What I want to be when I grow up...

I think I've finally figgured it out!

After a year of being a La Leche League Leader, having had 2 wonderful births and attending 2 births as a labor assistant, I am pretty sure I've figgured out what God wants me to do with my life (other than build my family and homeschool my kids, of course...). I feel God calling me to minister to expectant and new mothers as a doula!

I've been researching certifying organizations for a few days now and I've settled on Childbirth International. www.childbirthinternational.org They come highly recomended from a number of women I know from the Christian Moms Forum. To get certified, I'll do an extensive online class, some required reading, a reflective paper, and attend a few births. I really can not wait to get started! I think I should be able to save up enough money to apply to the class in the next couple of months. I'm hoping to start by the first of May - partially because I want to get going and partially because I'm supposed to attend Crystal's birth and would love for hers to count as one of the ones I need for the class.

After I get certified, I'm planning to save up some more money and get a dual certification from Cascade Christian Childbirth Assciation - another organization that certifies doulas, but does so from a distinctly Christian perspecive. I would also love to persue certifications as a childbirth educator and a postpartum doula as well. I feel like there is a HUGE need - especially in our area - for childbirth professionals. Most people around here don't even know what a doula is. Birth is seen as such a medical procedure to be feared and not as a natural and miraculous part of life. There are people, and even members of the medical community, who don't know anyone who has had a natural birth or sucessfully breastfed.

I want to be part of a support network that can reclaim birth from the sterility, timelines and intervenions of a hospital and gift women with the traditional practice of women supporting women through their labors, as has been done for thousands of years, and teach women to trust their bodies again. Pregnancy and birth is a miraculous time...it is our opportunity to take part with God in the creation of one of His children. It breaks my heart to think of the women going through their pregnancy with little or no support, uninformed, scared that their bodies will let them down, and prevented from experiencing the empowerment that comes from naurally birthing a baby like generations of women before them.

I've been talking to my friend Glynis, who also wants to become a doula. We would love to go into buisness together after we both get our certifications. Glynis is an artist by trade (and if you need a portrait done, she is FANTASTIC) and we were discussing her using her skill to do pregnancy and newborn photography and we could work together to do belly casting as well. A long term goal would be to open a boutique where we could showcase Glynis's art, our belly casts, and also sell mother/baby items like blankets, diapers, slings, birth kits...the sky is the limit!

Another part of being a doula and childbirth educator, for me at least ( I don't want to speak for Glynis) is that I would love to volunteer my services to mothers at the women's shelter, crisis pregnancy center, and teenage mother home. I really feel this is a ministry opportunit...to empower and support women and at the same time show them God's love through the miracle of birth.

Please pray for me and Glynis as we embarq on this journey! We will both need to raise the funds to pay for the class and our supplies we will need to run our buisness. Also, I want to praise God for giving both of us such supportive husbands who are standing behind our decision to make this leap.

Also, if you are in Pitt or the surrounding counties, pregnant and looking for a doula, or know someone who might be, contact me! I will need to attend a few births to complete my certification, and will attend those free of charge. My services for those will include 2-3 prenatal visits to discuss your birth plan, relaxation and other natural pain management techniques, and concerns you may have, your expectations of my role at your birth, as well as access to my library, unlimited phone calls, attendance at the birth, and post natal appointments to make sure breastfeeding is going well.