Congratulations on your pregnancy!

Every child is a blessing and hiring a birth doula is one of the best decisions you can make for you and your family. Whether it's your first baby or your fourth, VBAC, Cesarean, induction, natural or plan to use an epidural, your birth experience will greatly benefit by having a doula.

I'm often asked "What is a doula?" Doula is a Greek word which means "to mother the mother." A birth doula is a person trained and experienced in childbirth who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support before, during and immediately following childbirth. Your care provider and nurses will often not provide this.

Prenatally, I will get you the information you need to make  informed decisions and support you in whatever you choose. During labor, I provide emotional support and physical comfort measures such as relaxation techniques, massage, positioning suggestions, etc.  I do not perform clinical tasks such as taking your temperature, fetal heart checks and internal exams.

Sometimes couples worry that having a doula will take away from the dad's involvement with the birth. A doula brings to each birth a familiarity of the birth process as well as wisdom to calm, strengthen, and create a sacred space around the laboring couple. I work with the dad to further enrich his role as he sees it and provide the support a mom needs.

It would be an honor and priviledge to assist you with the birth of your baby! I look forward to hearing from you!

Warmly,
 

"...the birth of a baby, is an everyday miracle - part of a day's work for the doctor, midwife, or nurse, but a deep and permanent memory for the birthing woman..."

- Penny Simkin, author of        The Birth Partner

Benefits of Having a Doula

Reductions in:

• Overall Cesarean rate
• Length of labor
• Need for Pitocin
• Negative feelings about one's birth experience
• Need for forceps or vaccuum extraction deliveries
• Requests for pain meds/epidural

Increases in:

• Success with breastfeeding
• Mom's self-confidence level
• Mom's assessment of her health and her newborn's health
• Adapting to new family dynamics

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb."

Psalm 139:13 NIV