Jessica, I was introduced to you through a friend who raved about you so highly! I can easily say you lived up to the hype and made a difficult delivery so much easier having you by my side or really leg (as you were holding my leg through all my pushing). Tell us a little about yourself! What led you in the direction of becoming a doula?
Well, I’m a mother of two little girls, 15 months and 4 years, and that alone takes up most of my time! I love to read and I’m passionate about advocating for reproductive health for Houston’s LGBTQ community and reducing the maternal mortality rate among women of color. I’ve worked as a doula for close to ten years now and as of a few days ago I’ve helped welcome 375 babies into the world. I started out as medical assistant at the University of Texas Maternal Health clinics and fell in love with working with moms and babies. The group I worked with had midwives for low risk pregnancies and OB’s and MFM’s (Maternal Fetal Medicine) for higher risk folks. It was a balance of physiological birth and medical intervention when needed. I started attending births “for fun” and was really shocked at how little emotional support women were receiving during labor but was unsure how to help. Fast forward 10 years and I decided that it was time to make the leap into a calling I never forgot about. Now here we are 10 years later.