When will doulas get the recognizition they deserve?

Now if only they could recognize that doulas should be able to easily bill insurance, we’d be in good shape.


I’m talking about this article – “Doula becoming a household name.” As part of the healthcare bill, doulas are going to receive $1.5 million for community-run doula programs. I’m honestly not too sure how I feel about this. Oh, it’s certainly great, no doubt about it. I think these programs should receive any assistance they should get, that private organizations and businesses should be funding these all over the place.


I just wish out of all that healthcare legislation that doulas were recognized as an integral part of the birthing process. Granted then midwives would also receive recognition, putting the U.S. in conjunction with developed nations across the world.


Are we ready for it? I hear all the time from women how they “just couldn’t do it.” Couldn’t breastfeed. Couldn’t give birth without epidurals. Without Pitocin to speed things up or get things started. Without being cut open.


It’s not that we can’t do it. We just don’t have the help. In countries where breastfeeding is the norm, there’s naturally more support, more encouragement, more information. Where birth is something women just do, women are strong and know it.


I’m not knocking women who have c-sections and don’t breastfeed. That’s me, honestly. My son was stubbornly breech – I have the rib out of place to prove it – and I wasn’t mentally or emotionally in the place where I felt I could switch providers to attempt a vaginal breech birth.


We attempted breastfeeding, and oh we tried, and never got the latch. After a month of pumping every two hours around the clock, constant engorgement, a bad round of mastitis that was originally dubbed the swine flu separating me from my son for three days, bleeding and bruised nipples, and the beginnings of post-partum depression, I just couldn’t do it anymore.


I regret it every day. I regret my c-section every day. Every time I make a bottle of formula, dog-food smelling stuff, I think that I wouldn’t be doing this to my son if I could have just stuck it out some more. But I couldn’t. I can’t change that.


I can move forward though. I can empower other women to have the births they want, to raise their children the way they want to. This is what I aim to do.


So I guess providing money to community-based doula orgs is a start. It’s certainly better than nothing.


Let’s get this party started…

We're getting through to this one!

Last night, my husband came home from his work with a non-profit, exhausted. Very usual night for us, talking about his day and mine, when he suddenly says:

"Hey! I told a girl today she needed to use your Hypnobabies program!" (My program? I'm impressed...) "Yeah, she's 10 weeks pregnant and already has a midwife and a doula [yes 'already' he's such a smart man] and she said she wanted to have a natural birth this time, so I told her about how you used Hypnobabies. She looked it up and said there were free ones to try, so she'd start there."

He's so smart. I love this man.

BTW: if you want to purchase Hypnobabies, do so here: Hypnobabies Home Study

An Introduction

Hello all!

Thanks for joining me in this journey! I hope that you find the words here inspiring, informative, and entertaining.

As I've gone on my journey into the pregnancy and birth business, I've found myself up against some very entrenched ideas regarding childbirth and what women are capable of doing. I can't count the number of times while I was pregnant when I would hear "And the doctor let you do that?" Let is a very funny word, and seems to imply that a pregnant woman is suddenly unable to make decisions regarding her care and the care of her unborn baby. It's tragic that pregnancy in this country (and of course many others) is viewed this way. I hope this blog helps you fight such ideas.

I used to be pretty mainstream I guess. At least it wasn't until I was in college that I was even interested in birth. I already knew that I wanted to marry young and have more than 2.3 kids (which I guess isn't too mainstream after all), but beyond that i was content to wait it out and see from there. I was engaged at 19 and between that and finished up my education I had enough on my plate.

However, soon after I landed my first job, it seemed there were other plans for me. I had been on the pill since I was sixteen, due to a diagnosis of irregular cycles. When I was put on birth control pills, my gynecologist ran no tests, did no exam. My mother was given the prescription, we filled it, I took the pills. It caught up with me when I was 20. I was only 4 and 1/2 weeks in to my first teaching job when I had a stroke. My only risk factors: chronic migraines and the pill. I wasn't even a smoker - we've all seen the commercials - and there I was in a hospital bed with no feeling on my right side.

Of course, post-stroke, the pill is permanently out of the question. Soon to be married, I was faced with finding something else for family planning - which we felt was important until we got settled and my husband could get work. I vaguely remember my mom saying she used to "chart her cycles" so I googled it and came across a fabulous book that should be required reading for every woman - Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. (my copy is loaned out somewhere, a much loved book) This book began my wise woman revolution.

I started just charting my cycles. I got up diligently to take my basal body temp, I tried to decipher my cervical fluid, I search for my cervix. Soon I began looking at Ovusoft (oh how you have changed my friend) for answers. As I began to post and read regularly, a new world opened up. Here were women who birthed at home and had labor/post-partum support. They were highly educated and weren't afraid to ask their doctors - "WHY?" "Why that intervention?" "Why now?"

These women were empowered. I was to become one of them.

I read everything I could find and started the path (many times over) to doula certification. Of course, it seems life (and money) has constantly gotten in my way. The day will come.

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