Where it all started

I knew from a young age that I was meant to be a doula. I was 14 years old when I stumbled across a brochure from my local hospital talking about doulas, their importance in the delivery room, and how much they can positively impact a woman’s birthing experience. I was hooked instantly and began to look into colleges that offered midwifery programs as well as began taking out books about midwives, herbal medicine, and other traditional practices. From a very young age, I was clearly a Type A to a fault. 

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, my dreams of being a nurse and a midwife had to go on the backburner. Instead, I went to a tiny Catholic college on a full academic scholarship, however, my destiny decided to follow me there. While I had been at this college I had not one, not two, but three different people approach me and ask me if I had ever considered birth work in any capacity. Those people saw something in me that I hadn’t even seen in myself in quite some time, and reignited that initial dream and hope for myself. It took me quite a while for me to wake up to that calling in my heart and begin to pursue it seriously. 

After receiving my Associates Degree in Liberal Arts, I attended one last semester in an attempt to pursue my degree in Literature when without much warning, I dropped out, moved to VT and began working as a Barista in a sleepy little town. While there, I stumbled across some of my old “birth books” and decided to look into some programs. There, I stumbled across Birthwise Midwifery School in Maine where they offered an online doula program that was required in order to pursue your education as a Certified Professional Midwife. Hook, line, sinker. But of course, there was one small problem: Birthwise had just announced that they were officially closing their doors and were only offering that final birth doula course. 

Flash forward about a year and I started working at that same hospital that I first learned about being a doula through a simple little brochure. I finished my doula class, took a few lactation classes, business classes, and got my cert as a yoga instructor because why not? All to end up as a Licensed Nursing Assistant at that very hospital. Full circle moment, huh? I had just finished my classes as a birth doula that April while living in Vermont, moved to Keene NH and began to focus on my next career goal: to be a nurse, eventually a labour and delivery nurse, and then have the end goal of being either a Nurse Midwife or a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner. However, life has a funny way of making things go a little differently than we initially had planned. 

That summer  I found out that I was pregnant with my son. I had NO intentions of becoming a mom at that point in my life. I was terrified, overwhelmed, stressed out, and let’s face it, completely lost. At this point I had supported several women through their pregnancy and postpartum journeys, but it became a whole new ballpark when I stepped into that world myself. It was like a Rite of Passage that helped me to better understand my clients, their thoughts, fears, joys, and most intimate moments on a whole new level. It helped me to broaden my education, and be able to have my own experience to back my copious education.

My education became my number one salvation. Through reading, Tiktok, Instagram and utilizing many other sources, I curated my own birth plan, and once again, life through a small (9lbs 12oz.) curveball and once again, I had to change my dream and goal to fit life’s ever changing plans once again. 

I promise to one day share my amazing birth story! I will even add my very unprofessional, Googlenotes birth plan for everyone to see that sometimes you don’t need a 10 page birth plan but something as simple as “Drugs and Not D*ing” works just as well.

Why am I sharing all of this information now? 

So that every single woman reading and hearing about this will realize that whether it’s life, birth, education, relationships, anything nothing will go to plan. However, we adapt. We overcome. We challenge the system and we harness our power to go with the changes and create something beautiful. Because guess what? 

What I shared here is not the end. It barely is even the tip of the iceberg of where life continued to take me. I always kept true to my goal though, to work as a birthworker. Ultimately, we have no control over ANYTHING in this life. But if we had a path that we are called to walk in this life, it is up to us to remain true to that small voice and watch it come to fruition.