Lots of tours to buy in Juneau.
Finding a way to describe what I do sometimes leaves me feeling unfulfilled. I provide physical, emotional, and educational support to women and their partners in labor… Yeah…but what does THAT mean.
Talk to a woman who hired a doula for her birth, and she most likely will tell you it was essential that her doula was present. Talk to that mom before hand and she won’t sound as enthusiastic. But how can she know what amazing adventure she is about to go through and how she will get through it, and how it will change her?
That’s what I do. I am able to take women down a winding path, take them by the hand in a way, and guide them through labor. Like a shady forest, with hills and knotty roots, and bends, I help that woman find her way and accompany her journey. Encourage her to keep going. Show her better ways to sit, or lean.
The exchange is mutual. For as I help her through moments, she gains her voice, telling me to push harder or softer, telling me she needs to move. She shows me her way through this journey, and I store that to use with the next mom, the next birth.
There are hundreds of books about birth and there are hundreds of opinions about how to best have a baby. I reassure a mom that her path is her own. The goal is the same, the baby comes out, but the way that happens is all her own. Labor can be fast. Labor can be slow. There is no wrong way.
Talk to a woman who hired a doula for her birth, and she most likely will tell you it was essential that her doula was present. Talk to that mom before hand and she won’t sound as enthusiastic. But how can she know what amazing adventure she is about to go through and how she will get through it, and how it will change her?
That’s what I do. I am able to take women down a winding path, take them by the hand in a way, and guide them through labor. Like a shady forest, with hills and knotty roots, and bends, I help that woman find her way and accompany her journey. Encourage her to keep going. Show her better ways to sit, or lean.
The exchange is mutual. For as I help her through moments, she gains her voice, telling me to push harder or softer, telling me she needs to move. She shows me her way through this journey, and I store that to use with the next mom, the next birth.
There are hundreds of books about birth and there are hundreds of opinions about how to best have a baby. I reassure a mom that her path is her own. The goal is the same, the baby comes out, but the way that happens is all her own. Labor can be fast. Labor can be slow. There is no wrong way.
Mendenhall river and glacier (in the back) A common destination for Juneau tourists.
I used to drive tour buses. Cruise ship passengers would load on to my motorcoach while in port at Juneau, and I would have them from 3-7 hours. Many people have similar questions about what we were seeing and the history of one of the most beautiful places on earth, but every tour was different. Every tour was unique. It was the same landscape, the same destinations, but in three summers of driving bus I never had the same tour.
I got to help thousands of people fall in love with Juneau, and now I’m a tour guide of a different sort – where the destination is motherhood and love, and the ride can be bumpy or smooth. But as a doula I will be there regardless. I will read the road signs of your labor and direct you, help you see where you can go, and help you avoid the obstacles.
I don’t have a 53-foot motor coach and a microphone, but I have reassuring hands and have brought the road maps. So yes, I provide emotional, physical, and education support, but like a driver is really only pushing pedals and moving a wheel, there is so much more to being the guide on this adventure with you.
Authored by A Swift Doula
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