I’m a Doula!

Last week I spent 3 days training with film maker, author and doula Debra Pascali-Bonaro and 21 amazing women from Northern Jersey and CT for my DONA training. I have been trying to figure out how to put this experience into words…and it isn’t easy. I am a doula, a ‘woman’s servant’ a trained professional who brings emotional and physical support to a birthing woman. I am her personal advocate and her stability.

I would love to come up with my own words for this experience but I still can’t wrap my brain around it. The best I can do for now is repost a beautiful entry by Nicole Deelah from Bellies and Babies.

“I don’t practice medicine; I don’t do medical exams or perform medical tasks. I am in the business of support, education, and natural, normal birth.

I believe that childbirth is a natural and normal event. Variations in birth do occur; but, with proper support and advocacy, even those variations can be looked upon as satisfying and empowering events. I am an advocate of natural childbirth, but work to empower women to make their own educated decisions regarding labor and birth. I firmly practice the advocacy of informed choice.

Pregnancy and childbirth is a time when women can be motivated or de-motivated to fulfilling their roles as strong, capable and competent individuals, which then translates into their mothering roles after birth. The difference often lies in how they are treated during their pregnancy and birthing time.

Empowering women with options and support enables them to take ownership for their healthcare and their bodies, which, later, gives them the confidence to take responsibility as mothers. A doula-relationship allows for that mental and emotional wellbeing while also freeing the medical professional to focus solely on the physical wellbeing. This holistic approach to pregnancy and birth has been proven to be the safest and most satisfactory approach for all involved.

I believe that a doula can help a woman to reclaim the beauty, strength, and humble respect of the rite of passage to motherhood called childbirth.”

I couldn’t have found better words…not yet anyway. I have wanted to take the DONA training for many years, I knew that it was the perfect addition to my health coaching and my yoga training…yet I wasn’t sure if I actually wanted to be a doula. Now I know that my instinct was right. I needed this training to round out my training, experience and vision of where I am going. Being a doula will be one aspect of my practice and it will bring so much more to my coaching and teaching.

I can’t begin to express the gratitude I have for Debra and my fellow trainees for reminding me of this light and inner power.

Keep it Fresh!

~Terra