When I got pregnant with my first child over 25 years ago, I lived near San Diego, far away from my friends and family in rural Colorado. I knew I wanted a different kind of birth from the status quo and was mortified by how television and movies portrayed childbirth. 

 

While searching for options, I remember speaking with a mother of seven who had every kind of birthing experience from hospital to home. I felt excited and encouraged to try something less “conventional”. Thus, I decided to have my first birth in a free-standing birthing center. What a positive experience!

 

After that, I had two more babies, each with their challenges, yet each wonderful, because I felt in control and blessed with a caring team for each one.  Experiencing births of my choice was SO empowering, leading me to want to share that with other women. 

 

After having raised my three wonderful kids in the tiny rural town on the plains of Colorado where I grew up, I moved to beautiful Colorado Springs and found myself in the position to answer my calling to be a birth doula!