Preparing for Birth

No, not preparing for my birth, unfortunately. ;)

I am excitedly preparing myself for three good friends births. As I've mentioned a hand full of times before in my blog, I am passionate about child birth. It is about the most normal thing... ever. I love pregnancy, birth, and brand spankin' new babies.  A few years back I did a doula training course in Puyallup, WA. While that course was only the first part of becoming certified as a doula, it taught me SO much. I haven't furthered my training, unfortunately,  except by getting some experience at births. Becoming certified is only for the purpose of wearing a name tag from the Doulas of North America (DONA) and looking official. While eventually I'd like to finish up my certification, experience is really what will teach me more.

I am anxiously awaiting my best friend's birth that could be ANY DAY now. Her due date was yesterday. I am honored and blessed to be a part of her big day. She is having a home birth with a midwife and her apprentice, who are amazing. She's got the tub all blown up and ready to fill with hot water. This will be an incredibly comfortable setting for a birth for everyone involved. Homemade food, candles lit around the house, dim lighting, and a set of midwives who will be working hard to keep the house spick and span. Since it is my best friend I will feel right at home spending all those hours with her laboring.

There are two other gals from church whose due dates are one day apart. :) They are due in just about 4 weeks. Their births will be very unique as well. One is delivering her baby at the Salem Hospital which is right down the street from me (convenient!). It is her first baby and I am so excited to be a part of this experience with her and her husband. My other good friend is having her baby at a hospital in Stayton that does water births! This is a very rare thing for hospitals to do, so it'll be fun to be a part of that. While most hospitals let you labor in the water, they will not let you deliver in the water. This one does with the supervision of one midwife - my friend's midwife! I am very much looking forward to seeing the different dynamics of all of these places of delivering babies.

I can't think of many events as huge as welcoming a new baby into the world. I am so honored to be a part of welcoming these babies into the world, while looking out for the physical and emotional well-being of the mothers. Having gone through labor and birth for myself now, I have a whole new empathy for new mothers. Birth is such a vunerable time, and women need as much loving support as possible. My job is to help the husbands my teaching them hands on techniques of comforting their wives as well as doing those things myself. We work together and I do not take the place of the husband by any means.

That's it for now - if anyone reads this has any questions about what a doula is or why they are needed I'd love to talk about it! Like I said, it's a passion of mine. Please leave any comments you may have.

Blessings to you, readers!