You Need a Doula! (Giveaway and my personal birth experience)

Today I want to introduce you to our newest sponsor, Emily Ruth of Peaceful Birth Services.  She is a doula and child birth educator who lives right here in Mesa.  She believes that women instinctively know what is best for their child birth experience and her mission is to help women achieve that.  So what is a doula?  "The Greek word doula means woman caregiver. We now use the word to describe a trained and experienced labor companion who provides the woman and her husband or partner continuous emotional support, physical comfort and assistance in obtaining information before, during and just after childbirth."  Emily will be available through the whole process!

Here is what one mom said about Emily's services:

"Emily was AMAZING to have by my side. She has THE MOST beautiful calming energy. When things got intense she quietly breathed cleansing breaths & I patterned my own after her. It was a blessing for me to have her there. Not to forget the GREAT photos she caught!! "~ M.F.

I have a confession to make and I hope it doesn't offend anyone.  I used to think that doulas were only for the all natural crowd or for the hippie Hollywood type.  I hope you caught the "used to."  Doulas are for everyone and if I could go back to my second delivery, pain and all, and this time have Emily there as my doula, I would.  I needed her knowledge, I needed her care and support.   

Almost 2 years ago, I found myself in a hospital bed, wincing in pain, trying to keep 2 ornery little beings inside me longer than the 33 weeks they had been there.  It was late at night and I was being told that I could be in this state for as long as 3 weeks.  I didn't quite understand how, seeing as the pain was almost more than I could take.  But, I was willing to try.  The medication that I was on to stop labor didn't seem to be working and things were progressing as I tried to hold perfectly still and calm.  I had taken Lamaze classes with my first set of twins but could not remember all the stages of labor or my breathing techniques.  Oh how I wished that I could.  And my husband/coach, yes, he was just as in shock as I was.  The nurse was in and out throughout the night.  She was nice and kind, but she suggested that a sleeping pill would help alleviate the pain.  I took it.  I was desperate to try to relax and stay pregnant.  Well, if you know anything about sleeping pills, they work, but not if you are dilated to n 9 (which we didn't know at the time because 1- they couldn't check me and 2-I like to think I'm good at hiding how much pain I'm in :).  Needless to say, I finally got an epidural when I realized I was at a 9.5 and needed to have the strength to push 2 babies into this world.  And I practically slept through the whole birthing experience because once I was pain free, the sleeping pill kicked in. I missed the first several hours of my girls' lives.   

My girls and I still bonded, we were all taken care of, but I look back and wish that I had Emily to help me know what stages of labor I was in, or to help me cope with such intense pain.  I think she would have understood more of where I was at in the process to know that a sleeping pill wouldn't work.  She would have helped me make better decisions when things were so hazy.  Although personally I'm all for epidurals if you want them, if I wanted, she probably could have saved me the $1600 fee for what turned out to be only 10 minutes of relief.  If Emily was there, I know the process would have resulted in one happy mom instead of one sleeping mom.  

So, whether you plan to birth at home, in the hospital or birth center, go all natural or have the goodness of an epidural, I suggest you look into hiring Emily as your doula.  She comes highly recommended.  She'll teach you, work with you and make sure your experience, the experience that YOU choose, is the best that it can be.  She'll be there to answer questions you may have or calm your fears. (If there ever comes to be a set number 3, you better believe I'm hiring Emily.) And right now, she is currently having a giveaway for dinner and a movie and is offering 50% off her services.  We are talking $225 secures you the one on one birthing support that you need.  Go here and tell her I Heart Mesa sent you! 

-Kathryn