CARRIAGE HOUSE BIRTH

My interest in birth developed from an early age growing up around a very birth-positive family and community. My mother and I spent time on The Farm in late 70s when I was young, my aunt had a homebirth 34 years ago and another was a homebirth midwife. I have always been a doula although it took me some steps to come to it professionally. I’m also a childbirth educator, doula trainer/mentor, and lactation counselor. In high school, I fell in love with physics and began undergrad in that. I loved it and had an amazing experience in that space. But looking ahead, the careers in physics did not call me. I knew my love of science had to be coupled with the sacred and I started researching midwifery schools. Before I got to midwifery school, I experienced birth for myself and I had two babies in 1998 & 2000. Through that experience, I truly learned the difference between a midwife and a doula and realized it was the emotional, ethereal stratosphere of the doula role that most called me in birth. I began studying for doula work, attending occasional births of friends, and looking forward to going into birth work full time when the time was right. That call came literally in 2010 when a local homebirth midwife and beloved auntie needed an assistant and pulled me into the work. I later completed a doula training but it was my time with a midwife in my ear at so many amazing births that really taught me the ropes. As an NYC native, I feel an extra connection to all my NYC doula babies who are also born here.