I firmly believe that my role as your doula is to support the decisions that you are making for your family, and to never impress my own personal opinion on you. Being a parent can be hard; I want to make sure you feel supported, empowered and validated in your choices. When we work together, you will receive my support, knowledge and consistent check-ins. You are not alone in your journey; I am here to help guide you along your way.
I believe in being mindful and living with passion. I believe in being kind to yourself. I believe in being present and experiencing things fully.
So often, we are burdened with guilt, self loathing, and indecisiveness. When I experienced birth trauma with my first pregnancy in 2010, and subsequently postpartum depression, I felt incredibly lost. I felt guilty for not being able to provide my son something society boasted as natural. I felt angry at my body and mind for failing me. I felt unsure of myself as a mother and a woman, every single step of the way.
In summer 2013, we experienced a miscarriage and a whole new set of emotions. In the blink of an eye, all of our previous trauma, fear and guilt came flooding back. At that moment, I resolved to be an active participant in our care and to advocate for self care.
With our next (and most recent) pregnancy, we hired a doula named Jena. The process and experience simply changed who my husband and I were as parents, partners and individuals. We saw first hand the benefit of an empowered birth process, and have been blessed to have a beautiful postpartum period and transition to being new parents again.
My hope as a doula is to give you the courage, bravery and validation you need to feel confident in your decisions as a parent, be it during pregnancy, birth or postpartum. I also hope to give you a safe place to breathe, vent, cry and be true to yourself, no matter what difficult emotions you are experiencing. Lastly, I hope to help you experience joy, and to help ease your transition as a new (and new again) parent.
4 comments:
"I am so thankful to have had a Shannon involved in my postpartum experience. Shannon is a mother of two, whose children are very similar in age to my own children. Shannon is also a "mompreneur" and I found her ability to to balance family, work and self-care to be so inspiring. I was struggling to adjust to my new life as mother of two but seeing how she carried on with her life with such ease helped encourage me to better organize my own so that I could meet the needs of everyone in my family. Most importantly, Shannon helped me value the importance of meeting my own needs. I need to take care of myself first so that I can give the best care to my own children and nurture them." Michelle - London, ON
"Shannon was great with dealing with the sibling transition. Knowing what its like to have a 3 year old boy and being able to relate to my frustrations and giving ideas to manage was very helpful! Gave me someone to vent to and kept me stay focused and not "loose it!"" Jennifer - Woodstock, ON
"Omg thank you first off the food was amazing what a very nice thing to do for us! All the info from you was super helpful and informative your a natural at this stuff and we're so comfortable talking to you it's just great!U have been such a big help! Ps the oatmeal was amazing I'm so excited for breakfast tomorrow!" Ashley - London, ON
Also from Ashley "Omg thank you so much. We had a very rough night with the baby up all night no sleep and a lot of tears. I wasn't expecting breakfast when I opened my front door. It honestly made me cry this morning. Thank you so much waffles and juice are amazing!! We really appreciate it :)"
"I was nervous about the labour process - whether my body could handle it, if I would know when to go to the hospital, whether everything would be ok, etc. Shannon offered me emotional support late in my pregnancy by providing PDFs with information about natural induction and comfort measures that made me realize that while I can't suddenly make myself go into labour, there are things I can do at home to help move things along. The most comforting thing Shannon told me was "don't worry; your body was made to do this. Just let it happen and trust that it knows what to do". That was so true - and is something that I would pass on to someone else who's feeling anxious about labour and delivery." Rebecca - London, ON
Also from Rebecca "The meal preparation was a huge help - just having little snacks I could grab when I was hungry during a feeding, or not having to worry about making dinner one night was such a big help. I also liked that she was providing me with snacks for lactation, knowing that I was breastfeeding. During the first home visit, Shannon also asked me about the birth experience and helped me process what happened and how I was feeling and am feeling about everything - which is something I don't think I would have taken the time to do on my own. Being able to talk to someone who has "been there done that" twice was great; I felt like she was able to empathize with a lot of what I went through and provide emotional support when we discussed the changes I've gone through in the last 6 weeks."
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