It's Brandi Kuiper: Labor Doula!

Sounds like something I need a cape for, eh?

Okay, so not quite yet. Actually I haven't even started, but I found some great resources for when I have the money to start. Ever since I had Adriana, I've a bee in my bonnet to become a doula. I honestly believe that with the complications I had PLUS trying to go au natural on the drug front, I would have ended up in a c-section if Desiree hadn't been there.


Desiree holding Adriana a few minutes after she was born.


At 32 weeks I was diagnosed with a severe case of Pre-eclampsia (aka toxemia and pregnancy induced hypertension). I had been following Dr. Brewer's high protein diet (he passed away a month before I gave birth and his website is no longer up). Both Desiree and our birth class instructor, Stacy, said that they're sure that my toxemia would have been much worse much faster if I had not been eating 150g to 200g of protein per day. I was getting REALLY tired of eating eggs. Anyway, with what I had, most doctors would have just said, "I'm going to section you—don't even bother trying to talk me out of it." My doctor knew that we wanted to have as natural a childbirth as possible, and he knew that we had a doula, so he agreed to be as hands-off as much as possible and still keep everyone safe.

Aside from being an encouragement in labor, she was also a spiritual encouragement. After a scary evening of cervical ripening (I feel like I was persuaded with a heavy hand to allow a controversial drug for ripening, and then was bullied by the nurses and doc-on-call into using more than was established in the hospital's safety protocol and DEFINITELY more than I was comfortable using...but I digress), Desiree came into my room and announced to Ben and Bridget (my sister) and I that she believed that God had given her a dream in the night. She dreamed that after a peaceful labor, the baby just popped out and into her arms—no time to call the doctor or my nurse or anything. I'm a big believer in God speaking to us through dreams (I'm not your typical fundamentalist...I consider myself more of a charismentalist). And when she told us about her dream, we all felt the peace of God come over us and we knew that everything was going to go okay. She prayed with us before they brought the pitocin in, she helped Ben and I make decisions about different interventions we were faced with—she was an amazing support. I think the doc-on-call was intimidated by my sister (she's a VERY intelligent nurse), so I'm pretty sure that's why the doctor stayed out of my room until he LEGALLY had to be there—plus he's very vocal about not liking doulas in the room. He said it makes him look like the "bad guy."

I want to be that kind of support for other women. I want to help them to work with their bodies and not to fight it. Some women, for various reasons, aren't able to have a natural birth and either have to have drugs or a cesarean. I want to be there with them and encourage them—especially if drugs or a section isn't what they were planning. I realize that my birth experience what nigh unto a miracle, but I want to help the women who hire me feel as good about the birth of their child as I felt about mine no matter how it goes.

Now...to raise $450 dollars for my training..... ;-)

posted by Brandi at 6:09 PM