Once we found out we were expecting I started seriously looking into and educating myself on pregnancy and childbirth. I had always imagined I'd be getting an epidural no question. Let's get real, who likes pain? But after seeing a couple documentaries and reading some interesting books about natural childbirth (aka: birth with no pain meds), I really was inspired to go that route.
Back in graduate school, my good friend and roommate Tannia had shared with me her desire to become a doula and at the time I was oblivious to what that really meant. After all of my research though, I'm no longer oblivious. For those that aren't familiar with doulas, they provide non-medical support to women during labor, childbirth, and postpartum. Doulas are used by women who desire a natural childbirth. They provide emotional support, help with physical comfort measures, and can provide an objective viewpoint to help women make informed decisions. (Check out DONA.org for more information)
I was happy to find a place in our area that offered doula services named Gentle Beginnings. I called them up and before Russ left out to sea, we met up with a doula named Erica. I asked Erica if she had ever dealt with the OB I was seeing at the time and she made a 'hmm....how should I break the news' face, which made me really curious what she was going to say. I told her how I had two appointments with that OB and had yet to meet him to even discuss his stance on natural childbirth. Erica told me that if I were to tell my OB that I was interested in natural childbirth, he would tell me he's not the doctor for me. So that settled it for us, we decided to switch to midwifery care (more on that in a later blog). Erica was great in answering all of the questions we had and it didn't take too long for us to decide to have her as our doula. We're excited to have Erica along with us for our journey and I know we'll be especially thankful to have her around when those contractions are coming strong.
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