Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Certification

Certification as a doula through D.O.N.A. is not an easy process. There is a ton of reading to do, and the training workshops, and the classes and the paperwork and finding the first few births and getting all the evaluations back...

I am coming to the end of this process and I am still as happy and excited to be a doula as I was when the idea first occurred to me... probably even more so.   I get asked all the time to explain what a doula is and why I choose to be one. I honestly don't know how to explain except to say that the whole process resonates with my soul on a level that I have never felt before. I love helping people and knowing that I have made even the smallest difference in their lives. I appreciate the miracle of birth and it's ability to enlarge families as they welcome new members. It is not an easy process, there is a lot of waiting, and anticipation; there is also a lot of aspects that are just out of your control.

I have not experienced the full range of possibilities that is labor and delivery yet, but I look forward to every late night call, every determined grimace, and the brightness of each new little face as it enters the world.