About Me
Compassionate Support
As a doula, I accompany women in labor to help ensure a safe and satisfying birth experience. I am fully committed to offering compassionate support to families during their childbirth journey. My role is supportive and completely non-medical. I am focused on a family centered experience where I encourage the partner and other family members to actively participate in labor support. I will help you all with active movement during labor, position changes to support movement in bed, comfort measures and breathing techniques.
You will be heard!
As A Mother’s Voice my purpose is to use my voice of experience to remind you of your goals and to help you maintain control of your choices during your birth. Your birth options are up to you, whether it is an unmedicated birth, epidural birth, home birth or hospital birth, I can help!
Training
I have received education approved by DONA International for the doula's role from Jacqueline Starkey, R.N., IBCLC, Certified Childbirth Educator, DONA Labor Doula. I was also a volunteer doula at Sentara Princess Anne Hospital under her direction.
I have read books, articles and position papers and I have attended a 20-hour DONA certified course preparing as a doula. I’ve also observed a six-week childbirth education class and a breastfeeding class as part of my DONA training.
Experience
Since my original training in 2018, I have supported more than one hundred births for families throughout Hampton Roads and the surrounding communities.
I have supported families in a variety of birth settings and circumstances, helping them feel informed, calm, and supported throughout their labor and birth experience.
I have worked with families through unmedicated and medicated births, vaginal and cesarean deliveries, and have also had the honor of supporting families through the birth of sleeping babies.
Before deciding to become a doula, I attended five births while supporting family and friends. Those births included two full-term vaginal deliveries, an emergency cesarean section for twins born at 26 weeks, and an unexpected vaginal birth of a stillborn baby at 24 weeks, where I also provided postpartum support as the family navigated their grief.
I have six children—four of my own and two bonus children from my husband. My own birth experiences include four vaginal deliveries, two medicated and two unmedicated. I also breastfed all four of my boys.
The support I provided to these families—both physically and emotionally—paired with my own birth experiences and formal education prepared me for the deeply meaningful role of being a birth doula.
It is truly an honor to walk alongside families during one of the most powerful and vulnerable moments of their lives.