A Letter To My Doula Clients

To my doula clients-

Do you truly know how amazed your doula was when she departed your birth?

I often find myself in awe of the remarkable fortitude and gut-it-out tenacity I observe while attending doula clients.

Some pregnancies and births are not cotton candy, glitter and unicorns.

I know this.

I educate about this.

You know this, but you don’t KNOW this. You don’t see what I see. I have seen both the glorious and the gut-wrenching, the joyous and the soul-crushing. Each birthing woman has left a tender imprint of herself on my spirit.  She has influenced how I care for future clients. I often replay the birth in my head.

Was enough done for her? Was too much done to her? What could I have done better? What could I have said/not said?

Women are unbelievably strong, both emotionally and physically. I’ve witnessed it.  This intensity is what I love most about my life’s passion project of being a doula and training doulas. I’m amazed by the sheer power that encompasses birth and how some view it as ordinary. Women in labor are forces of nature. THESE are the innate instincts through which the human race has survived.  Women are gifted to nurture and bring forth LIFE as harddifficultpainfulandexhausting as it is.

Mothers may sacrifice their wishes and bodies for their baby’s health. Women power through unbelievably difficult domestic and employment situations. I’ve served new mothers who have felt alone and like a “failure.” I am grateful they feel safe enough to become vulnerable and share their daily reality with me.

Women need to know there is no “perfect” mother or baby…even the popular ones on Instagram because: #peoplelie. No matter what type of birth or postpartum unfolds, it is a sacred journey. It is one of life’s most incredible mysteries, an intense physical, spiritual and emotional transformation beginning at the moment of welcoming a little one.  

Personally, my childbearing and breastfeeding years are behind me. I am not sad, I’m grateful.  Grateful to have that season of life experiences to draw from as I seek to support others during theirs.

Birth has never and will never become mundane for me. Every single birth space has a lesson to teach as its story unfolds. These births change me, they do. I am a humble witness to all of their severe beauty and it is a privilege to receive an invitation.

In love,

Alexa Gumm BBCI, BBCD

Doula Trainer, Birth Boot Camp, Inc

~

Alexa Gumm has been with Birth Boot Camp since its inception. An experienced doula, she also trains the Birth Boot Camp DOULA trainers. Her respect for women and for birth touch every part of our doula program and we are so grateful to have her with us. If you’d like to become a doula with Birth Boot Camp, you can apply to a training here. Our doulas also have the opportunity to apply to become doula trainers as we seek to make birth work a more sustainable career for more women.