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A student describes how she followed her passion to become a doula and support women through their labor.  She is now able to provide support, compassion, and comfort to birthing women as a doula.  For more information on how to become a doula, visit our contact page and let us know.

Why I Want to Become a Doula

become a doulaHi There!! I am originally from Washington D.C. I am married to a gentleman who is currently serving in the United States Navy and we have one beautiful little girl. They are the reason that I have learned the importance of having a labor coach, and why I decided to become a doula.  My story begins when my husband and I decided to ask my stepmother, who was unable to have children, to join us in the room to welcome our daughter.

 

When my water broke at 2:30am,  I immediately woke my husband up. I informed him of the exciting news, and within an hour we were all on our way to the hospital. Although my water broke, I was not having any contractions and the doctors induced me xtwice.

 

Although my husband and step-mom are amazing people, they were absolutely clueless in the birthing room. I labored from 4am until my daughter arrived at 9:09pm completely alone. The summer Olympics was on, and that quickly consumed the attention of both my “labor support.” I didn’t think much about them not helping during my actual labor, but it took almost a year and a half for me to forgive them both for this. I trusted them to come in and help, to know what they were doing, and to convince me that I knew what I was doing.

 

I wouldn’t say I made a mistake by having two people who had never had a child in the room with me.  After all, many times it’s just a husband and wife in the room alone.  But I definitely believe that had I asked someone with experience to join us, myself, my husband, and my step mother would all of been a little more guided towards working as a team.

 

I asked them both once why they didn’t help, their response was simply “they didn’t know what to do” my response was “so you chose to do nothing.”

 

This is the first reason I chose to become a doula.  Not to necessarily run in and do all of the coaching, but to coach the others in the room how to be a supportive, and a valuable part of the mom-to-be’s labor and delivery, in addition to coaching and guiding her myself.

 

The second reason I chose to become a doula is being a military spouse. My husband’s career has allowed me to meet so many wonderful families. Deployments are unfortunately part of the military life, during this time many soon to be moms are left to deliver without their significant others and most importantly their labor supports.

 

The first time I offered to help a friend while her husband was gone, my daughter was just 4 months old.  My birthing experience was fresh in my head, and it was important to me that the mom to be did not feel the way I did although our situations were different. I attended many appointments with her, and before I knew it, the call that she was in labor came through.  For me the next 11 hours of coaching, massaging, hugging, and applying cool towels to her head flew by and before I knew it I was cutting the cord to a beautiful baby girl!

 

As I was preparing to run home to attend to my sweet girl a nurse stopped to ask if I had thought to become a doula  The truth was, I had never even heard of one. I was fortunate enough to help bring three more beautiful baby girls into the world for friends who needed “support”. I was asked either during or after all of the births if I was a doula, or had thought of becoming one, which of course brought on my curiosity. I began researching, and after the birth of [a sweet baby girl] (my last birth while stationed in Jacksonville, Florida), I left knowing I couldn’t  imagine doing anything more incredible then making sure that every woman has the most positive, supportive, and comforting birthing process possible.

Are you ready to realize your passion to help laboring women?  Click here.

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Rachel has worked as a register nurse (BSN from University of Utah) since 2004 with a work history in Labor and Delivery, NICU and Postpartum Care. She is also the founder of New Beginnings Doula Training which she organized in 2011. When she's not busy being a mother and grandmother, she can be found reading research papers related to some aspect of childbirth.

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