Saturday march 22nd was my first baby show. I was prepared… I had brochures, business cards, placenta prints, boobie beanies and my sparkling personality.
This show taught me many things: It prepared me for the million questions, positive and negative about being a doula.
“What is a doula?”
“You charge how much?”
“You only charge how much?”
“What is a placenta?”
“Ewww, you do what with it?”
My RANT: “We are educated people that have a passion for birth and know the strength of a woman. We know that birth is normal and natural, we stay calm and collected. We engage moms in relaxation techniques both physically and in grounding exercises.We prepare dads and moms in prenatal visits and check in after the baby is born. We prepare placentas because we know the importance of postpartum health and we have learned and studied the sacred organ and are intrigued by it’s beauty. We do this all with being on call for sometimes a month at a time! We go to bed early, we sleep beside our phones, we say things like “I`ll be there if I’m not at a birth” … And in the big scheme of things we likely make less than $25 an hour, but we do it because we are PASSIONATE and we believe every woman deserves a doula.”
Ok, so I didn’t say all that, but I wanted to. I wanted to shout them, I wanted to have a big sh-peal about doulas while on the little stage after the handsome tap dancing boy and before the sleep consultant. But instead, I handed out cards, I answered each question with respect and evidence based information. I answered everything from my heart.
Here is hoping someone heard me and wants to book me for a birth. All I can be is me, and I’m happy with that.
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