Anybody can be trained to become a birth and/or postpartum doula but do you have it in you? Becoming trained and certified is only the tip of the iceberg, the art of being a doula can be found deep within.
It’s more than scheduling prenatal appointments to make sure you know exactly what Mama is wanting out of her birth experience.
It’s more than knowing just the physiological changes to the female body in labor and the best positions to help Mama get into to adjust or rotate her baby.
It’s more than providing local resources when Mama is eight days postpartum and feels like she's barely able to keep her head above water. She expresses to you that she feels as if she’s drowning in her baby’s needs and the new mundane has set in.
It’s more than comforting a Mama who found out she's unexpectedly pregnant again after just recently giving birth.
It’s more than knowing the right things to say when a client tells you she carries trauma from a past experience and is terrified to have to expose her body to strangers in such a vulnerable time.
Anybody can be trained to become a birth and/or postpartum doula but do you have it in you?
Do you have it in you to support Mama when her birth preferences completely fly out the window due to unseen medical circumstances surrounding her or her baby?
Do you have it in you when the energy of a delivery room shifts to an emergency and although people are rushing about, the room goes almost into slow motion and Mama looks to you for reassurance?
Do you have it in you to hold Mama through her postpartum depression as she looks to you with tear-soaked eyes and says she regrets having her baby?
Do you have it in you to support a newly pregnant and terrified Mama who just gave birth a couple of months prior and wants to know more information about terminating a pregnancy?
Do you have it in you to put in the time and energy when working through a past trauma with Mama and reassuring her that she still has control and say over her own body? A right that she thought she lost somewhere in her adolescent years.
Because these are the real-life situations mamas find themselves in and as much as they thought they were prepared, unexpected moments do pop up from time to time and tend to shift the perspectives.
Anybody can be trained to become a birth and/or postpartum doula but do you have it in you?
Do you have the innate ability to hold, support, and encourage women? Being a doula is far more than any knowledge you can gain from a book or a class. It’s realizing that for centuries women have always depended upon other women to support them in life’s most vulnerable moment, childbirth.
It’s the one time in a women's life when she must surrender to her body and trust the women around her.
To me, being a doula is the sacred art of supporting women through life's most vulnerable moments, surrounded by an immense amount of trust.
Hi, my name is Emily and I am a certified birth/postpartum/bereavement doula, peer support specialist, almost certified childbirth educator, and the owner of Unbridled Mama Doula Services. Please feel free to reach out whether it's to converse about the mundane or book an appointment!
And as always, remember that nothing outside of you has power over you.