Ever since I can remember I have been obsessed with babies and taking care of children. Starting as a young child helping my mother take care of my brother. I was 2.5 years when he was born and loved him so much. I would carry my doll around the house with my mom and baby brother. I would change my dolls diaper, feed her and stroll her around. According to my mother I also would pretend to be pregnant (among other things) so I could be like her.
As I got older I then helped look after the younger kids at almost any chance I got. Camping I was usually I charge of watching all the kids as I was the oldest and would arrange games and make sure they were all okay. At age 11 I took the babysitters class with my best friend at our local community center and we started working for families around our two homes. I then started teaching figure skating at age 14 to help pay for lessons. I usually was placed with the 3 year old class. In high school I took classes in human services, family management and art. After high school I tried applying to the ECE program at Douglas Collage, but because I was under 19 years I couldn’t apply.
Eventually ended up taking a hair dressing program instead. I loved the interaction with people and the artistic aspect of hairdressing. While in school I always ended up with the younger clients and young mother’s. Started my own business in 2007 and worked on building my hair dressing career. I worked with a couple of Photographer friends as a second pair of hands and helped with everything from weddings, maturity and family or kid Photography.
Then in 2014 I started working as a ABA Behavioral Interventionist, eventually taking a class in 2016 for Autism Support through Douglas Collage.
While pregnant with my first I first learned about Doulas. My friends sister-in-law was training to become a doula and offered to help us. Unfortunately I went into labour before we could have a meet up and plan. So I never had a doula at the birth but still the job fascinated me. I started to research about what a doula does and how to become one. Being a new mom it then went on the back burner for a time. I then got pregnant with my second. This pregnancy was definitely different from my first. I was going to see if we could have a doula this time around. Contacted my friends sister-in-law, but she was now in Midwifery school and unfortunately too busy. Started looking at different doulas around but decided that between my midwife and husband that this time around we were prepared. I ended up with a birth Photographer instead. Lucky for me I had two very easy births.
After the birth of my second I decided that I needed to help other women try to have their “ideal” birth or at least help them understand and own their birth experience. When my best friend announced she was expecting it was the kick in the butt to get me started. Looking back at my life I do believe I am headed to where I should be. If I had known about Doulas and the work they do I think I would have started this journey much sooner. Saying that I am glad of all the experiences I got with with being a hairdresser and the knowledge I gained talking to so many women in their different stages of life. I can use all this information given to me to further help all of my future clients. This is why I doula.
ElderFlower Doula 