Sharon rankIt is important to me that every family has the opportunity to have the birth they desire. My hope is to be a source of encouragement and support in that experience.
I have been a birth doula since 2013, and a childbirth educator for 7 1/2 years. I live northeast of Pittsburgh with my husband and our five children. My first birth ended in a non-emergent cesarean. It was not traumatic, but just was not the birth I was hoping for, and I wondered how it could have gone differently. I thought I had done everything right in my preparation for the birth, but have since come to realize that there is no ‘right way’ to give birth, which was a very freeing revelation for me, and something I now share with pretty much every pregnant person I meet :) My first birth experience was instrumental in my decision to become a doula; it created a passion in me for helping women and their families during the birth of their babies. I had my second, third, and fourth baby at home with a midwife (vaginal birth after cesarean) and with my last, I went into labor 6 weeks early, which meant a hospital birth and a premature baby who spent a few weeks in the NICU. As a c-section mom, a VBAC mom, and now a NICU mom, all of my birth experiences have been unique and different in their own way, and I believe have made me a stronger doula. The thing they have in common is that I was always supported, and I now realize how priceless a doulas’ presence can be when you are in the midst of such a special life-changing experience. I believe that birth is natural and what our bodies were uniquely designed to do, but birth is also beautiful when a mom can look back and know that she did everything she could, she was heard, and that she was respected, no matter how that birth unfolds. Thank you for the amazing opportunity of being a part of your story. |
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