The Journey of a Birth Worker

Welcome to AuroraBirthSong. Thanks for stopping by. As a young girl I was fascinated by the human body and how it worked, especially the reproductive cycle. I dreamed of being a maternity nurse. I had a couple aunts and a few cousins who were nurses already. One of my aunts was the unit manager for the obstetrics unit at the local hospital. By the time I was 19, I had graduated from nursing school and had recently taken a position on the obstetrical unit in the hospital I had already been working at for several months. I loved it. A dream come true. It is such an honor to witness the miracle of birth.

When my children were but babies I decided to spend my days at home with them. Once they were in school and I was getting restless, I decided to use my skills in supporting women in childbirth as a doula. I never did like fetal monitors or charting. I wanted to be at women's

side supporting them emotionally, encouraging them through the transition to parenthood.

During the summer I took my doula training, I thought so much more about my Great-Grandmother Saunders than I ever had before for some reason. It was almost eery in that I felt a strong connection to her. Having never met her since she passed away a few years before I was born, I wondered why. I asked my Dad and my two remaining aunts to tell me their memories of her. Interestingly I discovered in my aunts' accounts that she was the preferred midwife in the area where they lived. While I am not interested in becoming a midwife nor an OB nurse manager, I think it rather exciting that there are 3 generations of birth workers in my family.

My goals as a doula and childbirth educator are simple: to diminish the fear of birth and to provide respectful, evidence-based support for childbearing families.

#birth #doula #childbirtheducator