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Over twenty years ago when I first heard of the concept
of midwifery, I did a great deal of research. I realized that birth
was a healthy normal experience needing love and support, creativity
and empowerment. This research concluded in doing a persuasive speech
in college. I entertained the idea of maybe becoming a midwife someday.
Regardless of my aspiring to be a midwife, I knew from that moment
on that birth was an experience to believe in and respect, for its
power and its depth.
 While
in school I came across a Holistic Health class and this opened
my eyes to a whole new world. When I graduated from San Francisco
State in 1998, I decided to pursue the experience of being a massage
therapist. I went to Alive
and Well, the Institute of Conscious Bodywork and became
a Certified Massage Technician. I continued to work in the restaurant
business, which I had been doing for ten years, and added my massage
practice part-time. I continued taking more classes in massage and
the healing arts and building my repertoire. When I had a client
come into my practice that was pregnant, I decided to take a pregnant
woman and infant massage class at McKinnon
Institute and this was where I found out about doulas.
Interested in the concept of mothering the mother and recalling
my earlier experience with finding out about midwifery, I was definitely
curious about the work but at the time felt that the on-call life
just didn’t fit for me so I put the idea on a shelf.
A couple of years later a friend of mine called to ask if I had
continued on the path as a doula because she wanted me at her birth.
This opened the door for me to do more research into what the training
was like and I decided that I would pursue the workshop and see
how it suited me. As things turned out, I was at my friend’s
birth just two days before I was scheduled to do the training. I
followed my intuition and worked with the knowledge I had gained
from doing massage and had an amazing experience. On attending the
training I realized that I had done everything right and the feeling
that I was meant to be a doula just filled me up. From that point,
I knew this was the work that I was here to do.
In January of 2004 I ended my fifteen-year career in the restaurant
business and followed my heart to start my own business combining
Bodywork and Doula Services. I am based in Petaluma, with offices in San Francisco and serve
the Bay Area. I am certified with DONA
and I've trained as a Newborn Massage Instructor and a Lactation
Educator; I am a Lamaze trained childbirth educator. I am an assistant DONA doula trainer with Felicia Roche and Working Women Productions . I have participated in the volunteer doula program at Kaiser San Francisco.
I am Vice President and one of the founding board members of Bay Area Birth Association (BABA) a recently formed non-profit
organization committed to being a resource for all in the birth
community. I am a member of the San
Francisco Doula Group and serve on the Peer Review
board and I am a member of Business
Networking International, in my chapter I've served as The President and regularly take positions on the leadership team. I fill my spare time with my amazing six-year old daughter, our dog and two cats and an assortment of incredible friends; I enjoy reading, writing, yoga, gardening, cooking, photography and the beach. I absolutely love what I do and I
feel honored and lucky to have an incredible job and such a fabulous
life! |
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