Ladies of the Labyrinth

This May will be my 18th year of attending births. It has been a wondrous journey in my life. But one thing that has been difficult as a doula is the unpredictability of being on call. Often times events are postponed and travel is limited. But the other hard part of this is being well rested and ready for the next mom's needs. A doula does not need to go to bed at night hoping the phone will not ring in hopes of getting a full night of rest to be ready for the next call. I have to say, this has happened many times over the past 18 years.

In our group we have several doulas. Some of these doulas either due to other commitments or their family's needs have chosen to take on a dozen or less births a year. They often take the summer off when their children are out of school. This makes for a very relaxed schedule as a doula. There are others in our group who take several clients a month and add to their schedule a host of other responsibilities- not only personally but may also teach classes within our company's services. These are often times the doulas who are the most busy and most tired!

So, in an attempt to allow those doulas to stay busy doing what they love- teaching and supporting several women a month, and be able to give the best doula service to these moms, we have formed the Ladies of the Labyrinth within the company of Labor of Love. This approach will begin in October 2010. We hope it allows couples to determine which approach is right for them.

When you hire an individual doula within Labor of Love, having met their back up doula sisters at the Meet the Doula Tea, the odds are you will have her be your doula. But if there is sickness, an unexpected emergency or they are with another mother, you may have a different doula providing services. This happens less than 3% of the time. Coming to the tea gives you an opportunity to meet any possible back ups. The exception to this back up is how the Ladies of the Labyrinth will work.

We have taken the three most experienced doulas and teamed them together to form the Ladies of the Labyrinth which includes Teresa Howard, Guina Bixler and Pam Roe. These three doulas:
*are all childbirth educators within the company
*have all breastfed their children and have trained or certified in lactation education
*comprise the most experienced doulas within the Atlanta doula community
*are the older and mature “mothers” of our group with over 150 years of life experience
*have over 750 births among the three of them
*their families are in the next phase- the “empty nesters” and crones of our group

This new team approach allows:
*You to get to know all three of them prior to your labor beginning
*You interview the three of them together if you are unable to come to the tea to meet them
*They provide two prenatals- one with two of them and one with the other individual doula
*You have access to all three of them for your questions with their combined experience offering you ideas to consider via emails or phone contacts. They share an email of lol@alaboroflove.org.
*They share exclusive call with each other- You are assured one of the three of them for your labor (with the rare exception of having a midwifery apprentice/doula backing them up in very rare extreme situations.)

We are very excited to offer you two options within our doula services. We hope you find a great fit among our doulas and among the two approaches we now offer.