment
Read more