I promised I'd be back! I have been enjoying my long break from school and have used that time to spend alot of time being a doula, so this has been a busy month for me.
First of all, I have clients! The couple I mentioned in my previous post was a good fit and they have hired me for their birth in January. I also have booked a birth in November that I will be doing as part of a team with my friend and fellow doula Samara. She had been hired by them already, but then was offered a long-term substitute teaching position for the fall. Since she has a Masters in Education and is going to try to go back to work next year, she couldn't turn it down. So...now with her limited daytime hours, she asked me to step in as a front-line back up. Basically, I'll show up to the birth regardless, and if it's during a time she can come, we'll both be there. I got to meet the couple and we all seemed to like each other, so I feel good about that one too. I may be doing a scheduled c-section birth in November also. I still need to have a real discussion with the Mom, but she may be willing to do the prental and postnatal visits and let me be with her at the hospital, so I can get that 3rd birth in and get the certification completed sooner.
Other "getting clients" news...I put together a couple hand-outs for people planning a pregnancy, currently pregnant, or new moms and dads for our church Health and Wellness bulletin board. The coordinator is also letting me post a flyer and business cards on my doula services. That will be the October health focus for church. Today, I dropped hand-out size flyers and a stack of business cards in the mail to a couple of the practices in towns where midwives deliver and a couple OB offices that I saw with good reviews about supporting natural childbirth here in town. Hopefully, they'll set them out for patients and not send them straight to the trash. I still plan to take some flyers and business cards to the big maternity store, Babies R Us and Whole Foods to see if I can post them or leave a stack. I haven't quite mustered up the courage on that one yet.
I put together my doula bag with just a few more items needed to have it ready to be "on call." I also created a list of what to pack for the hospital that I can share with my moms. For my January mom I also did some research on a variety of topics. So now I have some good articles scanned and printed so I have information to provide as part of the "Informational Support" role of being a good doula. I also read the Belly Mapping Handbook which gave some good ideas and a resource should I have a mom that has malpositioning issues.
As for loose ends on certification requirements, I'm trying to knock as many of those out as possible, so after I get the births in, I'll be ready to send in my materials. I keep putting off the writing of the Value of Labor Support essay, but I do want to finish it before school starts in a week, so I'll get to it. The biggest accomplishment that I've made is the development of my resource list. The requirement is at least 45 resources in 30 categories. I have 71 resources in 25 categories. I have 32 categories total, but some are still empty. I then took some of the key categories and put them on a resource page on my website. That took much more time than I expected, but I feel really good about it. I finished reading the Complete Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth, so only one book left on the reading list. I also took a 3-hour online breastfeeding class as required.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with how things are going. I had hoped with my training in June that I'd be ready for certification this year, but things seem a bit slow to start. I like that I have 2 on the calendar and at least a lead on the third. I'm also hopeful that some of the local things I'm doing will have an impact. As of right now, I think I'd love someone due late December, so I could do the birth without missing any school. Other than that, I could be available for a February or March. I'll be precepted for clinicals, so it won't be as big of a deal to reschedule them if I need to miss (and if I already miss a day for the January birth). I also could do a couple births during Spring quarter, as I won't have clinicals at all while I'm preparing/taking the NCLEX. Eric is supportive of this and even though scheduling can be tough on him, he knows this is good for me and my eventual career.
Next update in October!
