Only a mother successfully births her baby. No-one else.

I was on the phone today talking to a women interested in hiring me as a doula. She said that one of the things that appealed to her was that I had done a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean). I quickly said that I hadn’t done a VBAC, the mother had. What I do is help with the preparation, and then on the day, nature takes over, and I do very little. It’s a strange phenomenon, because I come away feeling great about having witnessed something so amazing. But I don’t come away feeling that I did a great job. Doing nothing doesn’t always feel good. Doctors have been known to mock doulas who “just sit in the corner”. They don’t get it. If some-one was drifting off to sleep, would you talk to her? No. If some-one is in the labour zone, you don’t either. Knowing when to “do something”, and when not to, is a trickly part of doula-ing. Staying okay with yourself when you did nothing is also tricky. I think this doctor, Dr. Lorne Campbell says it very well indeed. “I have never birthed a child or performed a HypnoBirth or a successful Breech turn and I am proud of this. The Birth, the breech turn and the beauty are created by the mother. We create the atmosphere the attitude and witness success. Nothing more.” Here’s to many more birthings where I just witness success.