Skip to main content

Becoming a Doula

After everything happened, I kept looking for something I could do to help others who had to face what I did.  Those who struggled (and continue to struggle) to get pregnant, those that have faced a miscarriage, those that have faced a difficult and stressful pregnancy, and those that have suffered the devastating loss of their child late in pregnancy or after the child was born.

I had a friend suggest a doula program to me.  It focuses on both helping with happy "normal" births and on helping people through bereavement and loss.  I was immediately drawn to it and felt called to do it.  So I started my training and in a few weeks, will be certified!  I am super excited about this.  This way I can help people through lots of different issues.

Several people have asked if I can emotionally handle the work of a doula.  Some of the material has been triggering, but I also think it's helpful.  It forces me to work through some of the things I try to hold back and repress.  And I think by helping others, it will help me heal as well.




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jenna's Story

After over a year of trying to conceive naturally, my OBGYN suggested we try IUI. We did 4 IUI cycles with her before she recommended we move on to see a fertility specialist, who then tried 2 more IUI cycles before ultimately recommending IVF. We proceeded with IVF and that was an absolute rollercoaster. We went from the high of a fruitful egg retrieval, to an above average number of eggs fertilized. Then we were suddenly rocked to learn on day 3 that our embryos weren't looking great, and that we needed to brace ourselves for the possibility of nothing viable to transfer. This was our first taste of what we believed to be absolute heartbreak. So naïve. By some miracle, we ended up having 3 viable embryos on day 5. Those 2 days felt like an eternity then. Only 2 of those embryos ended up being good for transfer, so we thawed and transferred one and began our 2 week wait. We were floored to learn at the end of it that we were pregnant (spoiler: this one ends well, don't wo...
7 comments
Read more

Project Finding Your Rainbow

It has been a while since I have written anything, but I am super excited about this idea.  I am sure some of you remember the rainbow skirt that I used for my maternity pictures with my rainbow baby.  If you don't, here are a couple of pics below. (If you need a great photographer, these were taken by McGowan Images) Since then, the skirt has pretty much just been sitting in my closet without getting any use.  I kept trying to think of some way that I could use it.  I then saw an article about someone who had a skirt like this and sent it out to other women who had a loss to use and they would take their picture with it. Thank you to someone who commented with the link.  You can read about the original person doing this  here . This is when I decided I wanted to do something similar.  Every since our loss, I have wanted to do something to help others who have had a loss/are going through a loss and something that would help bring awareness to ...
5 comments
Read more

Anger

I have found that one of the strongest emotions I have had to deal with lately is anger.  I am angry at a lot of things.  I am angry at the doctors who abandoned me (in the end, every single one of them did and that really sucks).  The one who wrote off my daughter's chance to survive the moment of the CDH diagnosis, the one who told me well you can give birth to her now and spend a few minutes with her or you can wait and let her be stillborn, and the one who I had been counting on to help me and then wouldn't at the end.  I've mentioned it before, but it really sucks that doctors don't want to help you when they hear the word trisomy.  I wasn't asking for a miracle, I was asking for them to just TRY.  And in the end, no one would and we ran out of time.  The only one I did not feel abandoned by was my OB and he was the one person who couldn't really help in this situation.  Personally, I never want to see or speak with any of those doctors ...
6 comments
Read more