A New Adventure!

I'm sure you've noticed that Bower Hour has been silent for a couple of months.  Why?  Because I've begun a new adventure... I'm a birth doula!  What is a doula?  "The word 'doula' comes from the ancient Greek meaning "a woman who serves" and is now used to refer to a trained and experienced professional who provides continuous physical, emotional, and informational support to the mother before, during, and just after birth" (from dona.org).

I've always been passionate about birth and I absolutely considered my doulas vital to achieve my goal of having a completely natural birth with Luke and Anna.  I've wanted to be a doula for a few years but I never thought that my dream could become a reality.  You see, doulas have to be on call for moms 24/7.  Babies don't tell you when they are going to come.  Because Ray works from 8-5 from Monday - Friday, I am not available those times... So I figured it could never happen.  When Anna was about six weeks old, I just had a burning desire in my heart to become a doula.  I texted my doula in desperation and asked "how can doulas actually be on call 24/7?  How to they make it work having little kids at home?"  She asked if she could call me.  She called and we chatted for a couple of hours.  As it turned out, she and her partner, Christina, were looking for another doula to join them - and they thought that I would be a good fit!  I was shocked, humbled, and thrilled to say the least.  Sarah and Christina have experience being at over 200 births and they are amazingly incredible doulas.  Both of them were with me during Luke's 24 hour labor and when Christina left and Sarah came in, I barely noticed a difference.  They have a very similar approach to their work as doulas and their support was consistent.  Together, they are Natural Baby Doulas.  Natural Baby Doulas works a little different than some doulas.  With Natural Baby Doulas, the pregnant mom meets each of the doulas (there are 3 doulas) in the group during her pregnancy and the on-call doula joins her in labor whenever she needs support.  If the mom has a long labor and the doula needs a break, another doula from Natural Baby Doulas joins her.  It's a wonderful system for both moms and doulas and I was so excited to join them.  I will be on-call primarily on the weekends so that Ray can take care of the kids while I'm at births.

The week after I talked with Sarah, there was a DONA doula training in Greensboro - It was perfect timing!  The training was incredible and I absolutely knew that I was where I was supposed to be.  Since the training, I've attended several births with Sarah and Christina and one on my own.  I've been reading birth and doula books in every spare moment.  God has given me such an incredible passion to care for moms during pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum and I feel like I'm living the dream doing doula work.  I get to be with my kids almost all the time and then I get to have my dream job too!

I'm still working on my DONA doula certification - It is a lot of work and a long process but I'm loving every step of it.  This is hard work.  But I'm enjoying it so much more than college, grad school, or teaching,  I'm going to be so proud of that certification when I'm done!

Ray and I worked together over the past couple of weeks to redo the Natural Baby Doulas website.  Please check it out!

Click here to check out the NEW Natural Baby Doulas website!

Just this weekend, a newly pregnant mama interviewed us to see if she wants to use us as her doula.  We met in a cute coffee shop and I got to sip on an iced pumpkin spice latte while discussing birth.  This is totally living the dream for me.  One of my good friends has been telling me for a couple of years now, "Jessica, you need to work with boobs or vaginas."  I always thought she was funny but never thought it would happen.  Well now it's happening!  And I'm actually working with moms... Not just body parts... So it's even better!