My Own Experiences

The story of how I came to become a doula is very personal, and empowering to me.
I have two beautiful girls that came into the earth side in different times and phases in my adult life.
Both births were in a hospital, following the doctor's orders along with what the hospitals provided me with. Read the books.
I knew deep inside I didn't like certain procedures from the 1st time but I agreed to have my second due to my husband's concerns.
I felt short on information and lost and on our own to deal with birth. I was looking for reassurance in the nurses and my doctor but got little
I got hooked up to an IV without asking and a few hrs into being in the labor room a nurse came in and said "we are hooking you up to Pitocin because you haven't dilated enough", I asked about it and she answered "its something to help with your contractions" as she hooked it up. I was allowed to move the second time, the 1st labor I was in bed with a monitor inside my vagina and a doctor came in with a hook to rupture my membrane.
This story might start to sound familiar to you because as it turns out it is. 
I was robbed from an empowering experience, I was given very limited choices and someone else had power over me and my birth experience without me knowing it. All I knew was.. it was scary and I didn't like it!
I knew that if I felt this way for certain there are many others that felt the same way

With two children and a household to care for and the mentality of I got this, I went on with my days in postpartum isolation. I said no thanks, I'm fine and chucked on. But months later, I became sleep deprived, stressed, desperate, anxious even a little depressed. I felt helpless, run down and plainly just needing help. I thought if only I had someone to help me with a task or two I can shower or nap or just eat sitting down. Granted husband was there when he could and parents came a visit every few weeks. I needed help. My stressed evolved to hormonal issues and I developed hypothyroidism but had no clue. All I felt was I didn't feel myself, I was gaining weight and was very anxiety ridden, sad, tired (like I had run a 5k) and sleep deprived. As I started to grasp to climb out of the funk I wanted to regain control. I got a job to feel like myself, I started to seek help, medical help. I found out what a doula ment. I thought wow like WOW I wished I could have turned the time back and had one of these. Then my head started to turn the knobs and I thought someone will need this and I can be it! I want to empower others to have choices and feel loved and cared for in a crucial life changing event! It was then that I decided to take this journey of a doula.