ABOUT ME {a letter to you}
Dear Mamma,
Birth is historically communal and yet profoundly, personally transformative. Women have supported women from generation to generation to birth and nourish life. As a doula, I aim to reconnect to these traditions and am committed to walk with you through each moment, breath, doubt, smile, fear and burst of joy with nonjudgmental care and loving support. I am continually inspired in my work by the ways women embody and harness their power beyond their imagined potential. My wish for you is to look back on this process with blissful awe knowing you were heard, seen, valued, loved, respected and celebrated in every step.
I believe there is room for compassion, respect and calm in every birth. To infuse love into every action is my deepest calling to service.
THE HEART OF MY WORK
Through the lens of yoga and mindfulness, I seek to empower mammas to be informed and active participants in their birth experience while growing in confidence as parents. By weaving breath awareness, centering tools and comfort measures, you will be supported to trust in the power of your intuitive body and view each step as a part of a greater whole. Within this broader continuum of care, I provide educational resources and interweave aspects of nutrition, breastfeeding and postpartum self-care while creating space for psycho-emotional processing.
I respect the unique processes of self-empowerment and the human right to birth with dignity in any desired setting. I support all mothers of all socio-economic backgrounds. It is my deepest honor to accompany families through this journey and contribute in some small way to the collective uplifting of mothers.
When I am not doula-ing... I am committed to strengthening communities around global health and gender equality within international development (particularly around maternal and newborn health and nutrition), practicing yoga, volunteering in my community and dreaming of a lush veggie garden and a mountain top meditation.
BACKGROUND & TRAINING
I am a certified birth doula, lactation counselor and prenatal yoga teacher with specialized training in nutrition, trauma and early childhood education. Below are a few of my educational foundations:
- Certified Professional Labor Doula (CLD), DONA International & ToLabor
- Certified Professional Postpartum Doula (CPD), DONA International (current)
- Certified Lactation Counselor, Academy of Lactation Policy & Practice (ALPP)
- Certified 500Hr Trauma-Informed Yoga Therapy Teacher, Yoga Alliance
- Certified Prenatal Yoga Teacher, Yoga Alliance
- Certified Children's Yoga & Mindfulness Teacher, YoKid & ChildLight Yoga
- Spinning Babies Advanced Training Course, Spinning Babies
- Childhood Sexual Abuse and its Impact on the Woman in Later Childbearing with Penny Simpkin
- Holding Space for Pregnancy Loss Trainer- Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death
- Birth Story Healing, Birthing from Within
- HypnoBirthing: The Mongan Method, HypnoBirthing International
- Supporting Teens During Pregnancy, Community of Hope & Gabriel Network
- Global Nutrition Certification, Masters Program of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy
- Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (Specialized in Gender, Humanitarian Studies & Conflict Resolution), The Fletcher School, Tufts University
LOCATIONS
I support mothers and families throughout the Greater Washington, DC Area - including Fairfax, Arlington, Falls Church, Annandale, Alexandria, Fair Oaks, Manassas, District of Columbia (DC), Shady Grove and Baltimore. I have experience locally within any birth environments, particularly hospitals and birth centers. See my availability >
Most of the year I spend in the United States; however my passion for maternal health also leads me to support English-speaking mothers in Germany (Frankfurt), Armenia (Yerevan) and midwives in the Middle East. I prioritize the care of each mother and seek to uplift and support her to birth with confidence in all circumstances and environments.
