Having a doula at your side means...
you will be supported by a guide through one of the most life-changing transformative experiences in your life as a woman. And your partner will also be supported in this uncharted and often intense territory.
As a Doula, I support women in their labour to contribute to the unfolding of a birth experience that is empowering, informed, non-traumatic, and positive.
I draw on my knowledge, training and experience to provide emotional, physical, spiritual, mental and psychological support; as well as informational support to help you to make informed decisions during your pregnancy and in the midst of your labour. I provide reassurance and perspective to you and your partner, suggest pain coping practices for labour, help with relaxation, positioning and other techniques for comfort.
I am independent: as your Doula, I am working for you, not your doctor, your midwife, or the hospital. As a professional doula since 1994, I have attended the births of approximately (at last count) 450 babies over the past 20 years. Many of these births were of first-born children, so therefore I have also been a part of the birth of many "newborn mothers" and "newborn fathers".
I have attended births in hospital, at home and at the Calgary freestanding birth centre with midwives and doctors and some of the most amazing nurses in Calgary. I have experience with unmedicated vaginal births (primarily), vaginal births with use of epidural, induced labours, VBAC’s (vaginal birth after cesarean), HBACs (home birth after cesarean), several twin births, water births…just about any and every kind of childbirth you can imagine.
You will be supported to create daily and weekly practices to cultivate faith ~ to foster within you your confidence and belief in yourself ! That you will have what it takes to cope with the pain and intensity and challenges of birth. You will rediscover and learn to trust that innate ability to give birth, and to work within the current medical and hospital systems.
My philosophy: I do not ascribe to a particular birth philosophy, meaning I do not believe there is one right way to give birth; no “best or superior way” , no orgasmic, painless or enlightened way to give birth. I do, however hold certain beliefs about birth. I believe we .....
Your Journey has begun...
I believe that childbirth is an initiatory experience, for both men and women, and deserves to be prepared for, honored and held as a life changing experience for a woman and partner, involving and affecting the whole self.
As a mentor and a doula, I seek to explore with you what might allow you to birth unselfconsciously, to respect whatever options resonate with you and remain present for you as you walk the labyrinth of labor and childbirth.
“Birth is not a cerebral event; it is a visceral holistic process which requires all of your self: body, heart, emotion, mind, spirit.” – Baraka Bethany Elihu (Birthing Ourselves into Being)
“…celebrate ourselves for our courage to birth. The real question becomes not, ‘Have you done your breathing exercises?’ but rather, ‘Can you love yourself no matter how you birth, where you birth, or what the outcome?" – Claudia Panuthos
Spiral Image: Gaia Orion
Inspiration and Guidance in Images