I like to say that my Doula journey began before I was born

 

Because to say I am obsessed with all things pregnancy & childbirth related, the word obsessed does not fully encompass the breadth of my constant and infinite devotion. 

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Birth has been at the center, that steadfast core, of my life since before I could form memory. I was always playing and pretending to be pregnant, or give birth, or be a Mama, OB, or Midwife. 

 

Beginning when I was two-years-old, I would regularly get my new baby sister out of her crib to cuddle on the floor and try and nurse her. When five and another sister was on her way, I pressured my Mom to let me attend all her prenatal visits, and begged to attend the birth. I started to become friends with neighborhood kids just because their Moms had given birth at home. I turned my backyard into a birthing center where I made a special tent underneath a slide and invited kids to come deliver their doll babies. Whenever I played Barbies, they all lived in a special community where they were always pregnant (so many balls of rolled up toilet-paper!) giving birth, and helping one another raise their babes.

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When I learned to read, I spent long hours at book stores researching anything that was available in the children's section on birth & pregnancy. 

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This evolved towards more advanced textbooks as I grew up. The introduction to the internet in my mid-teens offered the opportunity to watch grainy birth videos in the computer lab with the sound turned down so to keep my obsession private from my peers.

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To say I am obsessed does not feel like the right language

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My greatest vow and dedication to life is tending to birth, and birthing women/people

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While I flirted with the idea of becoming a Midwife since I was sixteen-years-old, after some major life detours, I finally pursued a Doula certification in 2009. I attended my first birth in 2010 while in collage at Western Washington University, specifically Fairhaven Collage, where I created my own degree studying reproductive justice, woman's rights, midwifery, and the intersection between science, embodiment and intuition. 

 

Please scroll below to my education section to read more 

 

After attending births as a Doula (and assistant Midwife) for a few years, it was my turn. The birth of my son in 2013 not only shattered my identity as a human/woman, from maiden into Mama, but my identity as a Doula as well. Very little went as planned. And I took the pain of healing from a traumatic birth and used it to inspire and catapult me into an entirely different way to support and advocate for my clients.

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Read about my birth philosophy, beliefs and the meaning behind my business name here: What is the Language of Birth?

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