Garden of Doula
What is a doula?
The word doula is a Greek word meaning women’s servant. Women have been serving others in childbirth for many centuries and have proven that support from another woman has a positive impact on the labor process.
A doula is a trained non-medical companion who supports another individual through a significant health-related experience such as childbirth, miscarriage, induced abortion or stillbirth, or non-reproductive experiences such as dying.
A doula may also provide support to the partner, family, and friends.
The doula is a professional trained in childbirth who provides emotional, physical, and educational support to a mother who is expecting, is experiencing labor, or has recently given birth. Their purpose is to help women have a safe, memorable, and empowering birthing experience.
A doula acts as an advocate for the mother, encouraging and helping her fulfill specific desires she might have for her birth. The goal of a doula is to help the mother experience a positive and safe birth, whether an unmedicated birth or a cesarean.
My teacher
(Left)Shafia Monroe, President of Shafia Monroe Consulting (SMC) and creator of SMC Full Circle Doula Birth Companion Training. (Right) Kratina Champaigne on day four of my training when I received my Provisional Certificate
Shafia Monroe is a renowned midwife, a doula trainer, motivational speaker and a cultural competency trainer, the creator of the SMC Full Circle Doula Birth Companion Training. Her work is significant to improving the infant and maternal mortality crisis because she incorporates African birth traditions and southern outreach traditions, aids families in communicating with their health care providers for quality health care, and lectures on multiple systems to reduce maternal mortality.