Autumn & Jocelyn
We are particularly passionate about working with families planning home births, birth center births, and natural unmedicated births in the hospital setting. However, we come with no judgement if you wish to give birth with pain medication, if you change your mind and want to try both, or if you need pain medication during your birth journey. We have years of experience working with both unmedicated and medicated births and believe that every birth-giver should be able to choose what’s best for them.
Philosophy
- We believe that natural unmedicated birth is a special experience and a powerful rite of passage for welcoming a new baby.
- AND we recognize that there are dozens of reasons why it doesn’t make sense for every birthing person.
- We believe that an empowered birth can provide a foundation for the parenting journey.
- We believe in the wisdom of the body and in our intuitive sense as human beings to guide each one of us.
- We believe in the wisdom of our babies, even more than adults, because babies are not also grappling with social constructs counter to their intuitive blueprints. We trust that babies’ bodies tell us what they need and when.
- We recognize the impact of sexual trauma, both individually and collectively, on our birthing and parenting experiences.
- We feel sorrow for the ways in which modern society neglects, diminishes, and abandons new parents, and we work with our clients to find ways to resource themselves and live in abundance even in this context.
- We believe that helping our clients tap into their own intuitive wisdom and the wisdom of their babies as they welcome and raise them has ripple effects for generations, both past and future.
Approach
We utilize a broad range of approaches in our doula care. We know from both training and experience what techniques tend to work to ease a particular kind of pain or to ease a particular anxiety. Our techniques include: breathing coaching, positions, physiological birth approaches, Body Ready Method & Spinning Babies components, massage, aromatherapy, acupressure, hydrotherapy, the use of heat and cold, TENS stimulation, visualizations, and affirmations. Alongside these technical skills, we believe our most important skill as Doulas is our ability to tune into the birth giver’s needs on an intuitive level.
An important aspect of our practice is that we partner with partners and other family members the birth giver may wish to have involved. We see our role as supporting the whole family unit comprising the birthing person, partner, and other support people. In our prenatal sessions, we explore the extent and ways in which the partner or other support people want to be involved in the labor process. In the birth room, we work side-by-side with them to support the birthing person together. Partners and grandparents give us reviews that are as glowing as the ones from their loved one who is giving birth.
