our philosophy

Choice, respect and understanding

birth positive ™ doula services focus on facilitating a positive pregnancy and birth experience for childbearing women and their families. We therefore believe in giving our clients choice, respect and understanding.

We believe it's every woman's right and obligation to make informed decisions about her care and the care of her baby. As DONA certified doulas, our training enables us to provide each client with all the information she needs to evaluate properly all the options available to her, including options for the following:

• the delivery environment - in hospital or at home
• labour support - obstetricians, family doctors, midwives, doulas, partners and family members
• pain relief - allopathic medication, homeopathy, herbal remedies, and all the comfort techniques taught and implemented as part of our doula services
• newborn care and feeding - breast or bottle
• clinical procedures for mother and baby.

We don't make our clients' decisions for them, but support them in making their own informed choices.

Support for our clients' choices is a reflection of our respect. While we believe childbirth to be a fundamentally normal process for women, we also recognize birth as a key life experience that the mother will remember all her life, and consider it a privilege to play a role in helping make that experience a positive one.

We're also respectful of cultural differences, and incorporate into our prenatal teachings the importance of culture in shaping the birth experience and assigning its significance. We will respectfully cater to the different cultural traditions that you and your family may practice. We welcome women from all backgrounds, races, religions, ages, physical ability and sexual orientation to access our services.

Respect is given, as well, to special sensitivities that each individual woman may have, which can stem from traumas such as abuse or from unresolved emotions about previous pregnancies and/or births.

Traumatic prior experiences require not only respect, but understanding. We have experience working with survivors of abuse and are sensitive to how such traumas can impact women giving birth. With certification in Crisis Intervention and advocacy work for abused women, we have training to back up our natural compassion.

We also understand how unique each individual pregnancy and birth are. As mothers ourselves, we have direct experience of that. Attending hundreds of births as doulas only deepens that understanding.