DoulaMamaWolf

~          ~          ~ My doula was available through text or email any time in my pregnancy or after his birth, but we didn't meet up again until he was about 3 weeks old. She offered to come to my home, to make it easier on me in those early postpartum days. She came in the evening, and she immediately fawned over how sweet he was, commending me for doing so well at nursing so far (he of course needed to eat immediately after her arrival). Then, she pulled a few small things from her bag... Gifts! I hadn't been expecting anything, but her thoughtfulness touched me deeply. She also then gave me the photos and videos she'd taken, letting me save them to my computer from her USB, and again told me how memorable  she had found my birth experience. She told me that I could look at the photos at any time, but she greatly encouraged moms to wait 6 months to a year before watching videos, so that your memories formed from the things you ...

Welcome back to The Novice Doula! I feel that my doula was a HUGE help & support for me in labour, as well as a guiding force for why I ultimately decided to become a doula myself. I wanted to share my experience with her, and what techniques she used that were extremely helpful for me - while I know every labouring mother is different, and I will need to learn many other skills, I want to remember how these things helped me, so I know what I want my labouring moms to feel when comforted by me. Last post, I shared my birth story - my favourite memory, the day my beautiful son was born. In that post I did mention some of the things my doula did for me, so please scroll down to read that post if you haven't already. Today I'll be going deeper into my doula's involvement, and how she affected my labour in the best way possible. I met my doula at 37 weeks pregnant, outside a little coffee shop, sitting outside on the shaded patio. Immediately I got a very professional but m...

Welcome back to The Novice Doula! Today I wanted to share my birth story, as I believe this was the moment I realized I loved birth - the intensity, the calm before the storm, the beauty, the mess, and the incredible love in the moment a mother sees her child for the first time.  This is my beautiful belly at about 37 weeks. I went 4 more weeks after this photo, to have my son at 41 weeks 1 day. For most of my pregnancy, I truly believed in letting a baby come when they were ready, and in the end I was grateful to have a support system that encouraged me to stick with this in my most vulnerable moments.  My original plan had been a beautiful, serene home waterbirth in my living room with a midwife team, but the end result was a beautiful, serene, perfect hospital birth due to moving and needing to find a new practitioner late in my pregnancy - I ended up finding a wonderful doctor that was completely on board with my natural birth plan, even when my certainty wavered and I sug...

Hello! Welcome to "The Novice Doula". Let me introduce myself. This is me, The Novice Doula. I am a young stay at home mom, aspiring doula, blogger, photographer, novelist, and well-rounded person (I'm working on it, okay?). I started this blog to kick-start my progress into becoming a certified DONA birth/postpartum doula. The reason why I need a kick-start is... This beautiful little boy! You can call him "Roo." We did, before we knew his sex, back when he was just a-kickin' away in my "tummy pouch". As you can see, he's basically the most adorable little person to ever exist, so you can understand my hesitance to begin the process of slowly not being glued to him 24/7. His birth in August 2013 is what inspired this journey, and my new career path. What  is  a doula, you ask? DONA International, the most wide spread and most respected doula organization in the world, says this about the definition of a doula: " The word "doula"...