Hello Calgary!
For anyone who has been following my posts for some time, you might have noticed me talking a fair bit about the work I’ve been doing as a doula in Halifax. And perhaps you’ve noticed some changes to our website that now position me as a doula in Calgary, Alberta. Well – surprise, surprise – I’m moving! The announcement that my business and I will be coming to Calgary was made just in the past couple of weeks and, for those of you in the Calgary area who are finding me as a doula for the first time, I’m going to take an opportunity to introduce myself and tell you a few reasons why you might be interested in hiring me as your Calgary birth doula.
Though I’ve spent the last five years living in Halifax, I’m actually a Calgary local! I was born and raised in Calgary, attending the University of Calgary for my undergraduate degrees and working as a nurse in both the Peter Lougheed Centre and the Alberta Children’s Hospital. I feel honoured to be able to return to my hometown with a budding doula business that I can use to offer compassionate, personalized support to families in Calgary building their families.
Things you might be interested in learning about me:
~ I’m a full-spectrum doula, meaning that I’ve undergone training to support families all throughout their reproductive journeys. I support people who are working to build their families by providing natural fertility support and supporting families who need or choose to undergo medical treatment to conceive. I work predominantly as a birth doula, supporting people throughout their pregnancies and then showing up with them at the hospital, birth centre, or in their home to provide hands-on support, comfort, and encouragement as they birth their babies. I also provide in-home postpartum care for families adjusting to the challenges and joys of having new babies at home and work closely with families who have experienced the loss of a pregnancy or baby as they grieve and heal.
~ I specialize in working with people who are currently pregnant after experiencing loss, infertility, birth trauma, or who are dealing with other medical complexities. While I absolutely do work with families who are not dealing with these challenges – and love to do so – it means that my continuing education is geared toward helping families with these particular needs. It also means that I have an interesting superpower that many families can benefit from, which is that I’m really good at holding the balance between inherent belief in the capacity of the human body to grow and birth a baby while also recognizing that medical intervention can be necessary at times to bring home a healthy baby and to have a healthy birthing person. In my experience, it’s easy for people to fall into one of two camps: 1) they think birth is amazing and we only create issues when medical providers intervene in this incredible, natural process; or 2) birth is inherently dangerous and, without lots of medical supervision and intervention, it’s incredible babies and birthing peoples survive at all. Maybe that’s a little dramatic and there are plenty of people who find in-between positions for themselves, but my own perspective on birth means that I often find myself smack dab in the middle, helping families to believe in themselves and their capacities while also helping them develop the tools they need to navigate support from the medical system in whatever way works best for them and their baby.
~ I am a firm believer that developing strong partnerships with your health care team, where possible, contributes to a birth experience that is empowering and uplifting. That doesn’t mean we never need to throw hands (just kidding – I only ever throw hands metaphorically and only as a very last resort), but my goal is always to find a place of collaboration first because it’s better for outcomes and its better for the vibes. I believe that helping birthing people to feel educated, informed, and empowered generally supports them to birth in a good spirit regardless of the actual steps they take to get there. You get to make the choices and there are no ‘wrong’ answers. I also recognize that, depending on your past experiences with the medical system and how you exist socially in the world as it is right now, developing trust and collaboration with medical providers can be really, really hard. No matter what comes up, I’m on your team to help talk you through it so we can address whatever is in our control to make those spaces better. While we work to make change, we have to work with what we’ve got, and we can get creative as we do so.
~ While I will be offering in-person support to families in the Calgary area, I also offer a lot of doula support online for folks across Canada. In particular, the work that I do as a fertility doula and as a pregnancy and infant loss/bereavement doula can often be done online. In both cases, families can book appointments of varying lengths with me, where I can provide informational and emotional support for whatever challenges they are currently encountering. As a result, I do my best to keep an eye on the incredible work that practitioners are doing across the country and am a firm believer in creating nationwide communities of care that help to connect people with exactly the support they need. Additionally, for families planning for a birth in other parts of the country who feel like they would benefit from the unique perspective on birth that I offer, I try to make myself available for birth preferences planning and other emotional support online. When in doubt, if you’re interested in working with me, reach out any time for a free consultation or virtual meeting!
~ I’m working on a PhD in Sociology through Dalhousie University! Though I’ve spent much of 2024 on sabbatical, I’ll be remotely returning to my studies in 2025 and will begin developing a dissertation project that, in addition to contributing to the academic community, will also fuel my doula career by helping us to think critically about the type of care that doulas provide. More details on this transition and the project I’ll be working on will be out sometime in the new year.
I hope this is enough to give you a sense of who I am and the type of doula care that I provide, both to families in Calgary and virtually across Canada. To keep up to date on all things Beltane Birth Doula Services, check out our Instagram page. To book an appointment for fertility, birth, postpartum, or loss support, book a free consultation at: https://calendly.com/beltanebirth