As your doula and prenatal educator I will help prepare you for birth as a sacred rite of passage, no matter how it unfolds.
Helping birthing people have agency and bodily autonomy is a spiritual and radical act. In addition to being a doula and a birth educator, I am a poet, an artist, and an energy healer. Everything I do in those respects has a common thread of bringing healing to my community and to myself. Through my birth work, I strive to help people have bodily autonomy. I get to witness and hold space for a major rite of passage for parents as they undergo the intense initiation of giving birth both to themselves as parents and also to their baby.
The profound experience of being pregnant with and giving birth to my first child changed me and my priorities.
I have a spiritual belief in the interconnectedness of all things, and being pregnant really highlighted that for me. When you’re pregnant, you’re literally carrying and co-creating new life within you. You’re sharing an experience as old as humans themselves. Your body is serving as a bridge between the spirit world and the physical world for this new little life within you.
I had a very powerful home birth experience. It was long and intense. At the time, it felt much more humbling than empowering, but it was also beautiful and sacred. I was lucky enough to have an incredibly supportive birth team around me and my partner, guiding us and helping us mindfully navigate the experience.
I was immediately struck by what a powerful calling it is to serve as a guide and support for parents during labor. Not long after that spiritual experience of pregnancy and birth, I heard that call to birth work myself. Over the next two years, I became trained as a childbirth educator and doula with Birthing from Within and left my former career as an intellectual property attorney.
In the birth world there is a saying that, “If you don’t know your options, you don’t have any options.” At Birthing from Within, we like to say, “If you don’t know what stands between you and your options, you don’t have any options.” As an educator, I love doing the deep work with people to shine a light on some of those (perhaps outdated) stories and agreements that might be standing between them and their options for birth.
As your doula and prenatal educator I will help prepare you for birth as a sacred rite of passage, no matter how it unfolds. I strive to help parents prepare to be mindful and loving through the mystery of labor — twists and turns and all. I also strive to help parents do the inner work necessary to be able to be informed, advocate for themselves, and make the choices that are right for them. I am honored to witness you and hold space for you on this journey.
I believe birth is a sacred rite of passage and should be honored and prepared for as such, regardless of how it unfolds