DOULA CARE
YOUR BIRTH, EMPOWERED
Knowledge is power. Knowledge is also confidence. As your doula, I am afforded the opportunity to provide you and your family with the necessary tools to navigate and understand the birth and postpartum process. These tools create a sense of confidence which promotes self-advocacy and security during your pregnancy, and in the birth room. When people have confidence in themselves, be it in the birth environment or beyond, incredible things can happen. I want to help you find and cultivate that confidence.
Whether you're coming to me during your first pregnancy or your fifth, you can be sure that you will receive the emotional, physical, and evidence-based informational support that you desire. Upon providing you with information, you can rest assured that your decisions for your birth will be met with enthusiasm and encouragement, not judgement and guilt. A perfect birth is only perfect as assessed by the person who experienced it, and I will be there to support whatever that looks and feels like for YOU.
MY GOALS AS YOUR DOULA ARE TO:
Informational Support
*Provide the most current evidence-based information
*Guide you through understanding the information and how to apply it to your birth situation
*Encourage you to feel empowered and confident in your choices pertaining to the birth process and in yourself
*Assist you in creating a birth plan that encourages thoughtful cooperation between you and the clinical members of your birth team
*Teach and model effective communication between you and the care team
*Encourage beginning breastfeeding after birth and providing referrals and support for your breastfeeding journey if you hope to nurse your little one
Emotional Support
*Ease the transition from home to birth site by providing continuous emotional (and physical) support
*Provide encouragement, acknowledgment, and empathy throughout the birth process to allow you to feel safe, heard, and focused
*Ensure you understand that my support is without judgement, guilt, or conditions
*Encourage and support partner participation in the birth process to facilitate connection and involvement
*Tailor my offerings to your situation, especially when no partner or family support is available, to ensure you feel safe, loved, and respected in the birth room and beyond
*Reframe negative or unhelpful ideas, attitudes, and thoughts in the birth room to restore confidence to you as you birth your baby
*Remain calm and centered during your birth in order to be able to read and anchor you as you progress through your birth
*Encourage you to process your birth experience at your postpartum appointment by discussing your birth memory
Comfort Measures
*Teach and Encourage the use of various non-medical physical comfort measures to allow families to practice and build confidence and self-reliance prior to the birth
*Support partners in practicing the comfort measures to encourage emotional connection and physical relief from some of the sensations of birth
*Use my knowledge of birth to tailor the employment of comfort measures to best suit your needs (with respect to common labor and birth situations like back labor, epidural use, non-optimal fetal positioning, precipitous or prolonged labors, etc)
*Teach and practice various non-physical comfort measures such as visualizations, labor meditation, and vocalization techniques to create variety in birth tool options
*Encourage health and wellness as promoted by your care provider during your pregnancy to facilitate strength and endurance