The Path That Chose Me

The journey I have taken to get to this point has been the accumulation of all my life experiences.

My love for birth started as a young farm girl.

Life and birth and the endless cycles of the seasons were my world.

Every spring was calving season with 250 cows all giving birth within two months. I was called “the watcher” because I would sit and wait patiently for hours, even all day, for a cow to give birth.

As I crouched there in the hay and just talked calmly, I began to notice the cow’s birthing rituals. First times calvers were afraid and would snort and breathe faster, and then they would go off by themselves. Usually two older cows would follow, taking turns going over to the new mother-to-be, standing near her, softly mooing, answering her moans. If any of the cows felt that they were being watched, and especially if strangers were near, their labors would stop. I learned a lot about birth from these seasons.

I also loved human birth and I would lay my hands on the pregnant bellies of my mother’s friends and the church ladies, and predict if they were having a boy or girl. Usually I was right and the women told me I had a gift. I marveled at the little kicks of tiny feet and the flutterings I would feel against my hands. When I would meet the babies after they were born, they were already familiar to me. I listened to every detail of their birth stories and hung on every word.

Soon after the birth of my second daughter, a friend of mine invited me to be present at her first birth; a home-birth! I couldn’t believe how brave she was having her first baby at home. She went into labor on a foggy and ethereal Christmas night. I walked into the house and it was lit up with candles. She was naked sitting cross-legged on her bed, glowing and rocking and chanting "ohm." In fact everyone was chanting ohm, and the whole room was reverberating. It was incredible. I was on my knees at the foot of the bed beside the midwife, tears running down my cheeks. I watched the midwife guarding my friend from tearing, and gently helping the baby’s head to ease out. She untangled the cord from the baby’s neck with lightning speed, and then gracefully slid the slippery new-born onto her mother’s belly. I thought there could never be any thing that I was ever meant to do; other than catch babies.

After this epiphany I took my doula training, and began to attend home and hospital births. I have been blessed, sharing this wondrous time with many beautiful families. It has been a marvel watching the transformations that happen in a woman, as she becomes a Mother. Being a doula is an incredibly rewarding experience. It is not without challenge, waking up in the middle of the night, driving through snow storms, to rub the back of a laboring woman until my arms ache; but nothing can compare to hearing the first cry of a wet baby and hearing a mother exclaim, “I did it!”

After ten years of doula-ing, I am now a student midwife. My philosophies have changed over time; they have grown and deepened, and become a reflection of my own personal commitments and values. The most important thing I can offer a woman is my devoted service... to serve her with a joyful heart, loving, gentle hands, a clear mind, and humility. It is important for me to be ever mindful that every woman I serve will carry this healing birth energy into her motherhood and will pass it on for generations.

Every woman deserves to be held in safeness and acceptance. Every woman walks her own path and it is not my job to steer her, only to shine the light that she may see her options. I have heard it said that “if you don’t know your options, you don’t have any”. I believe this to be true, and I believe that every mother makes the best decisions for herself and her baby given the opportunity and support to do so. A woman will always remember the birth of her children, and as one of the most sacred passages she will make as a woman. I am honored to be by her side, and to be called doula, and soon, midwife.

By Hippy Fisher