My KC Doula
Thoughts & Musings
The other day I had a phone call with a perspective client and they said, “thats great but what does a doula DO?” It took me a second to gather my thoughts because I thought I was explaining it pretty well! Sometimes when we’ve been doing something for so long, it starts to feel like a second skin. I can’t imagine NOT knowing what to do in a birth situation and that can make explaining it to others very difficult.
Sometimes birth doesn't go the way we planned it. We plan and we plan and when the day finally comes, maybe it's not exactly what we thought it was going to be. Going into our birth experiences, we should always strive to have realistic expectations and understand that things could go a little crazy.
So many times in the past few weeks, the idea of an empowering birth experience has been brought up. I've had the opportunity to introduce myself as a doula multiple times and I'm still a little shocked at the relationship that has been put onto doulas and natural birth.
I am not a natural birth advocate.
I am a supporter of all things that empower my clients.
Everyone feels the need to write down their birth story- as if the remembering will make it more real. But in truth it is always surreal. It is always something you can’t quite grasp, somewhere between a whisper and a shout that life is beginning!
I was not ready to write down my story for the world until a year after G’s birth. I’d written parts down for close friends, and told my family the details they were interested in, but I think I wanted to keep it for myself. Having a baby is one part magic, one part miracle and as the vessel, the mother feels that magic keenly.
(click to read more!)
"When I was 9 or 10, I went to a drama day camp where for one of the scenes, we were
told to dress up as what we wanted to be when we grew up. While my sister put on a lab coat
and borrowed a family friend's beaker, my mom helped me put my hair in a ponytail, adjusted her ring sling to as small as it would go, and I proudly wore my favorite baby doll in the middle of a stage full of miniature doctors, construction workers, and presidents.
Nearly 15 years later, I took my first ever pregnancy test, and stared it down as it
analysed. The minute it showed a positive result, I fell on the bathroom floor and cried. I was so happy and overwhelmed. I wanted to tell everyone and get everything ready right away."
