my philosophy as a doula
I believe…
You deserve to be respected, heard, and seen as a unique individual with intersecting identities.
Your identities, history, and values matter.
You hold the wisdom to make the best choices for yourself and your child.
Birth is political; from hospitals to insurance to parental leave policies, the system is designed to serve a privileged few.
Racial disparities in birth-related statistics are not due to race, but due to racism.
Not just women carry and birth babies.
Every human deserves bodily autonomy and choice.
My role is to empower, support, and advocate.
My role is to build connection and trust.
My role is to hold space for you.
Hi, i am rachel (she/her)
I am a certified doula through Community Aware Birthworker, trained as a Full Spectrum Doula through Birthing Advocacy Doula Trainings, and a trained HypnoDoula through Hypnobabies®. It is important to me to continually learn and grow as I support families with evidence-based information so that they can make the best decisions for themselves and their families.
As a Full Spectrum Doula, I strive to help pregnant people and their families feel respected, informed, heard, and held as they navigate life changes in the prenatal, birth, and postpartum experiences. I believe that all pregnant people have an innate power and inner knowing that is revealed through the birthing process. My role is to support birthing people (and their support person), whether that’s physically holding hips or emotionally holding space.
My journey into birthwork began soon after the empowering birth of my first child in early 2020. After leaving my ESL teaching job and completing my first training through BADT, I dove into full time birthwork, supporting families in many different capacities. Since then, I have brought two more sweet babies into the world, and continue to expand my skills to best support my clients.
I am a Minnesota native who has lived in Central Minnesota, Colorado, Zimbabwe, Peru, and I’ve now called the Twin Cities home for 11 years. I earned my B.A. in Global Studies as well as a Masters of Education, and enjoy integrating those areas of interest into my current work. I am an avid DIY’er, including wellness and personal care items, adore every minute spent at a campsite, and truly love being a parent to my three children, partner to my amazing and supportive spouse, and caretaker of our dog and many fish, reptiles, and amphibians.
a letter to partners
Dear Partner,
I am not here to replace you, I am here to support you.
Many partners are uneasy with hiring a doula, as they worry about being replaced or overshadowed during the labor and birth experience. Please know that my role is to support both the pregnant person AND YOU. I provide physical, emotional, and educational support, allowing you to focus all your attention on your loved one. I am your back-up, your support.
The Doula provides emotional support; suggests and uses different techniques such as breathing, relaxation, movement and positioning to aid in labor and delivery; provides information to parents throughout; helps them become informed about various birth choices; provides an advocacy voice for birther and acts as a liaison between them and the care provider; and — beautifully, wonderfully, thankfully — provides reassurance and comfort to the birther (first and foremost) but also to their partner.
- Testimonial on DoulaSpot.com (edited to remove heteronormative language)
Do you feel like you’re reaching information overload? There’s a lot to learn in the months leading up to welcoming a baby. Having a doula is like having an expert in your back pocket. Someone that knows the aspects of labor and birth, can offer information and resources, and support you as you support your laboring partner. Birth is not only a physical process, but an emotional and psychological process as well. It can be very emotional for the laboring person and family.
Doulas are trained for this. We are prepared, ready, willing, and able to be right at the family’s side for the duration of the labor and birth experience.
If you have any questions please reach out and I’d be happy to talk through doula work with you in more depth.
With love, respect, and patience,
Rachel