So last night my boyfriend and I went to an Irish pub in honor of my fathers birthday. He would have been 49, instead he is forever 46 years old and am sure is loving it, not having to grow old.
So while we were at this pub we met 2 wonderful women. A mother and daughter, both visiting Portland. After an hour of screaming over a bunch of drunken idiots and an amazing traditional Irish band we decided to go to the restaurant side of the pub to eat and be able to actually talk without having to nod and pretend we understood each other.
Upon talking about careers and goals in life, I had mentioned mine, only to find out that the mother was also a doula herself. Me being so new to this whole world I was ecstatic to finally meet someone who was a doula in real life and be able to get some insight on it all. The hospital she works at in the bay area sounds fantastic. She didn't know the cesarean rate, but knew it was minimal, and they are a more natural hospital when it comes to labor and delivery and let the women have free reign. That is, besides when it comes to doula care.
She works through the hospital, not the mother. She is only allowed to work 8 hour shifts and whatever doula is on duty at the time, that is the doula the mother got. Granted I am thankful for any form of doula..but it kind of set me off and irked me a bit.
Why should the hospital be allowed to chose who your doula is? Isn't that kind of going past what a doula is all about? What if the mother doesn't connect with a doula and instead connected with another doula that can not be with her? Or the mother connects with a doula then once her 8 hour shift is over she has to leave and the mother has to re connect with a NEW doula, a woman that she may not connect with again.
With all the mothers care providers being wishy washy and her not knowing for sure who will be there to help deliver her baby, shouldn't the doula be the ONE stable thing, the ONE secure thing in her labor? If the hospital can not even provide her that, or allow her that then that is one thing they do need to fix.
I know there are some hospitals that wouldn't even allow a doula into the room with the mother, those stupid doula bans. But to me, this is somehow the same. In their own twisted way they are still controlling the mother by chosing her doula for her. The one person that should be there for the mother and not the hospital.
As already covered here this happens all the time, and by doing so it inhibits the mothers ability to birth well, if at all. A doula being the one person that is supposed to help the most intimate experience, why would the mother want a stranger?
Saturday, September 18, 2010
A New Beginning
I have never been one to "blog". In fact, I always hated that word with a passion. Just one of those words that gets under your skin and makes you want to punch a kitten. So this is not a blog, I shall call it something else. Something that makes me want to pet a kitten, rather than punch one. Whatever that name is..I shall figure it out eventually. Maybe even start a new trend where the word "blog" is erased from the English vocabulary all over again.
So needless to say, writing this is a little odd to me. I always had a journal growing up, and I guess I will be partially acting as this is such, but it is something so much more open to the world. This is also a place for me to vent and rant, and express my opinions about life, living, and my passions.
So I guess I will start off by introducing myself, to you stranger, random person somewhere out there in the internet lands. I am Jennifer. For the past year I have slowly been heading head first into a world I never knew existed. The maternity world. Now of course I knew what the maternity world was! I just never bothered to go a bit deeper into it. I knew I always loved children, I get along with them, they get along with me. Just one of those things that just..clicked. It all started, though, after I had finished my schooling at Makeup Designory in Los Angeles. I was for sure I wanted to become a makeup artist, not just that but a special effects makeup artist. I learned from the best, Mark Shostrom, the artist behind Evil Dead II, Phantasma, and various Star Treks, just to name a few.
After graduating and moving down to San Diego with my boyfriend, trying to find a makeup job desperately, I realized that even though makeup is fun and dandy and all, it's just not where I want to be in life. It is not something I can see myself doing until I am old and I realized that in no way did I fit in with the rest of that "scene". What we call the entertainment industry. Not me. I am not the kind of girl that spends hours doing her makeup and then a few more hours doing her hair. I am not the kind of girl that bothers what she is wearing. I am not the kind of girl that worries about celebrities. I am the kind of girl that is pierced and tattooed. The kind of girl that is naturally growing her hair into dreads. The kind of girl that is "no 'poo" and washes with only home made soaps. The kind of girl that doesn't get her nails done. The kind of girl that brushes her teeth, makes herself smell good by the soap she used and puts on a quick line of eyeliner and is good to go in 10 minutes. I am the kind of girl who doesn't even watch tv but for a few guilty pleasure shows, because I don't even own a tv!
So I moved from sunny San Deigo, California to rainy Portland, Oregon with my boyfriend and I have never been happier in my whole life. Here I can live, here I can think, here I can BREATH.
During that time of realizing I didn't want to do makeup I started doing research online about what to do next. I was, after all, back at square one. I came across some forums that were for the crunchier side of life and that led me to some other blogs (need to find a new word). I read about womens birth experiences and how it was traumatic, or life altering amazing and everything in between. I studied up on the medical side of it and how hospitals are treating women in the maternity units, something I had never even thought of. I became obsessed. I spent all day reading up on baby story after baby story. I started reading books like Gentle Birth Choices and Spiritual Midwifery and watching movies like The Business of Being Born. I was consumed and outraged and disgusted and horrified and every other feeling all at once. I wanted to DO something. To HELP someone, to be apart of something bigger than just me putting on makeup. In makeup school the teachers kept saying that you were helping someone by making them look beautiful. At the time I didn't realize how superficial and idiotic that was. That was not helping, that was masking.
I wanted to help.
I needed to help.
So here I am, a year later and totally changed from that beauty school student I was not too long ago.
I am about to go to school to get my certificate in Early Childhood and Family Studies, then am getting my certification through Childbirth International to become a doula and childbirth educator, after going to Birthingway College of Midwifery here in Portland when their program is up and running to get my associates to become a lactation consultant.
I plan on opening up my own studio for my doula services, childbirth classes, belly castings (and by castings I do not mean simple plaster bandages, I am trained in silicone and alginate casting to create actual belly statues) and body art.
If any mother out there in the Portland metro area needs a free doula, feel free to contact me. I will not charge, I just want to help.
Any doula or midwife that is willing to tell me any info I may or may not need, feel free to contact me. I am a sponge.
So here is the beginning to a new beginning in my life. One that I am so excited to start and am jumping in with both feet.
So needless to say, writing this is a little odd to me. I always had a journal growing up, and I guess I will be partially acting as this is such, but it is something so much more open to the world. This is also a place for me to vent and rant, and express my opinions about life, living, and my passions.
So I guess I will start off by introducing myself, to you stranger, random person somewhere out there in the internet lands. I am Jennifer. For the past year I have slowly been heading head first into a world I never knew existed. The maternity world. Now of course I knew what the maternity world was! I just never bothered to go a bit deeper into it. I knew I always loved children, I get along with them, they get along with me. Just one of those things that just..clicked. It all started, though, after I had finished my schooling at Makeup Designory in Los Angeles. I was for sure I wanted to become a makeup artist, not just that but a special effects makeup artist. I learned from the best, Mark Shostrom, the artist behind Evil Dead II, Phantasma, and various Star Treks, just to name a few.
After graduating and moving down to San Diego with my boyfriend, trying to find a makeup job desperately, I realized that even though makeup is fun and dandy and all, it's just not where I want to be in life. It is not something I can see myself doing until I am old and I realized that in no way did I fit in with the rest of that "scene". What we call the entertainment industry. Not me. I am not the kind of girl that spends hours doing her makeup and then a few more hours doing her hair. I am not the kind of girl that bothers what she is wearing. I am not the kind of girl that worries about celebrities. I am the kind of girl that is pierced and tattooed. The kind of girl that is naturally growing her hair into dreads. The kind of girl that is "no 'poo" and washes with only home made soaps. The kind of girl that doesn't get her nails done. The kind of girl that brushes her teeth, makes herself smell good by the soap she used and puts on a quick line of eyeliner and is good to go in 10 minutes. I am the kind of girl who doesn't even watch tv but for a few guilty pleasure shows, because I don't even own a tv!
So I moved from sunny San Deigo, California to rainy Portland, Oregon with my boyfriend and I have never been happier in my whole life. Here I can live, here I can think, here I can BREATH.
During that time of realizing I didn't want to do makeup I started doing research online about what to do next. I was, after all, back at square one. I came across some forums that were for the crunchier side of life and that led me to some other blogs (need to find a new word). I read about womens birth experiences and how it was traumatic, or life altering amazing and everything in between. I studied up on the medical side of it and how hospitals are treating women in the maternity units, something I had never even thought of. I became obsessed. I spent all day reading up on baby story after baby story. I started reading books like Gentle Birth Choices and Spiritual Midwifery and watching movies like The Business of Being Born. I was consumed and outraged and disgusted and horrified and every other feeling all at once. I wanted to DO something. To HELP someone, to be apart of something bigger than just me putting on makeup. In makeup school the teachers kept saying that you were helping someone by making them look beautiful. At the time I didn't realize how superficial and idiotic that was. That was not helping, that was masking.
I wanted to help.
I needed to help.
So here I am, a year later and totally changed from that beauty school student I was not too long ago.
I am about to go to school to get my certificate in Early Childhood and Family Studies, then am getting my certification through Childbirth International to become a doula and childbirth educator, after going to Birthingway College of Midwifery here in Portland when their program is up and running to get my associates to become a lactation consultant.
I plan on opening up my own studio for my doula services, childbirth classes, belly castings (and by castings I do not mean simple plaster bandages, I am trained in silicone and alginate casting to create actual belly statues) and body art.
If any mother out there in the Portland metro area needs a free doula, feel free to contact me. I will not charge, I just want to help.
Any doula or midwife that is willing to tell me any info I may or may not need, feel free to contact me. I am a sponge.
So here is the beginning to a new beginning in my life. One that I am so excited to start and am jumping in with both feet.
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