The Life Of A Mother

The very moment you become a mother, your life changes forever.  After that very moment, you are a mother.  Always and Forever.  From that moment on, life is always a series of emotions.  Some happy, some sad.  Through it all, there is no money in the world that I would take to buy those memories.

Take tonight as an example.  I am in the living room with Brent, Hannah, and Jacob.  Then, Brigham walks in the room.  I look down upon his little head, and what do we all see?

A small child trying to look like he had no ideas as to why I would be asking him if he had cut his hair. 

Brigham trying to pretend he didn't cut his hair.

Then he realized he was in trouble, and led us to what he used to cut his hair.  He had snuck scissors from the kitchen, into the bathroom, and cut off his head.  He had gotten within an 1/8 of an inch.  So...  I took him outside, and shaved his head.  He was an 1/8 of an inch from being shaved completely bald. 

Brigham, after realizing he's in trouble.

After the hair cut.

The life of a mother, never ends, and neither to the memories.

Could My Journey Be Starting?

My first home birth was in 2006, with my first son Brigham.  I loved my midwife, Suzanne.  She taught me a lot about pregnancy and birth.  Brigham was my fourth child, and I had no idea how ignorant I was until I began talking with Suzanne.  That is when I decided to begin studying about pregnancy and birth.  I didn't want to be ignorant and uneducated.  I made it my personal journey to know everything I could about natural birth.  I have studied to the point that my husband had started calling me a "Birth Cultist".  Saying that all I do is study and discuss pregnancy and birth.  Somewhere inside of me, I knew what was to come.  I want, like nothing else, to become a midwife.  It is my absolute dream.  For the time being, though, I am wanting to be a doula.  It is my passion.  It is what I would love to do for the rest of my life.  I want nothing more than to help and support women with their pregnancies and births.

With all of this, I am a member of a group on Face Book called Birth Is Normal.  Today, as I've been pondering how to become a doula, they posted a new Document telling me one way to do this.  I am going to post it here, so I can later reference back to it, and maybe it will help someone else.  I found this inspiring, seeing how my path became clouded and confused after reading through the DONA site, and not finding the help that I was seeking.

Here is the document...

So you are thinking about becoming a Doula.....

Overwhelmed and confused where to go from here? Have the passion and desire to help other women through the childbearing year but don't know how to go about it? Here is a little step-by-step guide that will hopefully help you.

First contact local doulas in your area, set up a time with them face-to-face and pick their brain. Ask challenges they face as a doula in your area, how they became a doula, training program they choose and why, do they do doula mentoring, average doula rate for your area, etc. Become familiar with all the doulas within a 2hr radius.

Network with other birth professionals (doulas, midwives, childbirth educators, LC's) in your area, look for the nearest doula network, and contact Le Leache League chapter, ICAN Chapter and other birth group chapters.  Attend meetings and get to know other birth activists.


Watch the following documentaries to learn more about the current status of the maternity health care:
The Business of Being Born
Orgasmic Birth
Attending Birth
Pregnant in America


Read the following books:
Special Women: The Role of the Professional Labor Assistant by Paulina Perez
The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin
The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer
Born in the USA by Marsden Wagner
Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin

Get to know your local hospitals and birth centers. Find out if they have midwives on staff, do they offer water birth, what their c-section, induction, epidural, vbac, vaginal twin, rates are. Then find out about practices that serve each hospital and their individual rates for c-section, induction/augmentation, vbac, epidural, etc.


Research the various doula training programs. There are many to choose from! Just a few are:
Birth Arts International(BAI), Childbirth International(CBI), CAPPA, AVIVA, Birthing From Within, DONA, Birth Works, ICEA, Christian Childbirth Association, etc. Remember you can train but you do not have to certify with any organization; however if the area you live in is heavily populated with doulas and there is a lot of competition certification may be necessary.

Join the doula networking site www.alldoulas.com 

Good luck on your journey to empowering women!

Last night was very interesting.  A few minutes before 11pm, Brent and I were sitting in the living room watching TV.  All of a sudden I noticed things didn't feel right.  I was almost dizzy feeling, like I was being moved back and forth.  I looked at Brent, thinking he was shaking the couch, but he was in the chair, a couple feet away.  Then, thinking there was something wrong with me, I looked at my hands to see if I was shaking.  Very confused, I looked over at the bottle of water next to me.  The water in the bottle was sloshing about.  I looked back up at Brent, who was looking at me, and asked if he felt that.  He had.  We had just gone through our first earthquake.  In Kansas City, Missouri.  I called my mom, but she hadn't felt it.  My brother did (and another one at 1am as well). 

After we went to bed, I woke up when I felt the same feeling.  I jumped awake from my dreams of earthquakes and restless sleep.  My heart was racing, and it took me a bit to calm down.  As I was dozing off, I felt it again, which caused me to jump out of slumber again.  I had thought it was Brent rolling over in bed causing me to relive the feeling.  However, since my brother said he felt it again at 1am, I am wondering if that is what startled me awake. 

Then I had this video brought to my attention...  Saying the New Madrid fault line is showing plumes, and to expect a 5.0 in the next 2-4 weeks (posted Nov 1, 2011).