About the Doula
Hi! I'm happy you're here! I'm Melissa, a lactation counselor and doula who provides services from fertility through postpartum and Birth Processing sessions. I work through an evidence-based, trauma-informed and mindful lens in all that I do. I am also Mama to the sweetest, brightest light in my life, a little boy named Grey. Parenting him has been my greatest joy, and birthed me into the best version of myself.
It is my hope to bring heart and spirit to the full range of doula and breastfeeding services I provide. I have trained with Childbirth International for lactation and with Bebo Mia for my fertility, birth, and postpartum doula certification. I chose these highly sought after programs because they honor all humans and value lived experience. They resonated with my core values of social justice, human rights, and trauma-lens support in these beautiful stages of human experience. I have trained in psychology at Widener University and Chestnut Hill College. I am currently enrolled in Birth Story Medicine's Birth Story Listener program to deepen my work in birth processing.
I have spent 20 years in the trauma counseling field. I founded a nonprofit to holistically help survivors on their healing journey through arts, yoga and movement. I have trained hundreds of yoga instructors, studio owners, and birth and breastfeeding professionals to operate from a trauma-informed lens. I bring my background in gentle care and support to birth work, where it is so greatly needed. Each person entering into the parenting journey carries with them a history, and sometimes that history includes difficult pieces of trauma. I believe that each person, regardless of history, should be cared for from a trauma-informed lens-- a lens that assumes nothing, gives choice, respects consent, and honors the birthing person and baby's spirit above all else.
Birth is human. Birth is sacred. Entering into the parenting journey deserves grace and care. I am here to help amplify your beautiful, brave voice and support you in reaching the experiences you want. Whether you are a survivor who would appreciate a hand to hold during appointments, a couple or individual looking for support and information on the fertility journey, a person hoping for someone to help with relief during labor and birth, care for you and baby in the early postpartum days, a breastfeeding person needing support, or someone seeking the sacred experience in any of these things, I am here and grateful to talk to you more about how I can help. I look forward to connecting with you. <3
It is my hope to bring heart and spirit to the full range of doula and breastfeeding services I provide. I have trained with Childbirth International for lactation and with Bebo Mia for my fertility, birth, and postpartum doula certification. I chose these highly sought after programs because they honor all humans and value lived experience. They resonated with my core values of social justice, human rights, and trauma-lens support in these beautiful stages of human experience. I have trained in psychology at Widener University and Chestnut Hill College. I am currently enrolled in Birth Story Medicine's Birth Story Listener program to deepen my work in birth processing.
I have spent 20 years in the trauma counseling field. I founded a nonprofit to holistically help survivors on their healing journey through arts, yoga and movement. I have trained hundreds of yoga instructors, studio owners, and birth and breastfeeding professionals to operate from a trauma-informed lens. I bring my background in gentle care and support to birth work, where it is so greatly needed. Each person entering into the parenting journey carries with them a history, and sometimes that history includes difficult pieces of trauma. I believe that each person, regardless of history, should be cared for from a trauma-informed lens-- a lens that assumes nothing, gives choice, respects consent, and honors the birthing person and baby's spirit above all else.
Birth is human. Birth is sacred. Entering into the parenting journey deserves grace and care. I am here to help amplify your beautiful, brave voice and support you in reaching the experiences you want. Whether you are a survivor who would appreciate a hand to hold during appointments, a couple or individual looking for support and information on the fertility journey, a person hoping for someone to help with relief during labor and birth, care for you and baby in the early postpartum days, a breastfeeding person needing support, or someone seeking the sacred experience in any of these things, I am here and grateful to talk to you more about how I can help. I look forward to connecting with you. <3
That moment when you realize you will never be the same... |
|
The day you arrived,
as my belly was emptied,
my chest filled and sustained us both.
My breasts weighted and my heart flew.
Our eyes locked, and I grew nervous,
already feeling so undeserving.
Suddenly, this immediate, intense love
washed over my being and up the walls.
Your lungs calmed,
our eyes truly saw one another.
Both as raw as the inside out.
Internally intertwined, Earthside.
Heart to heart,
skin to skin,
I promised you in that moment
that I wouldn't ever stop trying.
I don't know what I'm doing.
I don't think I ever will,
but I know I won't stop.
Because I love you.
Because I am you and you are me.
Because you will forever be
mine.
-shawna sabedra @chawlady
from "Mama, bare:
the birth of mother"
as my belly was emptied,
my chest filled and sustained us both.
My breasts weighted and my heart flew.
Our eyes locked, and I grew nervous,
already feeling so undeserving.
Suddenly, this immediate, intense love
washed over my being and up the walls.
Your lungs calmed,
our eyes truly saw one another.
Both as raw as the inside out.
Internally intertwined, Earthside.
Heart to heart,
skin to skin,
I promised you in that moment
that I wouldn't ever stop trying.
I don't know what I'm doing.
I don't think I ever will,
but I know I won't stop.
Because I love you.
Because I am you and you are me.
Because you will forever be
mine.
-shawna sabedra @chawlady
from "Mama, bare:
the birth of mother"