Doula

I have officially begun my training to become a certified birth doula through DONA. I am both thrilled and apprehensive.

Childbirth- as well as the period after a woman gives birth- is a passion of mine. I have a tremendous desire to assist in empowering women and supporting them through this monumental rite of passage that- like it or not- will transform them. I heard once: "A woman will never forget how she was made to feel when she gave birth." The truth of this statement blew me away.

I just began The Doula Book and came across these words that I wanted to share:

"For women in labor much of the birth process is about permission: feeling total permission to be themselves and feeling free to let down emotional and physical barriers and to release expectations- those yardsticks or measures of performance that women carry with them into the institutional environment. Feeling completely safe with another human being creates a kind of freedom that enables a woman to begin to test the limits of her own capacities and to experience capacities possibly not recognized before- or perhaps recognized but not risked. This freedom to be one's true self produces feeling of empowerment, of creativity. As a new mother said to one doula, 'Your staying with me all the time and your total support, at the same time trusting me completely, gave me a sense of knowing that I was strong enough to handle anything in my life.'"