My First 50 Births

 Last month, I attended my 50th birth as a doula! Exciting stuff, right? I can think of something unique that I’ve learned from each and every one of those births. Each mama and family I worked with was so amazing. It’s been such an honor and privilege to work with each and every one of them. I thought I’d share a quick run down of facts from those first 50 births!

1. All the stars aligned and magically I ended up with exactly 25 girl doula babies and 25 boy doula babies! I was sure before I started counting that I’d have more boys than girls, but it looks like all just evened out perfectly. The first two years of my doula career I only had 6 girls all total and 16 boys. My third year as a doula I had more than twice as many girls born than the other two years combined. I’m on my 4th year as a doula, and so far it’s only brought one boy doula baby! Also, fun fact, birth number 51 was a boy baby, and number 52 a girl, so for now the even amount remains!
2. I’ve attended 30 hospital births, 13 birth center births, and 7 home births. I’ve been fortunate enough to attend births at every hospital in the area and both birth centers!
3. Check out the list of awesome names. I’ve had three repeat names, Jackson, Eleanor, and Frances.
4. The birth I attended with the smallest baby was birth #10. This sweet girl was 5 pounds, 8 ounces. Ironically enough, birth #11 brought me the biggest baby at 10 pounds 1 ounce. I had been a doula right at a year for those two births, and so far they are both holding strong at smallest and biggest.
5. I had the privilege of attending the births of 23 first time moms, 14 second time moms, 8 third time moms, 4 fourth time moms, and 1 fifth time mom. Fun fact: One of my third time mamas had only given birth once before, and another of my third time mamas had never given birth ;-)
6. I had six repeat clients, which are always so much fun! I have another repeat client scheduled to give birth later this year to make seven.
7. I had nine different couples wait until the birth to find out the sex of their baby
8. I attended nine births with three different birth photographers. I attended a whopping seven births with Amanda Ditzel from Raleigh Birth Photography. I attended one birth with Kira Grantz from Blessed Reflections Photography and one birth with Autumn Poitinger from Autumn’s photography.
9. At least 11 of those 50 babies were rainbow babies. It always such a privilege to attend a rainbow baby’s birth. Loss mamas hold a special place in my heart <3
10. I attended 12 VBACs in my first 50 births! I LOVE VBACs! It is so incredible and such an honor to help a woman prepare for her vaginal birth after cesarean. Many times these women have had really difficult, traumatic previous births and feel like their bodies have failed them. There’s nothing more amazing than to watch them become empowered and gain that love and faith in themselves and their bodies and all that it is capable of doing <3 Also, birth #51 was the very first VBA2C that I attended. Mama most definitely rocked it, and I enjoyed every minute of supporting her!
    

 July will mark 4 years since I attended my very first birth as a doula. It’s been an incredible and amazing four years. I’ve learned countless things and have grown and gained more knowledge from each birth and from every mama I’ve had the honor of supporting. I’ve worked with some really talented and wonderful midwives, OBs, and nurses. I also managed to give birth to my second child within that time frame. I’m looking forward to the next 50 births and hitting the 100 births attended milestone in a few years. A huge thank you to every single one of my clients! Being with you as you welcomed your newest family member into the world was such an incredible honor, and I will forever appreciate you allowing me into your birth space <3