Our Doula

As you may have seen previously in the blog, we had a doula, Marie, with us at Sam's birth. We met Marie through our "Prepared Childbirth" class - she was our instructor. After class one day, she volunteered to be our doula for FREE! I was a bit hestitant about having a doula at first since I am a pretty private person and couldn't imagine having anyone other than Kirk in the delivery room. But the more we got into our childbirth classes and the more determined I became to have a natural childbirth, the more I became convinced that it would be a good idea to have someone around to help Kirk. Plus, someone with a lot of knowledge about the birthing process and different pain relieving methods couldn't hurt either!

So we decided to have Marie as our doula and never regretted that decision. She was absolutely wonderful throughout the entire process. When we intially found out that Sam was breech, she came over and gave us some exercises and things to try to get her turned around. She came with us to the hospital when I had the procedure to try to turn Sam and was super supportive. She was unfazed when we had to have a c-section and explained to us her experience with c-sections (she used to be a labor and delivery nurse so she was full of information!) At my delivery, Marie was in the operating room with us and took all the pictures. It was amazing to have her there - and especially taking pictures - so that Kirk could actually be in the pictures!

Since Sam's birth, Marie has come over on a number of occassions to visit with us and check to make sure that we're doing okay. She has been a wonderful help and we can't thank her enough. For anyone out there considering hiring a doula, I would say DO IT!