Teacher Hagan recounts her and her husband's experience choosing Janel to support them for the birth of their son Arthur.
Ed, Hagan and their newborn son Arthur.
I am so glad we chose Janel to be our birth doula. Her experience and gentle guidance proved to be invaluable to us as first time parents.
In her prenatal visits, Janel talked us through what to expect and how to prepare in a personalized way that complemented our birth classes and supported our preferences. She led us to cultivate an attitude of optimism and positivity surrounding our upcoming labor.
During the labor itself Janel was essential. We found out at 36 weeks that I had cholestasis and would need an induction at 37 weeks. Janel helped us to prepare for this, offering reassurance and sharing experience with the condition and with common steps of induction.
On the scheduled induction day, to everyone's surprise, I went into labor naturally at home! Janel talked me through the early stages by text and phone call, confirming the signs with me and offering encouragement. She met my husband and me at the hospital at the scheduled time, and our midwives confirmed that I was indeed in active labor and would not need induction. Janel and my husband helped me to use many of the comfort techniques we had discussed and practiced in our prenatal meetings to manage the pain for several hours without medication until we were 100% effaced and 4cm dilated. Touch, massage, dim lighting, music, warm water in the shower, changing of positions, verbal affirmations, reassurances, and encouragement.
When I became exhausted and our midwife recommended an epidural to allow for rest and gathering of strength for pushing, Janel supported my decision to get one, once again offering her experience with similar scenarios as guidance and reassurance. When the epidural was in and I was able to rest a little more, Janel and my husband were able to take turns napping - something my husband recalls as extremely helpful to both of them so that they could be more refreshed for the final stage.
When my water broke and showed meconium, Janel kept me calm and listened to the midwife's instructions about carefully monitoring the baby's heart rate: if it dipped at all, it would signal surgery- something I had very much wanted to avoid. Janel helped me to move slightly every few minutes in a way that seemed to encourage baby's heart rate and the progression of labor. She also helped me and the nurse keep the monitors strapped on correctly. Janel talked to me about what I was feeling when pressure intensified and called the midwife at the right moment to start the pushing phase. With their coaching on breathing, our baby emerged after only 20 minutes of pushing!
Janel stayed for the immediate recovery, offering praise, taking photos, and assessing my state. She continued to stay in touch by text over our hospital recovery period and first few days at home. Her postpartum visits at 1 week and 2 weeks offered welcome advice on nutrition, breastfeeding, and physical and emotional recovery.
We were Janel's 86th birth, and it is this experience that we (as first time parents) so appreciated throughout our birth process. My husband is incredible, but having someone like Janel in the room who has navigated everything before supported both of us: helping him to help me, giving us both confidence in our decisions, and reassuring us that what was happening at each stage was "normal." My midwives are also incredible, but they have many patients and are not able to give such focused attention to one. For these reasons, I highly recommend that first time parents hire a doula with experience to join their birth team, and Janel is awesome! We are forever grateful to her for helping to make our son Arthur's birth as smooth, calm, healthy, and positive as possible. Thank you Janel!!!