Welcome to My Blog!!

"So what do you do?" "I'm a Doula." "(pause) What's that?"

This is the usual response I get from people when I'm asked about my work. Every hundred or so people I get the "Oh really? That's great", and I nearly fall over in surprise that they know what it is!

Doula's are still a fairly new breed within Australia, and even newer in SA, so it's a bit of an uphill battle to educate people about who we are and what we do, particularly as the period of time that someone needs us is relatively short, but we're getting there.

I absolutely love my job. Supporting women and their husbands or partners during the most significant time of their lives is an incredible privilege, one I do not take lightly. I have toyed with the idea of midwifery, but for me, I am far more interested in supporting a woman to have the most magnificent birth experience she can have, than in worrying about the clinical side of things. I want to be there to support women and their families on an emotional, mental and spiritual level, to "hold the space", as I watch a woman transform into a mother. What can be more beautiful than that!

I hope you enjoy my blog. There will be plenty of joy, some helpful tips for those on the journey toward parenthood, and lots of things that inspire me as a woman, wife, mother, Doula and friend! Welcome!!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

3 months!!!

3 months is a shamefully long time to neglect a blog, but yet I managed to do so a little too easily! My sincere apologies to everyone, I can blame my busy life, and my gorgeous daughter who let loose a virus on my computer(grrr!), but really, if Lisa can keep her blog updated, then I have no excuse, she's way busier than me thats for sure!!

I have managed to attend 3 beautiful births in that time, 1 being the amazing homebirth of Harper Irvine, whose birth pics are displayed in all their glory on Lisa's blog,(along with a nice little plug for Doulas and particularly me, cheers Lisa!)the birth of the handsome little samuri, Takumi Satamura; and on Tuesday this week, the lovely little Olivia, who arrived after 24 hrs of labour and a pretty determined effort to stay inside! I promise I will write more on all of these in the next few days, and include some beautiful photo's so you can share their birth journeys with me. But for right now, I'm still feeling pretty jetlagged from supporting Olivia's amazing parents, so it's off to bed for me!