I cannot put into words how grateful my husband and I are to have had Terri as our doula for the arrival of our baby boy. I'll go into more detail, but -- top line take away -- Terri's calming presence, uplifting support, and confidence-inspiring advocacy were the best investment we could have made for our birth experience. Now the longer story...
We were hoping for a birth at the Birth Center of Denver, and after their recommendation and some additional research, I knew I wanted a doula by our side to help us prepare for our birth vision. Admittedly, my husband was a little unsure if a doula was really needed, but he was supportive of my preferences, and so I began the search.
We found Terri through a referral from BCD, and I was impressed by her calming presence, uplifting enthusiasm for birth, and obvious experience. Her soothing energy was instantly apparent to both my husband and I on our zoom introductions, I knew she would be a wonderful addition to our birth team. We made it official, locked in our due date, and checked "find doula" off our list.
As our due date drew closer, Terri helped us prepare and fine tune our birth vision. Her supportive attitude made us feel confident in our preferences and vision, and her guidance helped us prepare some back up plans should our baby boy decide he had a different arrival in mind (he did -- we'll get there). She provided valuable resources as we mentally prepared for labor and delivery, and she was always receptive and uplifting for our questions and very early (false) labor updates.
Well, game day finally arrived and went off the rails right from the start -- we were unexpectedly transferred to the hospital for an induction after our 41 week appointment. Terri was so supportive and responsive as we began our 70 hour long hospital birth marathon, kindly coming for morale support during our intake at the hospital, frequently staying in touch as a slow induction progressed to actual labor, and returning for the last 16 hours to finally welcome our baby boy. She arrived well-prepared with a Mary Poppins bag full of soothing tools, a positive calming attitude, and mama-bear advocacy for me, my husband, and our baby. She helped me cope in the throes of labor, laughed at my (bad) jokes, kept our spirits up with consistent cheerleading, guarded something close to our original birth vision, and helped my husband get some rest when possible. After our baby boy arrived, she also helped me with his initial latch -- such a magic moment that I'll never forget.
It may be cliche, but truly neither my husband nor I could imagine our birth journey without her. And for all you skeptical partners out there, my initially skeptical husband's quick response to anyone questioning a doula is, "Do it, best investment we made during the whole process, hands down." Thank you, Terri, for being such a wonderful partner for all three of us!
Cherry on top of it all: Terri documented our birth journey for us! She captured some incredible photos during the last day of our labor and delivery, something both my husband and I are so grateful for since we were in no shape to be snapping pics. She also wrote up a wonderful birth story for us, documenting the details, emotion, and raw power of the experience. It moved both my husband and I to tears. We are so grateful to have some wonderful visual and written reminders to bring us back to the moment. read more