Sarah The Doula

 You Know you're a doula when...

Although the doula is a fairly recent addition to the birth room, the job description is actually hundreds of years old. So, as the title suggests, here is a list of things that us 'modern day' doulas can relate to.

You know you're a doula when:

• You crave the company of likeminded females. You need that tribe in your life.

• Your 6 year old child is offering babywearing advice to strangers.

• You tell someone what you do and they reply with 'You’re a what?' Followed by, 'Oh! So kind of like a midwife?' Sigh.

• The birth pause. Oh my god the birth pause!

• There's an abundance of hummus at shared lunches and workshops.

• You are so devoted to supporting your client that you don't realise you've gone 15 hours with no food.

• Your children play football with your knitted boob.

•Seriously, the birth pause.

•Your insurance company doesn't know which job title box to tick.

•You want to worship random baby bumps in the middle of the street.

•You do worship gorgeous postpartum bellies, and admire the stretch marks and fading linea negras.

•You can tell if someone is about to go into labour because the energy is different.

•Your menstrual cycle is all over the place.

•You can sleep through anything, except for 'the call'.

•You connect, heal and love over just one cup of tea.

•You feel like you've done this job before, but not in this life.

•You make awesome plans with friends.....birth depending of course.

•Your family check to see if you're home by looking to see if your doula bag is there.

•Your main priority is the family you support, they are every second thought and they mean the world to you.

•Your Facebook page is full of articles, empowering memes and events like breastfeeding cafe openings, sling library meets and hospital tea parties. Your friends with no interest in children stopping following you a loooooong time ago.

•You can totally justify spending money on those crystals....you needed them for your doula bag, right?

•You use your rebozo for everything. Trolley seat belts, blankets, scarfs, catching placentas...

•You don't ever stop learning, you take away something new from each birth you support and each mother and family you work with.

•You see the beauty in everything birth has to offer. The sound a labouring mother makes, the silence and darkness of her birth space, the strength in her legs as she squats with every surge and the tears of a new father.

•You can wash, get dressed and get in the car in 9 minutes.

•You don't think of being a doula as a job, or a hobby, it's a calling, and it was a part of you before you knew what a doula was.