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stepha lawson doula bellingham wa

About
the Doula

Doula Stepha's family

My
Life

I often say my Doula journey began before I was born

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Birth has been at the center, that steadfast core, of my life since before I could form memory. I've been intrigued with pregnancy and birth since I was a toddler. I've known I've wanted to serve women/birthing people since the beginning.

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There is something, an unspeakable holy magic, holding the threshold as a woman/person touches the power of birth, to bring her/their baby into the world.

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I pursued a doula certification in 2009 and attended my first birth in 2010 while in college at Western Washington University, Fairhaven College. I created my own degree studying reproductive justice, woman's rights, midwifery, cross-cultural medical anthropology, and the intersection between science, embodiment and intuition. 

 

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, educate, and advocate for my clients.

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I'm also a birth based artist, and have illustrated two books, dozens of logos, and many commemorative pieces for babies who have died.

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Currently, I am pursuing a mindfulness-based childbirth education teaching certification, where I get to blend my love of the pregnancy and labor process, and interweave it with meditation, movement, mindfulness and breath practices, to help parents with a transferable skill they can take into parenting for years to come.

Outside of my life as a doula, I joyously live with my nesting partner and her two children, and together we raise our three kiddos together in a home we named Mama Haven.

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I love to be with my family, our community, lift weights, go on long mythic walks, hike/backpack, dance, sing in choir, meditate with Red Cedar Dharma Community, try and learn the violin, play DND and board games, explore with many mediums of art, and listen to books that range in topics: from behavioral science, to Buddhist teachings, to Clarissa Pinkola Estés, to science-fiction/fantasy novels, to somatic psychology, to works by adrienne maree brown.

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Shows I binge are typically Sci-Fi & Fantasy. I also love Call the Midwife, Sex Education & Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness

Art
Life

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8.5 x 11 prints and stickers for sale

Birth-related art pieces from 2014 - current

Books & logos I have illustrated

Course
Work

2009

DONA (Doulas of North America) certified

Doula education curriculum, taught by Kerri Kenner of Big Belly Services

2011-2013

Western Washington University

Fairhaven Collage

Studied under Dr. John Bower & Dr. Leslie Conton

Independent Projects: Cross-Cultural Rituals and Traditions with Placentas

Senior Project: Internship at the Northern New Mexico Birth Center

Acting as Assistant Professor to 'The Cultural & Biological Perspective of Pregnancy & Childbirth' Course, Winter 2012

2011-2016

Co-founded and helped run WISE Birth Doula Collective, a non-profit centering on serving marginalized communities, such as low-income, Native, Queer/LGBTQA + and incarcerated peoples in the Bellingham, Washington State area

2012

Internship 

Assistant Midwife

Northern New Mexico Birth Center

Taos, New Mexico

From August - October 2012 acted as assistant midwife to over 20 births. Largely assisting the Tiwa Native Pueblo People, and Latinx  Community. Attended prenatal appointments at clinic, postpartum visits at home, and births at the center and at clients homes. 

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Practiced with taking heart tones, blood pressure, fetal heart tones, fetal measurements, vaginal exams, charting, and provide emotional presence & guidance and physical comfort 

2013

Workshop taught by German/Peruvian Midwife Leonie Lange

Studied practices by indigenous peoples of Peru, such as herbal remedies for birth, and how to address complex births such as pre-eclampsia, abnormal presentations, postpartum hemorrhage and shoulder dystocia under circumstances when there is little to no medical help

2014

Skills in Sifting Workshop taught by Spinning Babies instructors 

2015

Workshop taught by Whapio Diane Bartlett on the Holistic Stages of Birth, Birth as an Altered State of Consciousness, and how to support Physiological Birth in Hospital

2015

Neonatal Resuscitation for Birth Workers by Karen Strange, CPM

2015

Blood Born Pathogen Training

2016

ProDoula Business Course

2016

Non-Violent Communication Course

2017

Spinning Babies with Kelly Dungan, RN, BSN, RNC-OB

2019

Co-Hosted Spinning Babies with Kelly Dungan, RN, BSN, RNC-OB

2020

Birth Advocacy Doula Training (BADT)

Full Spectrum Doula Course with Sabia Wade, centering activism & birth work, Black perinatal & maternal health, food insecurity, Queer & Trans birth & trauma-informed care, 

2021

Reclaiming Sex & Intimacy After Trauma Workshop with Eri Guajardo Johnson

2022

Somatic Attachment Therapy Certification for Health Professionals

The Embody Lab, 60-hour program 

Serve

Counties: Whatcom & Skagit

 

Locations: Bellingham Birth Center, Birthroot, St. Joe's Labor & Delivery/PeaceHealth Childbirth Center, Skagit Regional Health, Mount Vernon Birth Center, and your home

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Cities/Communities: Acme, Bellingham, Blaine, Birch Bay, Deming, Everson, Ferndale, Glacier, Kendall, Lummi Island, Lynden, Maple Falls, Nugents Corner, Sudden Valley, Sumas, Van Zandt, and Burlington & Mount Vernon

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Get in Touch

(425) 283-6122 

thelanguageofbirth

@gmail.com

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