#37 Why I am NOT a Birth Doula (even though it seems like everyone else is)

With all of the birthy support roles I am currently holding, it may be a surprise that I am not, and have no intention of being a birth doula.

 

But once, long long ago (or at least that's how it feels!), I was! I thought that being a birth doula was path through which I wanted to serve women... at least until I started doing it.

 

I talk about how:

- The sister wound has made it's presence known in my business aspirations. I couldn't really serve women in this way if I din't really even want to be friends with them!

- I balled my eyes out after the first 3 birth I went to - but convinced myself it was from the joy and beauty of birth

-Something deep down inside me knew - with no instruction, example, or experience that what I was witnessing wasn't really birth as some part of my ancestral being knew it to be. It was a gross manipulation/mutilation that we're all supposed to applaud and whisper about 'the miracle of childbirth'

- My one home birth experience as a doula opened my eyes to a brief moment of feeling the true power of a birthing woman, then swiftly shifted to an uncomfortable understanding of my own, and our collective cultural orientation towards 'medical professions' as authority, and therefor all the ways in which we give up our power.

 

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Mentioned in the show:

 

Indie Birth's Sacred Sisterhood Doula Training

Taking Back Birth Episode - When Doulas Become Cogs in the Wheel of Medicalized Birth

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