So you want to rock your labor and delivery- and specifically you want an unmedicated birth?! Choosing to decline medications or an epidural and birthing a baby without these said drugs isn’t going to be easy- but it can be done. And we’re here to help you prepare!

A DOULA’S PERSPECTIVE

by Jacki Johnston
Indiana Birth & Postpartum childbirth educator, birth & postpartum doula

On November 22, 2022, around 7:00pm, Brianna’s name popped up on my phone. I answered to hear an excited and shocked sweet voice telling me, “My water just broke at Whole Foods!” After gathering more details and laughing together that she had a Hollywood moment, I encouraged her to call her midwife and then call me back.

I don’t typically write about my clients’ births. The stories, timelines, emotions- all of it- belong to them. Not me.

Over the years, one of the most important lessons I’ve learned as a doula is that the person living a birth, physically and emotionally, may experience it very differently from someone witnessing it from the outside. I never want to shape how you feel about your birth or suggest how you should feel. Those emotions are sacred, and they are entirely yours. If you ask me questions, I will always answer honestly, but gently, and with deep respect for your experience.