Blast from the Past

You know when you decide to do some spring cleaning and before you know it you're deep in yesteryear, smiling over some things, scowling at others (how did I ever think that colour suited me?!?) ... well, that happens to me all the time with my writing and I've been doing a cleanup, getting my Doula Program running better (now that it's virtual I have more to play with but less at the same time...).

Anyway one of my most amazing yesteryear memories was the 13 years (2003-2016) that I was honoured to lead the Montreal Birth Companions. If you read StarHawk's Truth or Dare, you will realize why an anarchist such as myself made structural errors in designing an organization, so that when a seismic event like a sexual assault or even a power struggle hit the structure, it crumbled. People don't do well with anarchy in action, and so my beloved MBC died a natural death. BUT when she was alive, she was powerful, strong, and the MBC doulas literally changed so many women's lives with their kindness, skill, love, and caring.

So, here's a trip down memory lane. 

And if you're in the mood, give me a shout and we can start her up again! There are always, always women in need who cannot afford to pay for a doula. This blog post is from 2013:

provides free doula services, prenatal and postpartum support, and resources for refugee, non-status, and other marginalized women in Montreal.

We are in need of birth companions ... please contact me if you are willing and able to devote some time to our worthy cause.
If you are a doula and you can donate one birth every six months to MBC, we would be happy to have you on board!
We are looking especially for birth companions who are fluent in different languages. We would love to have more doulas from our diverse Montreal communities. We welcome everyone who has an open heart and is willing to donate their time and energy.

The women we serve appreciate the companionship, support and kindness that her doula provides. Women come from many backgrounds, walks of life, stories and histories. But the birthing year is the same: we want to give birth to a healthy baby, and we would like to have that experience to be filled with joy. This is not always possible if it is a sad time in the mother's life, but the presence of a birth companion can help spread the love.

We have clients from all around the world. Right now we are serving women from: Algeria, Haiti, St. Vincent, Germany, India, Nigeria, Philippines, Mali, Senegal, Guinee, and Quebec. Next month, we could receive requests from China, Cameroon, Mexico, the US, or Russia ... we never know where our clients will come from or when they will find us. We have had calls from women in their first trimester, and from women in labor!

Many midwifery students try to gain experience as interns in other countries. Volunteering for MBC is a way that doulas and aspiring midwives can gain experience working with women whose cultural attitudes and lives are very different from their own. It is a way that these doulas and aspiring midwives can really understand that the birth experience is universal, and that accompanying a woman in labor transcends language and reaches across boundaries.

photo used with permission

Call for Volunteers

Montreal Birth Companions provides free doula services, prenatal and postpartum support, and resources for refugee, non-status, and other marginalized women in Montreal.

We are in need of birth companions ... please contact me if you are willing and able to devote some time to our worthy cause.
If you are a doula and you can donate one birth every six months to MBC, we would be happy to have you on board!
We are looking especially for birth companions who are fluent in different languages. We would love to have more doulas from our diverse Montreal communities. We welcome everyone who has an open heart and is willing to donate their time and energy.

The women we serve appreciate the companionship, support and kindness that her doula provides. Women come from many backgrounds, walks of life, stories and histories. But the birthing year is the same: we want to give birth to a healthy baby, and we would like to have that experience to be filled with joy. This is not always possible if it is a sad time in the mother's life, but the presence of a birth companion can help spread the love.

We have clients from all around the world. Right now we are serving women from: Algeria, Haiti, St. Vincent, Germany, India, Nigeria, Philippines, Mali, Senegal, Guinee, and Quebec. Next month, we could receive requests from China, Cameroon, Mexico, the US, or Russia ... we never know where our clients will come from or when they will find us. We have had calls from women in their first trimester, and from women in labor!

Many midwifery students try to gain experience as interns in other countries. Volunteering for MBC is a way that doulas and aspiring midwives can gain experience working with women whose cultural attitudes and lives are very different from their own. It is a way that these doulas and aspiring midwives can really understand that the birth experience is universal, and that accompanying a woman in labor transcends language and reaches across boundaries.

Please consider volunteering for MBC.

Vote for Montreal Birth Companions!

As you all know by now, if you are regular readers of my blog (speaking of which, please follow me!), Montreal Birth Companions is a volunteer-led organization that provides free doula services and resources to marginalized women in and around Montreal.

The women we serve are at risk because of youth, poverty, isolation, or refugee/immigration status, or because of all of these factors. MBC doulas work to provide non-judgmental and unconditional support to all of our pregnant women and new parents.

Montreal Birth Companions have been providing support for birthing families since 2003, with no funding. Our volunteers work from the heart; our coordinators and administrators spend unpaid hours devoted to this worthy cause. Please help us help women by voting for Birth Companions on the AVIVA FUND. You can vote every day, from individual email addresses!

HOW TO VOTE:

1) Create an account on the Aviva Community

Fund website: https://www.avivacommunityfund.org/users/registration/register

2) Go to your email inbox and click on the link that Aviva sent you.

3) Go to the Montreal Birth Companions Aviva idea:

http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf16929 and VOTE for Montreal Birth Companions!

4) Do this every day starting September 30th. Help us win funds to provide prenatal classes for the women we serve.

Upcoming Events

Montreal Doula Training revised schedule

I have been getting lots of positive response about the course, so I have decided to give you all some more details - here below is an outline ... remembering that the best class plans are never followed to the letter!

 Birth Companions Doula Course

a knowledge-based, hands-off approach

Introduction

This course is the first of three levels of the Birth Companions doula program. It includes 24 hours of class time.

When you have completed this level, you will be eligible to accompany clients from the Montreal Birth Companions volunteer doula program, under my mentorship and with a partner doula. Once you have completed three volunteer births, you will be able to proceed to Level Two, after which you will be able to work as a private practice doula.

The course will integrate theory and practice. Shadowing and mentoring may take place throughout.

The only prerequisite is enthusiasm and availability.

Materials

Bring your own experiences, a notebook, your hands and an open heart. We will utilize The Birth Conspiracyas our main reference. The book will be available on or before the first class. The cost is $24.95.

Requirements

To fulfill requirements for Level One, you need to attend all of the classes, if possible. I may ask you to present or prepare assignments, but these will be done within class time. If you are interested in doing an independent project, please speak to me and I will be available for mentorship.

Cost

We are pricing this course to be accessible for as many women as possible. The cost for Level One is $400.00.

Please see the outline below, for the class program. This course will take place at Studio Vie, 5175C, Sherbrooke West, Montreal, H4A 1T5

Class One April 15, 2012, 10am to 1pm

Introductions

“What is a Doula?”

Class Project

Nutrition assignment

Class Two April 22, 2012, 1pm to 4pm

Bare Bones – anatomy

The birth process, cardinal movements

Class Three April 29, 2012, 1pm to 4pm

Questions and Review

The Childbearing Year

Centering Exercise

Class Four May 6, 2012, 10am to 1pm

Nutrition

Breastfeeding

Role playing

Class Five May 13, 2012, 1pm to 5pm*** note this class is a four hour class

Doula Care A to Z, the process, the doula bag

Doula Techniques – alternative ways for coping with the pain of childbirth

Role playing

Class Six May 20, 2012, 1pm to 5pm *** note this class is a four hour class

Common Interventions – Induction, Epidural, C-Section, Episiotomy, Instruments, Exams

Role playing

No class May 27

Class Seven June 3, 2012, 1pm to 5pm *** note this class is a four hour class

Presentations – Nutrition Guides

Review

Montreal Doula Training April 15, 2012

I am happy to announce that I have teamed up with Jana from Studio Vie to organize a doula course that will be starting on April 15, 2012.

The program is based on the approach that I have explored in my book, and we will be using the book as our text.

This program is comprised of three levels. Completion of the Level One course will allow the participants to volunteer as doulas for Montreal Birth Companions volunteer doula organization.

Level Two is a continuation and an exploration of themes introduced in Level One. This level will provide doulas with the necessary skills to run a private doula practice.



 Level Three courses are specialized, and they take place in all sorts of interesting places.

We will be going to Cuba together next spring, and this summer we will be exploring storytelling and healing with Lewis Mehl-Madrona, in Italy.

To be accepted into Level Three you need to have attended births as a doula or lay midwife, and you need a strong foundation in self-directed learning.

If you are interested in accompanying me on any or all of these journeys, please let me know. Our courses are filling up fast!

Montreal Doula Trainings

MBC volunteer doulas had a potluck meeting the other night, and the subject of doula training came up, as it always does when you get a few doulas together.

Here in Montreal, we have a good selection of opportunities for would-be doulas - but more about that in a minute. First, the whole question of training. We do not need to be trained, any more than doulas are "coaches". One reason why we have to keep using terms that we perhaps don't agree completely with is the grip the internet and its rules has over our choices. "Training" is a keyword that many people will use. Many doula "trainers" will agree with me, this is not an exact description of what we do, but for now, that's the word we agree to use.
Suggestions? Doula guidance? Flaky. Doula program? Could work. Doula course? Too limited.

A good doula training will include teaching, guiding, role-play, hands on experience, and, exceptionally, teaching by example. Usually, the course will have some kind of text, or at least some handouts, to follow; some physical demonstrations; and a role-playing segment where the students can get a sense of what it is really like to assist a birthing woman.

Montreal doula trainings come in two flavors: French, and English. The English programs seem to be few and far between, but most of the would-be doulas here usually find their fit. DONA, the international doula organization, does doula trainings very rarely here, but I have met a few women who have travelled to Ottawa to do their trainings. They cost around $400 for a weekend, and do not include shadowing or mentorship, but do give a good basic foundation. Alternative Naissance also does trainings in English twice a year.

The most well known, and the most comprehensive training in Montreal is the one run by Motherwit. Most of the English speaking doulas in town have graduated, or in the process of working on, this training. It gives the student an excellent preparation for working within the Montreal health care system - which is no easy task! These classes are run two or three times a year, and fill up fast. Mentorship and shadowing is also possible within the program. This is a great course run by a wonderful woman.

I also take on apprentices and run quirky doula courses. I am organizing one in Barbados for the third week of February, in conjunction with the Birth House in Bridgetown.  This summer, in July, I will be teaming up with Lewis Mehl-Madrona to lead a retreat in a fantastic spot in Italy, Casa della Pace. This will be a retreat opportunity for birth workers, writers, and any one interested in healing through story.
I am often approached by would-be doulas for shadowing and apprenticeship possibilities, and I am very open to those. I have four apprentices working with me now, and one in particular is doing a self-directed program using my book as a foundation, in preparation for midwifery training.

If you are interested in any of these possibilities, please email me for further information.

One question the women had the other night was "What if I do the training - and none of them are free! - and then I find out I don't want to be a doula after all"?
My answer is this: "Learn and keep on learning." You will not waste the money and effort doing a good doula program. So much of it prepares you for life, not just for working as a doula. I have learned so much over the years working as a doula that I hope to apply to how I live. Of course, it is important to find the right teacher, and you will know that right away. The choice should be made that way, however, not by price, effort, or convenience. Find a mentor, learn from her. Talk to other doulas. Volunteer. Keep an open mind and an open heart.

Buy the Book!

Support Canadian publishers!

Buy The Birth Conspiracy directly  from the publisher, at Curioso Books. You can also log onto Amazon and rate the book.

Launch Success

The Birth Conspiracy is now available for sale either through Amazon or directly from the publisher. 

Support independent Canadian publishers by buying directly from Curioso Books, then if you have a few minutes, please go to Amazon and rate my book....every star counts!

 

I would like to thank everyone who made it out to the book  launch. It was a lot of fun, and I felt honored to have all of you there. It was a different type of book launch - a real family event, with lots of babies and kids, pregnant women, and of course with my own family fully involved (well, some of them anyway).

Pastries by Giacomo

Meet and Greet

Making Friends

Lovely Mother and Babe

Book Launch Tomorrow

It's finally here. My book is written, illustrated, edited, proofed, and printed. It is ready to go, and tomorrow night we will be celebrating.
I hope all of you in Montreal will be able to come and celebrate with us. The launch will take place at 6767 Cote des Neiges, from 7 to 10 pm, and of course children and babies are welcome.

In the meantime, life goes on. I am waiting on a lady who is going to call me any minute now to accompany her during her labor and birth. I have another lady due in a week or so, and I am hoping that baby doesn't decide to arrive tomorrow night.

My mind and dreams are now full of my next book, so watch this space....

And I went to visit my father last week and did the doula in the geriatric ward where he was staying. The doula approach, how we utilize our skills, how we "do the doula", is the same whether we are attending a woman in labor, an old man in hospital, or a teenager having a meltdown. We wait, watch, listen, sympathize, fetch ice, carry water, sit still, put hands on, keep hands off, speak when spoken to, make eye contact.

A hearty thank you and much gratitude to all of those who have allowed me to be present at their births, and to all of the doulas out there who continue to do this challenging work.

Natural Birth

Here in Montreal, a woman has a few choices when it comes to giving birth:

We have several large hospitals, most of which have maternity centers. If you are birthing in a hospital, you will be followed either by a family physician or by an obstetrician. Because doctors here in Montreal get paid less, are more overworked, and have to work under worse conditions than in the rest of the country, there is a real problem of access and availability. This means that a woman may not find a doctor who necessarily agrees with  her approach to childbirth. The larger hospitals are also teaching units, so women in labor are under the care of several people other than the doctor she is officially being followed by.

There are three midwife-run birthing centers in Montreal. Two of these offer women a choice to birth either at the center or at home. The third provides home-birth midwives to eligible women. Demand for these provincially registered midwives is high, and the eligibility requirements are strict.

There are women in Montreal who do not want to follow the provincial rules, and these women have two choices. Some hire "lay midwives", who have been trained elsewhere and are not registered with the Quebec college. Still others give birth on their own or with their partner or a friend.

For years I was getting swamped with requests from women who were desperate about their chance of having a natural birth. The conversation would go something like this:
 "I was on the waiting list for the Birthing Center but I know I have a very slim chance. So I've decided to go with Doctor x at y hospital, because I have heard they have a more natural approach. I would like to give birth at home with a midwife but I do not feel comfortable with an unassisted childbirth, and my husband is not happy about hiring a lay midwife. So we feel our best choice is to hire a doula."

Yes, the presence of a doula can reduce interventions. Yes, my c-section statistics (6%) compare well with most of the Montreal hospitals' statistics (25-30%). Yes, birth can take unexpected turns and you are well advised to have a trained attendant. But to be able to stay in your own bed after giving birth, and bring your child into an environment that is your own means a great deal not only to the mother, but also to the newborn.

And my concern is, I am not getting those phone calls any more. The calls are still about hiring a doula, but they are usually not from women who are serious about natural birth. The women who are on the midwives' waiting lists are actually getting in to the birthing centers. They are not hiring lay midwives, and they are not giving birth unassisted. I know that the birthing centers are not working at over capacity; they have rules about how many they can take on. So my conclusion can only be that the desire for a midwife-assisted birth is becoming more rare, and this makes me wonder. Is the doula-accompanied birth in the hospital the way of the future?