If I don't know my options, I don't have any.  -Diana Korte

I believe that information eases fears and gives one confidence to make decisions that belong to only them and no one else.  I believe a woman’s birth experience can shape her more than today’s society wants us to believe.  I want to encourage women to actively take part in their birth process and experience, trusting not only their care provider’s advice, but also their own instincts and intuitions.  Feelings are very real for women, and shouldn’t be ignored.  Sometimes just talking those feelings through can be very beneficial.  Women can be highly in tune to their bodies and their babies and this fact should never be pushed aside because of anything or anyone, including modern obstetrical practices and hospital procedures.  Women deserve and need time and space to birth their babies.  They need to feel empowered rather than continuously handing over that power to another which can disempower a woman at a time when she needs to be gaining confidence in becoming a mother. I believe very strongly in true Informed Consent and individualized care.  I hope to help more women get just that so that they can have full information of all the risks and benefits associated with any and all medical procedures and interventions, no matter how insignificant they may seem or how much of an inconvenience it is to provide.  I believe there is a time and place for all interventions when they are deemed necessary by care providers and the mother.  However, I do believe that when performed routinely and not out of true need, they can interfere with the normal labor progress and cause a snowball effect, often times leading to a birth that a mother never intended on having or is prepared for handling.  This can cause undue stress to her or her baby and sometimes leading to a surgical birth carrying more risks then and in her future.  I do not want women to think they have to be bystanders for their own birth, and instead help them figure out how to best work with their individual situation and make informed choices to get the most positive outcome FOR THEM - not me, not their doctor or midwife, not their best friend, sister in law, or co-worker.  I trust in the natural process of birth and the unique initial bonding that forms between a mom and baby from not interfering with that process.  But I also believe in the importance of sensitive support if none of that goes the way a woman wanted, hoped, or planned.  I want to be a small part of giving birth back to women by supporting them as a doula, regardless of the type of birth experience they want and/or have.  I believe in women and I believe in the powerful energy that exists when we love and support each other.  I believe a woman’s journey to motherhood starts in pregnancy and hits its first of many climaxes, with birth. 

"The woman about to become a mother, or with her newborn infant upon her bosom, should be the object of trembling care and sympathy wherever she bears her tender burden or stretches her aching limbs…. God forbid that any member of the profession to which she trusts her life, doubly precious at that eventful period, should hazard it negligently, unadvisedly or selfishly." - Oliver Wendell Holmes