I attended the old fashioned lamaze classes with her (think "he he who") and saw lots of videos involving s***m, fetus' and birth. At 11 1/2 I held my moms hand through the birth of my first sister. I suppose this could be considered my first experience as a "doula" but at the time I was still about a decade away from ever hearing that term and figured I was just helping my mom out and meeting my
sister before most others. A couple years later she had my second sister and I was there once more. Following this brief stint in labor support I took a break and gave birth to my own child in 2001. After the birth of my first child I recall discussing birth with a friend and she mentioned hiring a doula. I had to google the term and was still somewhat bewildered. Whatever, I lived in a small town, that was probably just something exclusive to big cities anyways. Fast forward to 2007 when I began to homeschool said child, thus being inadvertently introduced to several women who were quite fond of child birth and all things mama/baby. It was at this time I started learning a little more about this "doula" stuff, along with midwives, extended breast feeding, and all that other "weird" stuff. When I found out I was pregnant with my second child I opted to have her at home and fell completely in love! (not only with her, but also with birth as a thing. an event) Shortly before her birth I had a photography client that requested maternity pictures begin to discuss her birth plans with me and admitted that she too was planning a home birth. She asked if I had considered photographing a birth and I told her that I had but had no clue how to approach that topic with expecting women. In 2008, a month after my little one was born she invited me into her birth space to document the event with my camera. Not wanting to leave my wee baby along for a potentially extended period, I wore her throughout the event (with mamas permission of course!)
I think this was my official introduction to being active, present, as well as beneficial in a birth space. Not long after that we moved to Louisville, KY and I'd throw the idea out that I could document births any time I started to develop a relationship with an expecting mom. The idea was starting to catch on in other parts of the nation, so it wasn't super weird and creepy as I once expected it would be and I had a few mamas jump at the chance. From behind my camera lens I got to learn more and more about the birth process and its beauty. With each birth, my love grew and grew and the urge to be more involved got stronger and stronger. In 2009 a friend asked if I would act as her "birth doula". She knew I had no official training but we both agreed to give it a go. I once more started reading all I could (this time from a supporting stand point vs. the mama) and supported her through the natural birth she wanted (despite her being at a statistically poor outcome hospital with a very grouchy/pushy OB)
From there I continued to primarily photograph births while providing doula services to women who couldn't afford much else/ran out of time/ etc. In 2011 I decided I was ready to move forward. I wanted to be a nurse midwife so started on the extensive prerequisites required for nursing school. In the spring of 2012 I finally took the DONA birth doula workshop. Since I was also a full time student and still getting quite a few photography clients I decided to save my efforts in regards to marketing my new official skill set and just utilize them when the opportunity presented itself. At this time I am officially halfway through my RN program and have attended 20 births as a photographer and 7 as a doula. (this is not counting my sisters births.)
