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how i ended up in the doula biz

1/17/2019

1 Comment

 
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My doula journey officially started about a year and a half ago. My son who is now 3 ½ is the main reason why I became a doula. When I became pregnant with him it was a bit of a surprise. My husband and I wanted to start a family eventually, but I didn’t feel ready at that moment. I was actually terrified of the idea of motherhood; my husband on the other hand has always been super excited to be a dad. Not really sure why I was so scared, but I guess seeing how parenthood is something that is forever I wanted to feel more ready for a lifetime commitment.

Child birth was also something that I thought was this awful, painful, and traumatic experience and it really scared me. No one ever really talks about how great birth is! After learning I was pregnant, I first thought I would just go into my labour and let whatever happens happen (which in hindsight would have been a horrible idea)! Then I thought, maybe I should at least do a birth prep class to be a little bit prepared and know what to expect. I ended up coming across hypnobirthing and it was the best thing that I could have done for my birth experience.

I then started researching everything about birth and figured out that my fears of childbirth were really around the epidural and all of the medical stuff. I decided I wanted to try to have an unmedicated birth. When I told people that they laughed, said I would be asking for the epidural right away. Well I didn’t, and I had a fairly fast, unmedicated, and intervention-free birth. I laboured mostly at home and when we arrived at the hospital at just before midnight on June 30th, I was at 8cm dilated and my son was born at 1:37am on July 1st.

After my birth I felt so empowered, I felt like I could do anything, and a lot of friends and family just couldn’t believe that I did it without any medications or interventions. Little did I know this would be the start of my interest in birth work. I found myself wanting to share my positive birth experience with other expecting moms, so that they knew they didn’t have to have a traumatic experience.

I didn’t jump right into doula work and it took me a bit to even come across the idea. I spent the first year of motherhood home with my son and trying to get used to all the adjustments that come with being a mom. Motherhood didn’t come easy for me either (I’ll save that for another blog post).  The job I had prior was a contract gig so I knew after my maternity leave was up, I didn’t have anything to go back to and would be starting all over. I had a background in fashion and I worked as clothing buyer. I loved my job but I knew the demands of it and being a mother really changed my priorities. Being home with him more and more I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea of going back to work full-time to pay for someone else to watch him. I wanted to find something that would allow me to work from home in the hours that worked around raising my son. It took a while to figure out.

Just before my son turned one I tried a direct sales opportunity, but found it really stressed me out and that it was not for me (I’m not a salesperson type at all). I found I was really interested in infant sleep as well after all the sleep struggles we had been through in the first year, but some of the training I looked into was very expensive and it seemed a little risky. I also knew that I wanted to be able to help parents overall with their parenting journey and not just sleep troubles.

One day I had a follow suggestion, or maybe it was an Ad that popped up on my Instagram feed for bebo mia inc. and I checked it out. They were doing a doula training info webinar and I thought maybe I should tune in and hear what it was all about. Suddenly a light bulb flicked on: this is what I had being looking for all along but just didn’t know it. I always thought doulas just supported births, but when I learned they support and educate in pregnancy and postpartum as well, I enrolled in the training almost immediately. I’m so glad that I did and a few months later I also took their infant sleep educator course.
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Being a doula allows me to be home with my son, work the hours I want to work, and be my own boss. I get to use my passion for birth and postpartum to help other parents on their journey into parenthood. This is still a fairly new journey for me, but I know this is the road I was meant to take and I’m excited to see what the future brings. 
1 Comment
Jo
2/26/2019 04:48:05 pm

We had so much fun hanging with the family and working like busy little bees getting the meals ready... it was our pleasure to be part of it ... everything looked and smelt so yummy 😀

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    Hey there, I'm Guilaine. I'm a maternal support practitioner (a.k.a a doula) and the owner of Luna Bloom Maternal.

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