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BA, MS, Labor Doula, ICAN of Central Illinois Secretary
As a woman who has given birth via emergency cesarean section and via an HBAC (homebirth after cesarean section), I am acutely aware of the profound impact a birth experience can have on one's life.
Having experienced these two vastly different birth scenarios, I was compelled to do something to support other pregnant and laboring women in their own experiences. Feeling the call to doula life, I left my seven-year teaching and publishing position in the English Department of Illinois State University.
I am currently DONA trained and am completing their rigorous certification process. I am also the secretary of the International Cesarean Awareness Network of Central Illinois, a branch of an international organization dedicated to improving maternal-child health by preventing unnecessary cesareans through education, providing support for cesarean recovery, and promoting Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC). Volunteering in a organization such as ICAN fits into my larger mission of not only connecting women to their birth experiences but also to the parenting community as new mothers--something I am able to do myself as well through my membership in the Bloomington Attachment Parenting Group and a local preschool collective.
Every pregnant woman and family deserves the support of a doula throughout pregnancy, labor, and birth. Every new mother deserves a supportive, knowledgable, welcoming community of peers. Supporting these experiences has become a mandate for me--I didn't choose doula life, doula life chose me. I hope to be blessed with the opportunity to be your doula.
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