Want to know what I’m really all about as a doula? Let me keep it simple….these are my top three core values, that everything I do aligns with:
Love.
My greatest goal is that the families I serve feel loved. This one “umbrella value” covers so many others.
*When a person is loved, they are seen as unique individuals, with unique goals and needs. I strive to get to know each member of each family as their own self with their own goals and hopes and norms.
*When a person is loved, they feel safe. Those feelings of safety allow labor to progress more easily, and for a cervix to open up more quickly.
As a doula, I get to have a unique perspective into the beauty of the people I get to support. It is so easy to see how wonderful they truly are, and a privilege to be able to love them.
Evidence Based Care
While I am not a medical professional, I love knowing how the benefits of doula care have been proven again and again by scientific and medical studies. I keep my approach based on my knowledge of the physiologic birth, and get a great deal of information from the brilliant people at Evidence Based Birth.
My use of Spinning Babies also informs how I support labor. This series of positional techniques has been shown repeatedly to be an excellent way to help labor be more comfortable and take less time. It’s terrific stuff, and an honor to have that education.
Teamwork
Every so often, I get a worried question from families or medical professionals about what my role is within the medical care system. My goal is to foster a seamless circle of care around a birthing mother, working in harmony with the Primary Care Provider and support staff. I work to facilitate communication, help everyone involved trust each other, and sometimes my work to support a family means supporting a nurse or midwife so that they are also cared for and able to perform their best work.
Snohomish County Doula 