check and check mark.

-
well, we hired a doula.
and hired a birth educator.
and she happens to be the same person!


not sure if you remember me mentioning that i attended a doula training 
back in June.
feels like eons ago...
i feel very lucky to have attended this training 
and even more lucky to have attended while pregnant!
while i choose to educate myself on aspects of birth, labor 
and the current, never ending interventions and rise in abdominal surgeries for birth,
it was such a blessing to have almost my own birth class workshop.
a lot of it was review for me, but i took in plenty of new in addition.


the experience was empowering, enlightening and exciting!
i wish every moma-(and popa)-to-be could take a workshop like this-
covering such important material on birth decisions in our society today.
i started an entry on this a long time ago, but i am choosing my posts
carefully until after my own experience.
it was very hard to describe the experience in full, but i may touch on the topics as time goes on.
...
so
 when it came to interview a doula, well, i didn't really have a lot of questions.
it was more important to choose someone that john and i both 
feel comfortable with to support us through, what may be,
 a long (or short, but probably long) adventure of meeting our little.


we interviewed a few ladies, but when we met with melanie 
i think we both knew we needed to make this work.
despite me knowing who i wanted, i let it soak in and didn't make any comments 
as i didn't want to influence john. 
turns out later that evening he mentioned clicking with her as well.
check and check mark.
that was easy.
we really do have similar taste after all.


it also is in our favor that she teaches natural child birth classes - 
so what better way to get more acquainted with your doula than to take her birth classes?!
there are so many options these days for types of classes and methods...
lamaze, hypnobirthing, bradley...
i didn't have any interest in taking a hospital course 
as it doesn't have a high success rate for natural childbirth
and
 i didn't feel right about going in with just one method since, 
as a first time moma it is all going to feel new 
and i won't know exactly what to expect 
no matter how much i read and no matter how much prepare. 
melanie teaches a mixed method class covering a little bit of everything 
which seemed like a perfect fit for the 2 of us.

i couldn't be more pleased with our care providers and doula 
and know the 3 of us will be in good hands with all our advocates.

if you are unfamiliar with doula-dom 
check out my guest post on bnature.
every moma deserves a doula.
treat yourself.






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