Bamboola Baby

I view labor and birth as a very natural, precious and sacred process which should be celebrated and protected, rather than feared. Mothers and their babies should be treated with respect and dignity and should be allowed to make decisions about everything they will experience during labor and birth. I believe in the woman’s ability to create life, carry and nurture her baby in the womb, birth her baby safely, as well as her ability to provide her child with the most nutritious food and loving care. I trust her body to do all these important and beautiful tasks. I know her body simply won’t fail her during labor. Because she is not a failure. She is a fearless mother armed with love, capable of much more than she herself is aware of. She is an active participant in her own labor and remains in charge of the situation. She is strong.

“There is power that comes to women when they give birth. They don’t ask for it, it simply invades them. Accumulates like clouds on the horizon and passes through, carrying the child with it.”

– Sheryl Feldman

Unfortunately, this is not how local hospitals approach birthing. To them, the vulnerable birthing mother is yet another client they want to quickly “process” through the Labor & Delivery Room, or worse – the Operating Room in half of the cases. They do not trust the woman’s body and assume it will fail. Instead, they put their trust in monitors and drugs to do the work for her. They make her a passive, obedient patient. They rarely care about the laboring woman as a person, nor do they care about her & her baby’s physiological and emotional needs and they certainly won’t remember her. However, she most certainly will remember all of the details from her labor and birth forever, as this will be the most memorable, the most intense, and the most special moment in her life.

“If we are to heal the planet, we must begin by healing birthing.”

– Agnes Sallet Von Tannenberg

{education & background}

After attending a competitive preparatory school for 7 years, I studied Construction & Design alongside Economy & Management at the prestigious University of Technology in Brno, Czech Republic and graduated with a Master’s Degree in Engineering. Immediately upon graduation I was offered a job as a designer at Gifford, a leading UK engineering and environmental consulting company. Though I loved my job, eventually I made the decision to follow my heart and moved across the Atlantic to be with my soon-to-be-husband after 5 years of a long-distance relationship. New country presented new opportunities and opened doors to new career pathways. I actively volunteered for Sunflower Children and worked in real estate and property management in New York City. However, it was not until my son’s birth when my career took a drastic, yet a very refreshing turn. Faced with the reality of nonexistent maternity leave, I made the decision to forgo my corporate job and stay at home with my son. The absence of corporate structure allowed me to explore my creative side which was suppressed by the analytical engineering part of my brain for far too many years. It was liberating to rediscover myself and I was ready to see where it could take me. I opened an Etsy shop where I started selling my handmade creations and had been nibbling on the idea of becoming a birth doula. The birth of my son truly changed me in every single way and I found a new passion in life. I wanted to help other women the same way my doula helped me on my way to a beautiful, peaceful, natural birth. I knew I could be good at it if I gave it my heart. So I signed up with DONA International and completed the training and before I knew it I was attending birthing moms in labor, watching other people’s miracles unfold before my eyes. Soon enough I realized I wanted to reach more people and help more women on their way to a more satisfying birth and decided to train with Lamaze International as a childbirth educator.

Currently, I work as a designer at Houseplay Renovations – local family-run business focusing on high-quality home renovations. At Houseplay I found what I thought couldn’t be found: a satisfying job in my field allowing me the flexibility to work from home, around my children’s schedules and around my doula clients. Perhaps it is because both Tammy and Niall (wife/husband company owners) value the sacred process of birth and attachment parenting, which is what brought us together in the first place. I feel very fortunate to be on HPR team and do the job I love alongside people I call friends.

This is feeding my soul more than any corporate bonus ever could. I know this is what I was meant to do, what I was meant to be. This is my life and my career – it took years to discover all the little pieces and put the puzzle together but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

{professional certifications}

• Birth Doula certification with DONA International (2012/2013)
• Lamaze Childbirth Educator certification with Lamaze International (2013/2014)
• Workshop: “Undisturbing Birth – The Science and The Wisdom” with Dr. Sarah Buckley, focusing on the role of intimacy, privacy and safety and their impact on hormonal orchestration during labor & birth as well as breastfeeding (September 2014)