Brandy Keener

We picked our doula about a month ago and had our second and final pre-labor meeting.  Her name is Melissa Jean Haskins and she is with Renaissance Doulas  in Portland, OR.   Because life and birth are so mysterious they always team up in pairs.  Our back up doula is named Erica Matteson and she is the owner and founder of Renaissance Doulas.  Both women are experienced doulas and mothers themselves which is exactly what I was craving.  One cool part of having a doula is that they go on call 2 weeks before your due date and stay on call until you have your baby.  It feels good to have someone who’ll be available for questions, pre-labor support and anything else that might pop up.

We met at our house to discuss our Birth Plan and ask any last questions before D-Day.  After signing the contract and paying our initial fee to hold our May 10th victory date we chatted about our ideal birth process.  We realize that flexibility and health are the most important part of any birth process.  Our birth wishes (or plan) are super low key.  Music-yes. Low lights-yes. Epidural-maybe. Immediate bonding with baby Kai-yes. Positive word choices-yes, please!

We each had one more burning question…

Of course, like many first time moms I wanted to know more about contractions and delivery.  I liked their review of timing the contractions and when we should call them.  They said anytime was a good time to call and they’d rather be in the loop even if it’s braxton hicks.  Erica suggested we  download the iphone contraction app for $1.  As we were chatting about the birth process the sacred mirror came up.  I’m pretty sure I won’t be interested in mirror motivation but suppose anything is possible.  Melissa suggested that after pushing for some time I could become interested in viewing my “progress.”  Yeah, maybe that makes sense to me.  For another visual, Erica compared the stretching of the Vah-Jay-Jay during delivery to a turtleneck sweater.  Hmmm.  Interesting.

Sean wanted to know if they recommended looking at the “south side” of things during the pushing part.  Lately, we’ve had a few friends who recommended staying North for post baby “sexual safety.”  Some guys have mentioned to Sean that being at the lower end of things can be upsetting down the road.  Of course, our doulas suggested that we do what we feel comfortable with and that viewing a live birth is a beautiful thing from any angle.  Erica thought because of his personality he wouldn’t be able to help himself.  I’m sure we’ll look back at these silly questions and laugh because we have no idea how awesome this experience will be.

Bottom line is “we shall see.”

Tags: baby, Doula, maternity