A few months ago, I had the privilege to present at an ICAN meeting on the topic of Choosing Your VBAC Care Provider. Because there is trauma from birth sometimes and because having a sudden c-section can add to that trauma, moms are usually more anxious during the subsequent pregnancy about birth. I hope this […]
Becoming a Doula – My Story
Becoming a doula – My Story is a bit of a misleading title. I’m not sure that I became a doula. It was part of me already. I just didn’t know it until I trained as a doula. I had been mostly a home educating mother for my children’s growing up years. We had moved […]
Thank a Doula
Thank a doula is one of the ways to celebrate International Doula Month. My first post celebrating this month was What is a Doula? This is part two in our International Doula Month series. The third and final post will share my doula story. Stay tuned! DONA, INT. suggested the topic ” Thank a Doula” […]
What is a doula?
International Doula Month What is a doula? Years ago, birth was very different than it is today. Women were surrounded and supported by other women during their labor. They brought with them experience, wisdom, and skill. They witnessed birth and knew every laboring mother had her own journey that may be different from another mother’s […]
Coronavirus and Your Pregnancy
Updated 5/02/2020 There have been some very reassuring changes in the past week. With any problem, knowledge can empower even with viruses such as COVID-19, the newest Coronavirus. Doulas are now back as your second support person at Vanderbilt. Some hospitals that continued with doula support have lifted some of the restrictions surrounding that support. […]
Postpartum Doula: A day in the Life
Have you ever wondered what it would look like to have a postpartum doula? You may be surprised! It looks different for every family because every family is uniquely different! A postpartum doula has been trained and read stacks of books, but her intuition is one of her greatest assets. She does not bring her […]
Power Imbalance in Labor: Allowed vs Supported, Remember the Mother
How does an imbalance of power in labor happen? It is pretty common in the birth world for women to ask if their care provider will “allow” them preferences. A few examples are: Will I be allowed: movement during labor and pushing to wait on spontaneous labor to begin until 42 weeks to eat and […]
Doula’ing the Doulas
When the doulas need replenishing Why doula’ing the doulas? As clients know, sometimes labors can be quick and intense. Sometimes, they can be long and intense. Sometimes, labor can be traumatic. Other times, everyone present is floating on air. While we don’t get to choose what will happen during each birth, we do get to […]
The Postpartum Doula
In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order-Carl Jung The Postpartum Period Melody, a new mom who had just given birth, described her postpartum experience as difficult: She had a Cesarean section and described lifting as a challenge. She went on to explain the difficulty of breastfeeding and how […]
Patrick’s Birth Story
My newest lil man has arrived!!!! Such an exciting time! I’m gonna try to get all my thoughts into one place (mainly for my own reference/memory keeping hahaha — you’ll have to excuse the punctuation — i had to type it in ‘thought’ format! ha! Sooo let’s see… we found out about Mr. Patrick in […]
