A Customer Referral

Birth 5

"I have a mother for you," said a frequent customer as she walked into the juice bar. "It's my niece", I was so grateful that she would even consider me to be a doula for her niece.

Her niece and I met up and realized we were a good match. I began working with this mother since she was about 5 months pregnant. That gave us plenty of time to get to know each other.

I truly appreciated her willingness to give me learning experiences. Whenever she was going through something or had questions outside of a doula's scope of practice, she made sure to present them to me so that I can do research and become informed.

This experience taught me the invaluable role of working with women during this time in their life. I have the privilege to become more than their doula but also friends with them and that is most rewarding.

The labor process was very interesting and a direct answer to prayer. I spoke to a student before my birthing mother went into labor. I casually said, "it would be so nice if my mother goes into the hospital around 4 am and has the baby by 6 am and then I could be with her for about 2 hours and be on time for class at 8:40 am." I mentioned it not for purely selfish reasons. I knew that if she went into the hospital around 4 I would have gotten a full night of sleep, which is always a plus. I also ENJOY class and did not want to miss not even 1 day.

Around 4 am I got the text that they were getting ready to go to the hospital. Then she pushed her beautiful baby out before 6 am. However, it wasn't until she was all settled in her new room breastfeeding that I looked at the time and saw that it was minutes to 8 am, 7:58 am to be exact. Thinking that I was thinking to myself, I said out loud "Oh wow, I can actually get to class on time! She responded by thanking me and telling me to go to class!

On my drive to class, I just thought about the time with this couple and that God truly blesses in the work and that he will always make provisions for me to get what I need to be a successful midwife.