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Why do I doula?
I believe birth matters.
To be clear, I do NOT mean how you birth your baby or where you baby is born. For me , what matters is how you feel about your experience.
To doula is to care. I work in the hope that by caring for others I can make an impact on how they feel and how they experience birth.
I feel that my work is also a way to deeply honour all that has come before me. All the mothers born, babies birthed and families formed. I am the ancestor of many other women who have successfully birthed their babies. I walk in their footsteps.
The bottom line? Birth is a profound life event.
Birth matters. And so do YOU.
A little about me
Like many others I came to birth work having already birthed my babies. My experiences with my daughter’s birth in 2017 left me with questions. Lots of questions. My son’s birth in 2019 went some way to answering them. But I remained deeply curious. And in awe. Of my own body, my capabilities , of how we birth and just what was possible.
I turned myself towards it. I wanted to understand and do more. I immersed myself in to the world of birth; made connections, gained mentors, attended courses and seminars, read (a lot!), asked questions, listened intently and spoke to anyone who would listen about all things birth. At this stage I still had no clear idea that being a doula was the path for me. I had no real destination in mind. There was never a lightbulb moment. For me, it was more slow dawning. The evolution in my sense of identity came some time before I could name what is was that I was doing and who I was becoming.
Much of the training I undertook to be a doula has been deep inner work. An unpacking my own experiences, exploration of my personal values and and an understanding of how I care for others. I believe that in order to care for others in it's vital for me to have a strong sense of my own self so I know what I am bringing in to your experience with me.
Proud to be an
Abuela DOula
Safety and dignity are a top priority in birth. Understanding how to provide care which prioritises and facilitates physical, emotional, cultural and religious safety for parents-to-be formed a significant part of my training. For this, I lent on the voice and experience of one of the best in the business, my own mother doula, Mars Lord through her doula training course. I qualified as an Abuela Doula in August 2021 having spent 10 months training with Mars and the Abuela Doula family.
This course helped me to understand birth from a global and ancestral perspective. It challenged my sense of what birth looks like, how it can be supported, how it's valued, and what effective care looks like. We are all products of our surroundings. Recognising and understanding my own birth 'narratives' and placing these in the wider context of all human birth was a significant step in understanding how I will doula. I was encouraged to understand what I was taking in to this work. And I was awaked to a vision of birth which was rich, varied and fascinating. I came to understand some of the many cultural perspectives of birth, the practices, traditions and rituals which are prevalent across the world. I was inspired. And I remain deeply humbled.
My aim is to offer care which is not only safe but respectful, inclusive, responsive, and person centred.
"Her passion for truly inclusive and intersectional Doulaing is a joy to be part of.
She talks openly about her journey in to Doulaing with a wonderful sense of cultural humility. "
Mars Lord - Abuela DoulaS Founder & CEO