To work with Birth is to engage the full breadth of human experience: joy, anxiety, fear, magic, grief, agony, risk and reward alongside explosions of love, exhaustion and astonishment. Birth is an embodied experience that happens over time, weaving a story of becoming and undoing; a story that belongs to the weaver; a story that cannot be flattened into the tidy categories of 'good' or 'bad'. Birth is untidy.
To work with Birth is to work with the Body, encountering the fullness of its multi-sensate stories and polyphonic voices. It sings, moans, purrs and growls, vomits, yells, and giggles. It dances, shakes, rests and wriggles, reeking of the sour scent of the birthing body.
To work with Birth is to witness the work of transformation: From one body emerges another. To birth and be birthed is to be transformed. And where there is transformation, there is power and where there is power there is the possibility of both trauma and transcendence. And rarely is it a story of one or the other.
"We shake with joy, we shake with grief. What a time they have, the two housed as they are in the same body" - Mary Oliver
BIRTH DOULA
Having supported over 450 families and developed professional relationships with OBs, midwives, nurses and perinatal health practitioners - I offer a deeply experienced wide angle lens of service to the unique needs of each family. I have specific experience supporting VBAC, IVF, twins, same sex partners, as well as folks with a history of trauma and loss.
Your experience is never about me and my personal beliefs - it is always about being with your journey as it unfolds. My job is grounded in sharing information, perspective and insight based on my many years of attending births at home, birthing centers and hospitals and then orienting you back to your own embodied intelligence.
I draw from my training in Chinese medicine to offer acupressure for labor support, nutritional guidance for postpartum recovery as well provide trauma informed care across the full spectrum of reproductive health from miscarriage, pregnancy loss and abortion to fertility, birth, postpartum and menopause.
Doula services include:
• Unlimited emails, texts and phone calls once hired.
• 2 prenatal visits: the first (can be via zoom) focuses on understanding the full range of possible interventions, discerning your own boundaries and preferences around birth. The second (in person at your home) focuses on the mind body relationship where I share specific practices for labor support: breath work, acupressure, spinning babies, labor positions and practices for mental and emotional resilience.
• On call from 37 weeks, remote support during early labor with regular communication until we agree you are ready for me to join you - continuous care from then until your delivery. Immediate support with breastfeeding
• Back up: Given my location on Whidbey Island, I always have solid Seattle based back up (rarely needed but always available) .
• Postpartum care: texts, phones calls, zooms as needed until you are ready for an in person postpartum visit. Second postpartum visit offered as needed. Recovery guide and robust list of postpartum resources provided.
• Birth photos taken upon request (see below)
• Birth Doula Fee: $2800
• Full Spectrum Doula Fee: $500 - $1000 (Please contact me with your specific circumstance to explore appropriate support options)
• For more info and client testimonials, please visit my yelp page and doulamatch profile.
BIRTH PHOTOGRAPHY
