A Doula for A Doula
I first met Leila at the Community Birth Center in Eustis when I went to her prenatal yoga class. I hadn’t had much time to be as active as I would have liked to have been up until that point during my pregnancy and I knew that my body needed some yoga. I believe I was about 30 weeks when I attended her class.
I enjoyed her class and my body definitely benefited from the flow and movement. I was determined to attend more classes.
I continued to attend as many prenatal yoga classes as I could through the duration of my pregnancy and as a fellow passionista and educator of all things pregnancy and birth, Leila and I enjoyed discussing all things related to birth work.
As the time drew closer to my baby’s birth, she was such a valuable support to talk with about challenges and struggles I was going through.
I was expecting my 6th baby, and this baby would be my 1st V/HBAC after my 2nd c-section. I was no stranger to the birth process, but all the same, birth is unique to each woman and each pregnancy is unique, so Leila’s support was so valuable. 😊
As I went past my “due” date, Leila was wonderfully supportive in suggesting some approaches to try to encourage baby to shift into an ideal position for labor and when labor began, which was the 2nd to last day I would have to go into spontaneous labor without having to transfer to hospital care; Leila was able to come support me through labor.
It was such a blessing to have her along with my midwife and my midwife’s assistant, as the midwife and the midwife assistant were able to attend to the technical aspects of the labor and birth while I had the hands-on and emotional support from Leila.
I had the quickest and smoothest labor and birth out of all my experiences and I am convinced having Leila’s support was a HUGE part of it.
Her passion and devotion to the art of birth work is so beautiful and means so much to those she supports.
I was determined to be very active during my birth and my husband was able to actually sit back, breath, watch and support me while being available for our other 5 children; who were, thankfully, all sleeping as baby arrived a little after 11pm.
Leila’s presence and support gave me peace of mind through labor and birth. Her words of support and her gentle, reassuring touch were exactly what I needed, and she got a good workout for her upper body applying that dynamic hip squeeze on me! 😜
Out of the 6 labor and births I have been through, the ones that hold the fondest memories and felt the best were the ones where I had someone, other than my husband, available to support me and this last birth was the only one where I specifically had a doula and I cannot express enough have valuable that was.
Leila is such a beautiful and passionate person who is so incredibly devoted to lovingly supporting families along their journey through birth.
She was and is such a gift.
Me and my family thank you, Leil