Choosing Shelia to be our doula was the best decision we made for our baby\u2019s birth. Thinking back to that time almost a year ago, I don\u2019t remember many specifics of the laboring, but Shelia\u2019s calming and empowering presence alongside my partner, and, of course, the pure joy of meeting our son are still my most vivid memories.
\nI\u2019m an introvert and a planner, and didn\u2019t know what to expect when beginning our doula search. Would having someone else there feel intrusive? Would the support feel \u201cwoo\u201d? Shelia was the first person we met of three promising candidates from doulamatch, and we clicked immediately. Her attentiveness, warmth, emotional intelligence, open-mindedness, and depth of expertise and experience shone through from the start. We didn\u2019t need to meet anyone else before making our decision.
\nAnd as our doula? I was going to be a first time mom without the in-person support of family, and her support gave me the peace of mind to enjoy the pregnancy. At the hospital birth, which unsurprisingly didn\u2019t go as expected\u2014starting with my water breaking 2.5wks early\u2014Shelia had an almost uncanny sense of knowing exactly what was needed, when it was needed. From helping me make sense of my options at each juncture and knowing just the amount of nurturing and space I needed, to the attention to detail like setting up candles for the tub to avoid using the harsh fluorescent lights or knowing where to get food after hours, she made me feel safe and cared for. My partner reported feeling more relaxed and present too. And I truly believe that it\u2019s to her credit that I didn\u2019t have to have an emergency C-section. On top of all this, she captured profound moments on camera and wrote our birth story.
\nShelia is wonderful, and our hearts swell with love and gratitude for her time with us. We can\u2019t imagine our journey without her.<\/p>\n
Posted 10\/24\/2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Choosing Shelia to be our doula was the best decision we made for our baby\u2019s birth. Thinking back to that time almost a year ago, I don\u2019t remember many specifics of the laboring, but Shelia\u2019s calming and empowering presence alongside my partner, and, of course, the pure joy of meeting our son are still my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adoulachick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18229"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adoulachick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adoulachick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adoulachick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adoulachick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adoulachick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18230,"href":"https:\/\/adoulachick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18229\/revisions\/18230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adoulachick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adoulachick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adoulachick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}