Birth and Scars

As we grow, we absorb big and small shocks to our bodies and souls. We all know where our physical scars are, and we often assign stories to them. I remember when I was skipping school and the knife chose that day to slice my finger, so I had to get myself stitched up without (I dreamed) my mother finding out. I have a little white line on my finger that tells that story.

Some women have bigger scars, on their skin and their muscles, from birthing their babies. I hear these stories often when I am speaking to women about their birth experiences.

Other women have emotional scars that last for years. These scars have a way of aching and burning during pregnancy and birth. The doula can gently assist the woman when she is feeling these aches and pains. Doulas are not therapists so they do not have to probe, suggest, or hypnotize. What they do is provide a non-judgmental ear, if the woman wants to talk. They let her know that she is not alone, that she has support. They also remind her that there are other women who have traveled the same road and survived.

One of my students is accompanying a woman as I write. The woman has been in labor for most of last night and today. She does have emotional scars, and they are hurting. My student has been with her the whole time, supporting and comforting. And even though my student is a very inexperienced doula, she is still providing the essence of what a birthing woman needs. The expertise, medical know-how and scientific facts is not the realm of the doula. She is there with other skills: the skill of touch, listening, compassion, and presence.

With our world changing every day; with our experiences and our innate wisdom challenged every single day; with our routines and habits changing minute to minute, we are starting to see between the lines of our lives. We are starting to look between the cracks; to probe between the layers of darkness that we have been hiding behind. We, as women, are starting to see what has been hidden: that birth is a unique act, unique to women; that women's bodies are exquisitely designed for this task; that a woman births best when she is surrounded by a loving circle of care.

It is wonderful if that circle of care can include someone, an elder perhaps. who know about the vagaries of Mother Nature and her cruel jokes. But if not, chances are that everything will work out fine. And that is better than being treated like a child, when you are bringing forth new life.

So I see women and their partners and their communities going about their lives, far from hospitals and Covid regulations. And it makes me sad that with this huge machinery of health care that we as a society couldn't have created a safe and sacred space for women to birth in; but I understand why that isn't possible. Can you imagine what would happen if the power of womanhood was actually unleashed? 

Think about the biggest wave you've ever seen. Think about the most love you've ever felt. And the most beautiful place you've ever been. Imagine what it would be like if women grew babies in their wombs and birthed them with respect, honour, and love. 

Scars have a way of healing. With healing comes change, and growth. Womanhood has been injured and scarred for too long. There's a new era coming, so watch out!

Blessings

When I think about blessings, I think about what I've done for so much of my life. I've spent many years of my time on the planet providing birth services (love, care and knowledge) for free. So when I think about it I get sad (because I haven't done enough), and then I get mad (because for a lot of people, it's all about the dollar), then I get happy. Because when we do our work out of love for the other, we are literally changing the world. Love can change the world! Giving love, sacrificing your stuff for another, rains down blessings.

I'd love to change the world...but I don't know what to do.

There's a movement growing: the movement of regulation, of expertise, professionals. If y'all don't conform and waste your time doing paperwork and following the man's rules, then you will get smashed. Smash the patriarchy? Good luck! The patriarchy is busy smashing you, by telling you what to think and believe.

So here's a message to the young doulas and would-be midwives out there: don't get sucked in by the bullshit message that you are a professional. You're not. You are a companion, with hands, heart and kindness, and maybe a smattering of knowledge. You are there to provide comfort, love, warmth, you're there to provide a safe space. Yes, people with money should pay you. But if we let simple companionship become a luxury that's only available for the rich, then we are, quite simply, fucked.

The End of Midwifery

A Heavy Heart

My heart is heavy. Guess what guys? The Man won! It's the end of midwifery! Ok, probably not really. There's always movement and change. I guess the brave families who decide to birth at home on their own will engender the new wave of fearless midwives. I hate it when polemics are forced upon you though.

Ok, I will stop speaking in tongues and get to the point.

I can't believe it's been two years since the crackdown. Actually ... yes, two years. In October, 2016, in two Canadian provinces, three women were charged with "practising midwifery without a licence". Also, just under two years that independent midwives in the UK (fully trained and registered as midwives but choosing not to work through the National Health Service) were forced out of work with a legislation that passed in January, 2017 that meant that they needed to find private indemnity insurance in order to take on clients. And in Hungary, professional midwife Agnes Gereb was sentenced to two years in prison for practising midwifery.

Satanic Brain Surgeons?

What does all this mean? Is it similar to a satanic team of brain surgeons who trained at woodworking school and decided to give everyone down-home lobotomies?

Nope. It's a question of what happens with regulations and legislations. It engenders all sorts of divisive tactics and means that the powers that be, i.e. the legislators, have to keep things steady by creating divisions between people.

It was the midwives' associations that took unregistered midwives to court. That same organization was born during the slow process to legalization of midwifery, back when all Canadian midwives were working "illegally": the work itself was deemed illegal. So how could those women have retained their memories of their own actions and still thought it appropriate to condemn others doing the same?

How did The Man win?

Well, it was actually we who lost. We've created an illusory community based on love, trust, love and peace and all that stuff. We talk about safety, honor, respect, inclusivity, but in the end it all disappears in a puff of smoke when push comes to shove. Which it does.

I've travelled the world; created vibrant and useful volunteer organizations (Montreal Birth Companions and WWOOFItalia), and left them; I've been an organic farmer, a midwife, a doula, a teacher. I left that work and now I own and run a small cafe. I'm hiding from the world, I've created a space where at any given time I have a couple of breastfeeding mums sitting n the couch chatting; a lineup of working people getting their lunch; a few retired couples or groups of friends; the constant stream of coffee drinkers working on their laptops. I serve wholesome home made food. I've withdrawn from the birth world, and from the volunteer world, with all of the broken trust and betrayals that both those worlds offer.

What do you mean, betrayals?

I witnessed two NGOs fighting over turf: refugees caught in the middle. Warehouses full of clothing, diapers, and other donated items laying abandoned as not-for-profit enterprises argued over who was to deliver which items where. What levels of insanity are at work here? I was sneaking baby clothes and diapers from the basement of an NGO to take them to a woman in need who wasn't registered with them.

Two volunteer doulas were sexually intimidated, one of them physically, while they were attending the birth of an asylum seeker. Her bible-toting "friend" assaulted one in an elevator and made crude remarks throughout the labor. The response of the aid organization to the complaint? "It's their culture: it's our job to tolerate and teach." What levels of insanity are at work here? Racism: the Nigerian men are all rapists? Sexism: the women's job is to submit and teach by example? Classism: y'all are just volunteers; we are salaried midwives/bureaucrats and our word counts.

I witnessed a 60 year old midwife who was a fully trained professional break down in tears when she read that her government would no longer allow her to practice midwifery. What levels of insanity? Insurance schemes, corporate health care, pitting woman against woman. The end of midwifery.

And on a teensy but frightening personal level, I witnessed a disgruntled doula wreak havoc online by accusing his elders and publicly shaming them.

Culture in Full Decline

We in the affluent world are witnessing a culture in full decline. There are many signs; just look around you. We live in a culture based on fear and suspicion, when there is really very little to fear. The culture abounds with cheap goods made in sweat shops staffed with children who should be in school. The biggest problem of our age is the refugee crisis; xenophobic leaders are being voted in all over the western world because the left has made a caricature of itself. We can buy pot in little plastic child-proof containers; midwifery is tightly regulated; everyone is afraid of each other with no reason; language has been turned inside out. The end of midwifery.

This is where beauty lies.

Real midwives take risks. Real midwives love each other. Real midwives support women. Real midwives can take no for an answer. Real midwives are tolerant. Real midwives know when their skills are not enough. Real midwives are afraid sometimes, but they don't allow their fear to guide them.

For some real midwifery, have a look here, or here. Write to me if you want to know more.

Sending out love on this gibbous moon waning.

A Student Doula's Story

Here is a post from another blog by one of my Level One students … giving you an inside view of what it's like to be a student doula, volunteering for Montreal Birth Companions.

DEAR BIRTHING, WITH LOVE (thank you http://highalert.net/news/dear-birthing-love)

I am ready to stop typing and run to my phone if it rings. It may be a call from the doula I’m shadowing. There is a woman who will give birth any day now, and when this woman (the client/patient/mother-to-be*) needs birth support, I will go (with the doula) to be with her at her home, or maybe straight to the hospital.

Besides my own, the only birth I’ve attended was that of my little sister, and I was a 5 year-old, and it was late at night. This makes me a minority among the 16 women in my Level 1 doula training course with the Montreal Birth Companions, because I am not a mother.

You don’t have to be a mother to be a doula. You just have to be there. In the last few months of this course, I’ve learned a lot about birth: anatomy, pain-alleviation techniques, how it progresses and why it might stall, affirmations, visualizations, and what to pack in my birth bag. This is all important, but the most important role that a doula plays is of being present, and being loving.

Montreal Birth Companions, then, love hundreds of women a year. They provide free doula services to women in need. They are most often refugees, immigrants, women without family in Canada, and women who don’t have health care. They are women who just need a little bit of love at a vulnerable time.

With each ‘birth story’ that I hear from a fellow Montreal Birth Companion, I am filled with admiration at the important role they play at these births. They are advocates and peace-makers, negotiators and videographers, a friend and calm presence. I am also filled with a certain amount of frustration or anger at a medical system that seems, often, to desecrate such a powerful moment—perhaps the most powerful of all. Birth also has two sides: pleasure and pain. But, I’ve learned that pain in birth serves a function—it releases oxytocin which makes the contractions stronger and more effective, and stress hormones increase blood flow, which brings much-needed oxygen to the baby. I’m not confident, though, that the ‘pain’ of the medical system serves a purpose.

I’ll remain on high alert for calls to explore birth and love in the hospital. In the meantime, I encourage you to VOTE daily for Montreal Birth Companion’s campaign to provide more free pre-natal classes to women. You can like the MBC’s facebook page and select 'get notifications' for daily reminders.

*Serving as a doula is new to me and I am not sure what language I feel comfortable with, yet. As my teacher writes in her book The Birth Conspiracy, 'client' seems impersonal and business-like, while 'patient' may disempower the woman giving birth.

Birth Companions

I work with a group of women who dedicate themselves to some of the neediest pregnant and birthing women in our city. Since 2003, a "small group of thoughtful, dedicated citizens" has provided prenatal education and birth companionship to refugees, non-status, immigrant, and other needy women living amongst us on our affluent urban island.

Last weekend, two women gave birth, accompanied by MBC doulas. One lady was having her second child. She was isolated in many ways: linguistically, financially, and she was suffering an abusive marriage.
The second lady was having her first baby, and she was new to Canada and appreciated the companionship of the two women who stayed with her through the night.

The Montreal Birth Companions spend hours of their time with women in need. They never complain that they are underpaid; they never say how tired they are; they volunteer tirelessly not only attending births but also helping out with the administrative side of the organization.

I would like to share some photos of the doulas, the babies, and the women we serve.

Hands

One of our mothers with her beautiful son

Add caption

New Office - sorting donations

Level One Intensive Doula Course

Intensive Level 1 Course!

 

Four Sundays – January 13, 20, 27, and February 3, 2013

Graduates from Levels One and Two are already working as doulas … if you feel you would like to accompany women through the childbearing year, take a few Sundays to spend with us learning doula skills, and more!

Level One gives you the skills to volunteer as a doula with Montreal Birth Companions, or you can go on to learn more doula skills in Level Two, which starts on February 9, 2013.

For a registration form or more info, please leave me a comment below...

Cost $400 (plus tax).

Birth is Political

Like everything else. Birth is political.

I am on the train right now going through lovely Ontario, on my way to a conference. I will be presenting two workshops tomorrow. One is for birth attendants, exploring the ways we can assist women to have natural births in the hospital setting. One is for anyone who is interested in setting up and maintaining a volunteer doula program, on zero funding (Montreal Birth Companions has been going for close to ten years now, and we have assisted up to 100 women a year).

The conference has been the subject of some controversy because of one of the speakers. Emotions and opinions are strong and heated.  Everyone believes they know best. Best for the woman, best for her baby, her family, and the world at large.

I, too, believe that my opinions count. I believe women's bodies are made to give birth, that most women can retrieve their physical knowledge of how to birth, and that if well nourished women are given the right kind of care and a safe space in which to do it, they can usually give birth to healthy babies without much problem. I believe the physiologic need for surgical intervention should probably hover around 2 to 5 per cent, for women who have had good prenatal care. Our present rate of 25 to 30 per cent is a crying shame.

But I also know that my opinions are hotly argued against by others who consider themselves more educated, more scientific, and more knowledgeable.They may even consider my opinions to be dangerous. Or, indeed, inconsequential.

Most of my activities don't rock any boat. When I sit quietly in a hospital room and surround a laboring woman with love, and watch closely as the doctor, acting in good faith and confidence, persuades her to take an unnecessary epidural, or a needless induction, I am being a good citizen.

When I coordinate a volunteer doula for a refugee from Somalia who has been circumcised, and who wants to have a natural birth, I am just rocking the boat gently enough that the passengers will feel comfy and slightly sleepy.

When I suggest to a woman who has not been able to obtain a registered midwife, and who doesn't want to give birth in a hospital, no matter how friendly it may be, that she look around for an unregistered, "illegal" midwife, then I am starting to make some small waves, but still not even good enough for decent boogie-boarding.

Let's try to sail together into the future, taking the waves as they come, breathing together...

Oh! my metaphor is hitting shoals - of course - who is the captain? The right answer is: the captain of the Birth Boat is the woman who is laboring and giving birth. She is the one we are attending. We are the ones with the knowledge and we can use it wisely and quietly, without scaring her as she works at bringing her baby into the world.

The root of "radical" is "root". We are trying to discover the root of the problem, we would like to root it out, to make a fresh start in the world of birth, and in the world.

Come visit me at the Radical Doula site:

Rivka

Birth Companions Doula Course: One, Two, Three

Level One of our Birth Companions Doula Course spring 2012 session was a wonderful success! The students are already attending births, either with partners or with mentor doulas. They are now part of Montreal Birth Companions, and it has been a busy and productive summer.

Level Two will be starting on September 9, 2012, at Studio Vie. It will run for eight weeks, with three hour classes every Sunday. In Level Two, we will explore the challenges that can occur during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period, and discover the ways a doula can facilitate healing. This level is open to anyone who has completed a doula training.


Level Three will be comprised of a select group who will travel together to Cuba, to explore in depth an aspect of maternity care and will tour the facilities at a Cuban hospital and meet the midwives.


Level One will be starting in the fall of 2012, as soon as we have full registration. We have registrants already, so please register as soon as you can. See below for registration details.

Hoping to see you all in the fall!!

Radical Birth Film?

Montreal Birth Companions has been providing volunteer doula services for almost ten years, and we are beginning a fundraising campaign so that we can keep our doors open for the rest of 2012.

One of our plans is to have a film screening. We have chosen one film already, and we are looking for a RADICAL film that shows life and birth as it is.

Can anyone suggest a film that is possibly about doulas working with the type of clientele MBC serves? Refugees, immigrants, young mothers, ... women in prisons...

Please leave your comments here. The screening will take place in September, so if you are in the final stages of film creation ... let us know!
 

Montreal Birth Companions Volunteer Doula Program

It is with a heavy heart that I have had to put our volunteer efforts on hold for a while. We made an application for funding in January and we are awaiting good news, but in the meantime I have decided I can no longer put in the hours of work I was devoting to the organization.

I was surprised by the lack of response by some of the agencies who have been accepting our volunteer services for many years. Maybe I was kind of imagining people to write back and say that we will all pull together and let's do this thing! But no, the announcement passed without much of a ripple.

Just like the earth, everything needs to be left for a time in order to grow healthy and strong. I am having my fallow time now. I was offered a very good opportunity that meant leaving my family for two months, and I decided to leave that go as well. I need to stay at home, write my book, and let myself be nourished by my surroundings (inside my house, let it be known , not the grey urban landscape outside).

And since I made that decision, all sorts of new sprouts have been poking their green heads up from the ground. To continue my metaphor, even the manure I received from some of the crummier experiences I've had over the years has proven useful. Difficult times and difficult people have taught me to bend when necessary, and to stand firm when possible.

So, please send your best wishes our way, that the powers that be in the funding world smile upon us, so that MBC can continue to provide doulas for the neediest women in our society.

A reader just pointed out - if you wish to donate, please visit the MBC website here and you can donate directly. Thanking you in advance!

Montreal Birth Companions

Right now, a lady who dearly wants to have a natural birth is in labor. She found out about Montreal Birth Companions from a little workshop she attended, and she contacted us with a request for a volunteer doula. She is single, living alone, and doesn't have the means to pay for a private doula - they can run to over $1000 here in Montreal. Of course, many people can afford them because they have private health insurance, and many doulas are now able to provide insurance receipts, which makes it a lot cheaper for the average working couple.

But MBC gets requests from women and families who cannot afford very much at all, and so our dedicated doulas donate their time and energy to accompanying these women on their childbirth journey. Sometimes we are approached by women who can afford a small stipend, but usually we are called by other agencies who have clients who need companions.

Over the years, MBC doulas have accompanied women from the four round corners of the earth: from the continent of Africa, from India and south-east Asia, China, Eastern and Western Europe, Central and South America, and of course from Canada. Our clients speak many different languages, as do the doulas. Many of our clients over the years have not spoken either of the official languages of Quebec (French and English, in case you were wondering...). Many of these women are single, many have recently arrived in Canada, some have left their other children behind.

Today's champion started early labor yesterday. She has been happy at home on her own until this morning, when her contractions started to become more intense. One MBC doula went to her place after she finished work; another is on the way when her work day is finished. They will probably be heading to the hospital soon.

Eight years ago, when our doulas first started volunteering, I was mentoring two exceptional women who were at one of their first birth experiences. This was with a lovely woman from the Indian subcontinent, who was unsure about when to go to the hospital. Although the doulas had been through a very comprehensive training (Holistic Perinatal Associates which, sadly, is no more - it was created by myself and Lesley Everest, of Motherwit fame), they couldn't figure out what exactly was going on, so they made several trips to the hospital in the middle of the night. Each time, they phoned me to ask my advice, and several other times too. So finally at around four am, they called me to say they were off to the hospital. I was lying in bed, and my feet happened to be pointing in the direction of the hospital they were going to. So I sleepily said "I'll point my toes for you.", which meant, of course, the equivalent of crossing my fingers, kissing my amulet, or praying for a good birth. The lady did go on to have a wonderful, natural birth, accompanied by her stout-hearted and exhausted doulas. Since then, "pointing your toes" has become a common saying in the Montreal doula community.

Some of our volunteers relaxing in the hospital!

So, everyone, "point your toes" for the lady in labor, wish her all the best, and let's hear a cheer for her wonderful doulas!!!

Feel the Love

Blackberries are my favorite fruit. I made four jars of blackberry jam this morning. I made a blackberry pie the other night. They are in season around my birthday, so they are a yearly treat for me. They taste of the end of summer, the sugary heat of June and July is stored in their black bubbly taste. They have a rich taste that lends itself well to jam. So I'm jamming.

Jamming and reading my emails. And I read a beautiful account of a birth attended by one of "our" volunteers doulas. She assisted a mother who labored for many hours, and finally the decision was made to go to surgery. The baby was born, and the mother is recovering well from surgery and is mothering, as we do, to the best of her ability. Her doula was fully present for mother and baby from the beginning of labor, in the labor room, in the operating room, and at home.

If I look at the details of the story, I could probably find places where decisions were made that were not optimum, that may have led to further interventions, where this woman could have avoided surgery. But that's what I love about "my" volunteers and apprentice doulas. They are not working from information, experience, or an agenda. They are the best doulas I know, because they are working from a sense of companionship. They are loving the birthing woman.

I know several artists and musicians. A familiar refrain in the world of creativity is "Ah, if I could draw/see/play as a child does! If I could regain that way of looking at the world, where everything is new and interesting." In the birth world, as well, that sense of innocence, of wonder at birth, is something that we all strive to keep. I remember when I was looking forward to going to my first birth - I would have done anything just to be at that woman's side and accompany her through labor and birth. Not to say that I am not as dedicated to birthing women as I used to be. But I know them better - I've seen more - I don't have that freshness of vision that a "new" doula or a child has.

As doulas, we need to remember to forget ourselves and our knowledge when we are accompanying a woman in labor. Just as I greet the first wild blackberries with joy and appreciation, we should greet every birthing woman with respect and with a sense of her "newness" in the world.Forget about how much or what you know, and remember that it is her journey and you are a guest. Be happy.

Volunteer Doulas

Imagine you were alone. Imagine you were new to a country where everything was different - the climate (cold), the language (confusing), the way people act towards each other (are they angry?), the system....
Imagine your country was at war, and imagine that no one in your family could be found.
Imagine, now, that after experiencing violence and abuse at the hands of strangers, that you found yourself pregnant.
We are very lucky, us Canadians. We live in a place where you can have your baby in a safe place, where you can get medical care if you need it, where people have the luxury, the possibility, to help others. And though there are problems, and though we don't all get the birth experience we always dreamed of, we are fortunate.
Montreal Birth Companions accompany women in need through their pregnancy, labor and birth. A volunteer doula will be on call and available for questions day or night, before a woman goes into labor. She will be by the woman's side as she labors, and she will share in the joy when the baby is born.
The Montreal Birth Companions doulas and administrator (yours truly) having been working on a shoestring since 2004. We are dreaming of growing, and for real growth to occur, we need cash.

Dining for Social Change is putting on a gourmet dinner tomorrow night. People will join together to eat good food, have fun, and the proceeds will go towards providing a doula for every woman in need.
I love having things fit together - and this event is one of those times. It is the hormone oxytocin that stimulates the woman's uterus to contract so that the baby can be born. This hormone is also important in breastfeeding. It is called the "love hormone". And it is produced when people are eating together.

So, a toast to all of you! Life, love and happiness to the women we serve, to our volunteers, and to our joyful diners!

Se Non Ora Quando

This was the rallying cry for the women of Italy during last week's demonstrations. It means "If Not Now, When! Except I think it sounds so much nicer in Italian.

Se non ora, quando?
 
If you don't breastfeed your newborn, then when will you get that chance again?
If you don't play with your two-year old, just remember, he will never be two again.
If you don't kiss your partner this evening, you will miss that one extra kiss.

If you don't speak up for what you need when you are giving birth, you will lose a world of satisfaction and gain a world of regrets.
The time for change is now.
If you are pregnant, decide what you want for your birth and go for it! Don't let the experts tell you what to do. Remember, the experts are not only the doctors - every nurse, midwife, and lady in the grocery store will be telling you how you should give birth.
If you are a doula, keep your opinions to yourself and let the women speak out! Respect the women giving birth and follow their lead. Change comes slowly and powerfully.

Se non ora, quando!

Volunteers

Some women do it for money, some do it for love, some do it out of a sense of duty.
Well, the Montreal Birth Companions volunteer doulas just do it out of their own big hearts - and I look at these women and feel very proud.
Several years ago, some of our doula students decided to start volunteering their services for needy women who could not afford a doula.
Now, in 2011, this small group of dedicated women is officially known as Montreal Birth Companions. This month we are following ten women. Most of these women are single and isolated. All of them are grateful for the companionship and assistance of a doula, and they know that the presence of a doula at their birth will reduce the risk of unnecessary intervention.

Yesterday, one of the MBC clients gave birth with the companionship of a newly-trained doula. She had her baby quickly and easily, in just a few hours. Last week, one of our "veteran" doulas accompanied a first-time mother for over a day as she labored to give birth.

The Montreal Birth Companions accompany women from many different backgrounds and cultures. Many of them are alone here and new to the cold Canadian climate. The presence of a doula helps them adjust to life here, where isolation is the biggest enemy. Social programs help our clients to eat and find warm clothing, and our medical system works well enough (more on that later!) that they get medical care when needed. But the companionship of another woman during pregnancy and childbirth is a gift that facilitates the transition to "mother" and fills the newborn days with joy and hope.

Il Glicine e La Lanterna

Let me tell you about where we will be hosting our New Doula Workshop this July. You will be staying at a small, family-run agriturismo called Il Glicine e La Lanterna - the Wisteria and the Lantern, set in the most amazing countryside in a northern corner of Tuscany. The area is called Lunigiana, and the name comes from its origins. The Luni were a mysterious people who created enigmatic statues that still intrigue historians and tourists alike.
It is believed that the Luni worshiped the moon, and that is easy to understand when you are witnessing the rising of a red half moon, as it emerges from behind the Appenini. The countryside is so stunning because of its variety. The area where we will be is bound by the Alpi Apuane on one side and the Appenini on another. The valley of the Magra river snakes down to the sea, which is only about 45 minutes away. Beyond the hills lie the Cinque Terre, an area of beauty and magnificence where vineyards climb the cliffs rising from the sea.
The hills above the agriturismo, where I am fortunate enough to have a small house where we  spend as much time as we can, are full of chestnut forests that harbor mushrooms of all kinds, wild boar, and many species of medicinal herbs.
I believe that it is important to learn about birth in a beautiful place; to learn about herbs where they are growing; to reach your full potential in a place where you can breathe, rest, and heal as you are learning and studying.

Birth Blues

I am so excited about the upcoming workshop in Italy. I hope that this will be the beginning of something really special for the women who will be attending.

I have the birth blues today because I have been talking to several women who feel sad about their birth experience, even though they did have a doula with them.

One woman felt that her doula was so against the epidural that she didn't call her until she had already been in labor for almost a day. She was afraid of her doula's anger.

Another woman had a natural birth in a hospital, but she was bullied by the attending nurse the whole time she was actively laboring.

I was at a birth the other day and I felt that my knowledge of the birth process was almost getting in the way. I felt the attending resident was trying to prove how much she knew, and was intimidated by my presence.

The doula needs to be rebirthed. She needs to go back to her original companionable self: the hand-holder, the friendly presence,  the holder, the invisible woman.

Doula Training in Tuscany

The New Doula is holding a five day doula training program in Tuscany July 3 to 8, 2011.

Classes are held on the lawn

We will be staying in a beautiful agriturismo in the north of Tuscany. Families of participants are welcome. There are hiking trails, day trips, and a swimming pool on site.

We provide all meals, made from fresh local ingredients to satisfy every palate.

Please leave a comment if you are interested in more details.

The New Doula

Let's shake things up a little! It's time to unlearn and re-create the doula so that we can all start to see birth in a different light.

Birth starts with pleasure, so let's keep that pleasure going ... 

We are offering a five day New Doula workshop in Tuscany, Italy, in the summer of 2011. We will be staying in an "agriturismo" in the northern region of Tuscany, close to the beach, mountains, and beautiful hillside villages.

I will definitely keep you posted about this exciting New Doula event.