Custom Search It was the winter of 1982, in a class called Life after High School when Lally Stowell, my teacher at Watertown High School, had two young midwives to come in as guest speakers- Valerie Hodenius and Trudy Cox. They told us all about their profession, what it entailed and the philosophy behind it. As they spoke, a light went off over my head! What they said made so much sense! These were the answers to the questions I had been asking my mother since I was nine years old! Nothing had ever hit me like this before! This is what I wanted to do! How could I have gone so long without ever knowing this was an option! I soon found myself reading everything I could on the subject. I changed my schedule for senior year adding biology classes in hopes that I would be able to get into nursing school. In the spring of 1984 I was accepted into UMass Boston's nursing school.

My fascination with babies didn't end there and soon I found myself pregnant(not at all a surprise!) All thoughts of college got put on hold, for now. I was having a baby and I couldn't have been happier! School could wait a year or two, now was time for planning the birth of my child. I got a job as a teacher at a The Children's Corner in Watertown and began my new life. My first prenatal was with an antiquated obstetrician who didn't see eye to eye with me on anything. I very succinctly told him what my plans and desires were for this birth and said I would not be using him again! I knew I wanted a to deliver with a midwife, someone with similar thoughts and values as I had and would respect my decisions and desires. I called Valerie Hodenius at the newly opened Midwifery practice at Mount Auburn Hospital and made my first appointment with her.

That August day in 1984, Valerie saw a "pimply faced little teenager" (as she later put it) walk into her office. As she spoke of all different aspects of pregnancy, I kept piping in with "I read about that" and went on to say all I knew. She was duly impressed. At the end of the visit, she said to me "Well! You know more about your body than most 40 year old women!" Valerie and I had already begun forming a bond. In March of 1985, a month before my 19th birthday, my daughter Caty was born. Her labor started at 4:20AM and she came at 8:40PM. I was determined to have a natural birth, and I did! I used no drugs, I needed no episiotomy and I did not tear. It was a wonderful experience-empowering and beautiful! Valerie was with me the whole time, as well as a wonderful woman who worked for her, Melissa Apperson. Although the word "doula" hadn't been coined yet, Melissa was my doula. I know that Valerie and Melissa's loving guidance and support, as well as my hunger for a natural birth was what allowed me to have such a wonderful experience.

Valerie's support didn't end there, over the next few years she was an infinite source of knowledge. A couple times, she called me when newspapers and television programs wanted to interview parents who had chosen midwives. She was my staunchest supporter and often said "just because someone is a young mother, doesn't make them a bad mother!" She had so much faith in my ability to be a good parent. I stayed at home with Caty until she was one and a half and then I returned to work at the Children’s Corner. When Caty was a little older she joined me down there and we would go to work together. In the spring of 1987 I began to notice moms with two kids more and more. I was time to have another baby and soon I was pregnant with my son Jeff. Jeff was born in February 1988. I went into labor with him at 2:30am and delivered him five hours later. Once again with an all natural delivery with Valerie!

As soon as Jeff was born, I set to work getting licensed as a family daycare provider. Within less than four months of my son's birth I was licensed getting new kids! For the next six years I thoroughly enjoyed doing this work. I had a great group of kids, most of which stayed with me for years. When all the kids began to go off to kindergarten, I decided it was time for me to go back to school too. Nursing school at this time was just beyond my reach, so I found a program with a similar course load, “Biotechnology”. I went to school in the mornings while the kids were away and still operated the daycare in the afternoons. In June of 1994 I graduated from Aquinas College.

The day of my finals, I had a job interview with a little upstart company called GelTex. I immediately got hired, and the pay and benefits were too good to pass up. A few weeks later I closed my daycare and became a “working mother”. My career in science was born. I had a lot of fun in the early days working there. It was a high energy company, with a lot of wonderful scientists. I learned so much from working there and made many new friends. I stayed at GelTex (which later got acquired by Genzyme) for the next 11 years. The newness of the experience wore off over the years and the high energy slowed to a crawl. I was good at my job, but science was not my calling and the corporate life was not for me either. The dreams of midwifery seemed so far back now I didn't feel they would ever come true. I began to look for answers. Its pretty incredible when you ask with an open heart, the Universe answers pretty quickly!

In July 2002 my friends Peter and Kat had their first baby, Maryn. It had been a while since any of my friends had a little one, and I had been away from the 'birthing scene' for quite some time. And then on Halloween 2003 after a long night of costumes and fun with my friends, my life changed. Maryn was a little over a year old at the time (the same age her little sister Bryn is now) and Kat was still very close to her own birthing experience. Kat was the one who told me something I had never heard before- the word “doula”. How did I go all these years without knowing doulas existed? Do you actually mean I can do this -NOW?

The next day I found DONA and I ordered the certification packet. I immediately got to work. Nine months after the first time I heard the word, I was a DONA Certified doula! And in another nine months I quit my day job to work exclusively as a doula! What started as a path to midwifery came full circle when I became a doula. I have added to my skills since becoming a doula. I attended Hands of Light, Midwifery School in 05-06, I become certified in HypnoBirthing through the HypnoBirthing institute in August 05 with Mickey (Marie) Mongan. I am reiki II certified by Janaki Clancy. I once read that you cannot truly be a medicine woman until your children are grown and your focus shifts outward. With Caty living in her own apartment here in town and and Jeff a United States Marine, they no longer need the attention they once did. Now I can take great joy in helping new mothers begin their journey. I value the roll of the doula with a great respect. My desires to be in this field are as strong as they were sitting in that classroom in 1982. I feel as if I am finally home! To be able to serve women when they are both at their strongest and their most vulnerable is a great honor. It is one that I will not take lightly

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