Today was the day when I graduated the Abuela Doula’s Preparation course.  I know what your thinking, am I not already a Recognised Doula, the answer is…. yes, I am!, but you see, I happened to find this lady named Mars Lord to be my mentor and a few months after having her as my mentor and asking why she have not started her own doula prep course, she started up her very own doula preparation course, which was much needed due to the lack of diversity within the U.K doula world.  I was appreciative that she decided to invite me onto her course free of charge.  I knew that this course was going to reflect the different cultures we live amongst and was interested to learn more.

The first day on the courses I noticed I was in a room filled with women of colour, with different cultural backgrounds and here we learnt together, the knowledge was good, all the standard material and information you gain at a doula prep course, but the difference with this course is that I learnt more about different cultural traditions around pregnancy, birth and post-birth.  When I say different, I meant I learnt about, African, Caribbean, Chinese, Asian and more cultural and traditional practices.

Why does this matter?  Because every mother matters, because as a doula you want your client to feel very comfortable with you, you want to know how to best support her and her family, you want to not make her feel isolated in this westernised country/world, you want her to feel at home with you, relaxed around you and not to feel that she has to change any of her beliefs and traditions to suit.

(Abuela means – Grandmother)

This course takes you back to the times when Granny Midwife’s was around, we looked at the history of midwifery and midwifery today.

I definitely learnt somethings that I can bring into my world as a doula, as a mother, as a sister and as a friend.

I’m not 100% sure, but from my knowledge, I think I’m the first to do 2 doula preparation courses and the first to graduate with Abuela Doula’s and here I am standing strong within my role supporting all women and their families to have a positive pregnancy, birth and post-birth experience because this is what I love to do.

I said this year is going to be great and yes, I have started how I mean to continue.  Wish you all a happy new year with new beginnings, achievements and success.