My name is Sarah and I initially wanted to become a volunteer Doula as I intended to go on to become a midwife and felt it would enable me to gain valuable insight and experience through supporting women. However I now feel the experience was more about giving something back to the community.
I signed up to the training course in March 2006 and have since supported 4 ladies and been a back up Doula for another 3. I have been faced with many issues including domestic violence, language and cultural barriers, drug dependency, homelessness and post birth problems such as supporting the mum around a baby’s drug withdrawal and working alongside social services.
Throughout the support I offered to the women, I was given constant support from the Project Team to ensure that I was safe, both physically and emotionally. This took the form of regular phone calls, and face-to-face supervisions and they were always available if something happened and needed that extra support (i.e. after a difficult birth).
The training offered also ensured that we felt confident to deal with many situations, (especially birth via Andrea Robertson’s Active Birth Workshop!). If an issue arose throughout the volunteering which we felt we needed more training for this was organized where possible through one of the monthly sessions.
I feel the Doula Project has become a valuable tool in empowering women; both myself and the other volunteers to learn new skills, progress on to new careers (if wanted), to meet women from other cultures and backgrounds and learn about their lives and to learn about positive birth and breastfeeding; and the mums we have supported, empowering them to have choices throughout their pregnancy and birth, support around breastfeeding, to have the birth they want and feel in control even if the birth does becomes difficult.
Professionally the experience has been invaluable, being a Doula and the training given. Personally it has opened my eyes to how other people live & how lucky I am, it really made me value what I have. I have realised that even the small things we do can have a big positive impact on somebody’s life, and the more of this you see, the more you want to give.
I have now gained a place at Hull University training to be a midwife and feel the Doula project has helped me on this route. It has given me a fantastic foundation and I hope I can become a good midwife and value the principles I gained being a Doula. I still volunteer as a back up when I have the time and am in touch with the team attending the evening training sessions.
Many thanks for the experience and the opportunity to be involved in the project!!
Sarah
