What led me to become a doula, and ultimately decide to pursue midwifery, is my intense desire to give other women and their partners what my husband and I had, a positive, life-changing birth experience.  Our first child was born in a hospital, and we both found her birth very dissatisfying.  This was not so much due to the fact that she was hospital born, but to the fact that we were so powerless.   My husband spent his time running interference between me and the staff as they pushed one intervention after another on us.  The nursing staff didn't even read our birth plan.  We  did not have a doula.  Without an advocate, we were truly fighting an uphill battle.

          Our next four children were born at home in water.  We are still very emotional about their births.  Things were so different.  Again, not because they were home births, but because we surrounded ourselves with the right people at the right time, in the place that was right for us.   My labors were shorter and less painful due to the support my husband and I received from our midwife and to the  feeling of security the birth environment brought us.  While homebirth is not for everyone, it is a safe and viable alternative for any low-risk woman. 

 
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