My journey of becoming a doula

My journey of becoming a postpartum doula began with my own birth and postpartum experience in Texas as a Japanese.

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When I gave birth to my first daughter, I was about to enter my 10th year of living in the United States, and I had gotten used to life here and had worked with young children a lot up until then. Even though it was overseas, I wasn't very worried about giving birth and raising a baby of my own for the first time in Texas. However, once my labor started at the hospital, I was given shock after shock by a process of labor and delivery that was completely different from that in Japan; values of the medical staff that conflicted with mine; and a care system that was completely out of my expectation. I vividly remember the moment right after giving birth, with my newborn daughter on my chest, when I whispered to my husband, "I might go into depression." The whole experience was as if my body and mind were treated without kindness or respect.

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On the third day after giving birth, we returned home and began life with the newborn. My entire family lived in Japan, so the only support I had was my husband, who is also from Japan. Looking back, I was never taught how to change diapers, how to bathe a baby, how to swaddle, or how to properly breastfeed. People in this country may say, "You weren't taught because you didn't ask." Yes, I got that. However, I had no strength physically, mentally or emotionally to adequately imagine life with a newborn, foresee what skills and knowledge I would need as a new mom and proactively seek education and support from hospital staff. Even after I was discharged from the hospital, I had many supports around me, including my OB/GYN, pediatricians, lactation counselors, and a nurse call-line. But on top of feeling exhausted every single day, I knew that I would need to struggle with the differences in culture, values, and language wherever I would go for help. My negative experiences during childbirth also led me to distrust and fear medical staff involved in childbirth. So, in the end, I tried to go through my first postpartum season with no one but myself (and my husband). ​​

Regardless of such a rough start, I was blessed with three children back to back. As time went by, I slowly got used to the birth and postpartum system in this country and became able to look back on my past birth experiences. The events that I thought had been traumatic gradually turned into memories that my husband and I can laugh at together. Around that time, I got to know the profession called "postpartum doula'', which specializes in postpartum family support. I immediately felt that this is what I wanted to do - to help families welcome babies overseas; and that is what brought me to where I am today. ​

The more I do this postpartum doula work, the more I am fascinated by this profession. One of the main roles of postpartum doula is to care not only for babies but also mothers and their families. We try to understand the unique needs of each family during the postpartum period and provide services tailored to these needs. In fact, I have received a wide variety of requests from my clients, who wanted to learn baby-care 101, who needed support with older children, who were struggling with severe sleep deprivation, who wanted to switch from bottle feeding to breastfeeding, and even one client who wanted to learn how to make miso soup (a traditional Japanese soup).

When it comes to childbirth and postpartum care, values, desires, and the most suitable methods vary from family to family. I aspire to become a postpartum doula who can kindly, respectfully and wholeheartedly accommodate each family.