Starting my journey

[Oceanjones]

Hi everyone! I've been doing a lot of soul searching (for several years in fact) and have come to the conclusion that no matter how old my babies get or where my life takes me my passion for helping women on the journey through birth is definitely what I want to devote my life to. I admit I wondered whether or not I would lose these feelings as my children but I don't believe that is the case.

I'm up north of Seattle and would like to eventually go to the school of midwifery here. However I do not meet the requirements at this time. Sooo...I have decided to start on the 2 year RN program this winter at my local community college. I'd like to be able to become a certified LC as well as working towards becoming a post-partum doula.

So I need a little feedback from you ladies on the best way to accomplish the pp doula part because I'd like to work on that while going to school for the RN. How do you become a doula? Can you apprentice? I'd love to be a birth doula as well but worry that no want would want because all my births ended up as c-sections

Thank you for any information you can pass on!

[birthdancedoula]

Congrats on your new realization! That's awesome!!

I did doula work while in RN school, both birth and PP stuff. It was a lot of work but it helped to balance all the negativity you'll likely encounter in the hospital. It was hard (even while doulaing at HB) not to become jaded with the medical model of birth. You can survive and still come out the other end believing in normal birth, you just really need a firm grounding in it outside of RN school.

There are several organizations that offer PP doula certification. Check out these sites for a start. Best of luck and keep us posted on your journey!!