What is a Doula?

"Doula" is a Greek word.  It translates to “female servant” and refers to the role of a woman who supported and served the mother of a household.  In ancient times and even now, we recognize the importance of having support around us for this very important, life-changing rite of passage into motherhood.  Even with subsequent pregnancies, we deeply know and understand the challenge and stressors of becoming a new mother, all over again, each time to a new human.  With each pregnancy, we ourselves are reborn and awaken to be Mother to the new person we gave life to.

During this phase in our lives, we also recognize the need to be listened to, honored and respected as a woman, and as a mother.  We may feel unsure of ourselves, and seek guidance from a trusted source.  Doulas have been around for eons, wearing different names, (midwife, sister, coach, assistant) but always being turned to as that trusted source of education and nonjudgmental support. 

We are life givers and we hold a great responsibility to care for this most vulnerable being that we have conceived and grows within us.  We nurture with our food, drink, activity, breath, words and intentions.  The need for a servant-minded support person is vital, as no one knows this very personalized process of pregnancy like the body and mind that carries it out.  The doulas’ role is never to supersede this “knowing” but to lift it up and protect it.

One of the first historial places we might read an example of what a doula is and does, is in the Christian Bible.  Jesus was said to “take on the form of a doulos” (or male form of a servant in Greek) as He humbly stooped down to wash His disciples feet when the host of the gathering did not provide this usual practice of expected cultural courtesy.  No matter what faith or religious background you may come from, this interaction might cause you to pause and wonder.  Imagine what a scene that must have been!  The person in the gathering who was esteemed the greatest, was willing to show such tender care for those who followed Him.  This is the heart of doula work.  We have the special privilege of treating our clients as honored guests, supporting their needs with a humble, kind, gentle, patient and generous attitude as they do this hard work of birth.

Why is Doula Support Needed?

In a world where families are no longer living as tribes, and the village is spread out across continents and the globe, we are very disconnected from our roots.  Women were always the healers and health-keepers of the family, until men's hunger for control and profit created modern medicine which began to take their place.  This was a gradual evolution, but within 3-4 generations, we have lost almost all of our ancient wisdom of natural remedies, nutrition, herbs, energetic influence and practices that were passed down and understood for millennia. Now, being a transient society with no community gardens of our own and miles between us, we don’t often have that person in our lives, to “mother the mother”.  Sometimes, the mother of the actual mother was never even mentored into this role as a support person. 

The last few generations of world citizens have been trained to believe they need to leave everything to the “experts”, who were never really experts at all.  Maybe the wisdom of health stopped being passed on or the line of women in the family has already lost all of their influence in this role for whatever reason, but those who have replaced them are failing at a role that was never meant to be theirs in the first place.  At this time in history, women have stopped being the influencers and have become the influenced.  We’ve stopped walking in our power and have given our power away.  We no longer trust ourselves, because we are taught from very young to trust only the white male patriarchy that controls and prescribes (and we haven’t even questioned all the subsequent profit – until now).  We have lost the knowledge of our own bodies and leave it to “professionals” who run tests and keep our body’s status a mystery, while they expect us to obey their advice even, and especially, if it goes against our most intelligent source of autonomous power – our own intuition.

The only way back is a combination of educating and honoring the feminine, so she may rise again to the position where she was ordained to be.  This position of power; understanding our own mysteries and counting it as sacred, is where our babies, our daughters and our society desperately needs us to return. They are suffering because the mothers are not in that place of power, allowed to protect and nourish the way it was meant to be.

The role of a doula is sacred and should not be entered into lightly, for the thrill of birth or to avenge any wrong.  The role of a doula is to sit at the feet of the pregnant and birthing women of this world, and to wash the lies, betrayal, manipulation and fear from their spirits and to humbly lead them down a path of self-discovery, empowerment and confidence.  The role of a doula is to prepare a Queen for her throne and to support her with respect and honor, once she’s upon it.

Is this "doula thing" for you?

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