About Me
After having experienced three very different births with my own children I became inspired to help others on their own paths toward parenthood. This journey for me has been so incredibly rewarding in ways I never even imagined.
While I began my doula career with DONA (Doulas of North America) in June 2008, I did not stop there as you can see below. I finally made my major career change on Thanksgiving 2008 when I left Google as a Finance Manager to pursue my dream in supporting new & renewing parents full time! This has been a very transformational path for me. Since then I have learned and experienced so many wonderful, heart changing, and inspirational things and met the most amazing people in our community.
In January of 2010, I began a new training through AAMI to better my doula skill set as I slowly embark on my midwifery training. I'm also learning about natural alternative modalities to pregnancy ailments & labor dysfunctions via whole foods, exercise, and homeopathy.
Since 2008, I have supported over 150 families!!
What Inspires Me
This is my daughter. Having her has changed everything about me. Although she is my third child, this birth was an entirely different experience than my previous two. She is also my first daughter. She inspires me to create a better world for her and all of her friends and my friends and little girls & women everywhere. We deserve better in this world and starting at our births is the best place to begin...the mother of all beginnings.
Receiving compassion, honoring our instincts, speaking to be heard and having others listen, finding our power during times of transformation...these things can move mountains for us.
As a doula, I look forward to helping women discover their own innate wisdom. Now, along with my daughter, it is the families that I work with that truly inspire me.
Together, we can create a positive memory of a day you will never forget!
Validate. Motivate. Educate. Initiate. Celebrate!
How being a BFW mentor affects me as your Doula...
Empty cup ~ by Pam England, CNM (Co-Author of Birthing from Within & Creator of the Birthing from Within Mentor & Doula Program)
A favorite practice in Zen is to "be an empty cup." I'm striving towards being an "empty-cup" doula. Before I open the door to a mother's hospital labor room, I close my eyes, open my heart, and pour out all my ideas and fears. I enter, and fill my "cup" with whatever is unfolding and focus on "doing what needs to be done next." I strive to drop my ideas about what I think should be done. I look to see how whatever is happening is "working," and help the parents and staff see that too, so they can go with it. To the degree I am able to be a "nurturing" doula, I may help the mother express herself as a protective, knowing, self-confident mother. I notice that most of the ideas about birth any of us hold fast to protect us from our own fears, and rarely honor or serve the mother we are attending. Righteousness and knowledge buffer us from feeling our helplessness in the midst of this fast-moving event. The fewer fixed ideas and judgements we bring to labor, the more deeply we might immerse ourselves in the birth that is happening, and draw from a flow of creative solutions and support.
Community Involvement & Education
I've had three children (one medicated hospital birth, one planned homebirth with a Midwife, one unmedicated hospital birth with a Doula) of which all of these experiences help me to better understand & support your own birth choices. In addition, I have attended many workshops to broaden my skill set to better serve others.
Completed the Spinning Babies workshop on optimal fetal positioning in pregnancy & labor (also atteneded the Resolving Shoulder Dystocia class) in December 2011.
Re-Certified in the Midwifery Management of Neonatal Resuscitation through Karen Strange in April 2011.
Completed the Heart and Hands workshop with Elizabeth Davis in December 2010.
Attended the Trust Birth Conference in March 2010.
Enrolled in AAMI in January 2010 to further enhance my doula skill set.
Working part time as a home birth Midwife's Assistant since July 2009.
Certified as a Lactation Educator/Counselor through Nursing Mothers Counsel in May 2009.
Certified in the Midwifery Management of Neonatal Resuscitation through Karen Strange in April 2009.
CPR certified for Adults, Children & Infants through the American Red Cross.
Attended an all day workshop at the 2009 APPPAH Conference with Sarah J. Buckley, MD learning about the physiology of uninterrupted birth and the role interventions play. Also, took in many other sesssions at that conference as well about the psychology of women and birth.
Taken classes from Natural Resources in San Francisco to further diversify and enhance my Doula skill set.
Attended advanced doula training workshop taught by reknowned Author & Doula Trainer Penny Simkin.
Certified Postpartum Doula through Cornerstone Doula Trainings.
Birthing From Within Doula & Mentor since October 2008.
Certified Birth Doula through DONA International in June 2008.
Professional Memberships
Bay Area Birth Association ~ BABA (www.bayareabirth.org)
SF Doula Group (www.sfdoulagroup.com)
Birthing from Within Mentor Program (www.birthingfromwithin.com)
Coalition for Improving Maternity Services - CIMS (www.motherfriendly.org)
Association of Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPAH) (www.birthpsychology.com)