34: Empowered Births with Dawn the Doula

Today, I would like to welcome a mother, a birth educator, and a champion for empowered birth experiences for all women.  Dawn Herring is the owner and founder of Empowered Births and Beginnings. And for the past seven years, she has been supporting and guiding women and couples on their journey through pregnancy and birth. 

Her company focuses on childbirth education, doula services, and coaching.  She believes that pregnancy and birth are transformative experiences and that every woman deserves to feel supported, empowered, and able to make informed decisions that work for her unique goals and desires.

Dawn, how many children do you have? Who all makes up your household?

I have two children (ages 10 and 11), a husband, two pups and a cat. 

What led you to working in the birth industry (for lack of a better term)? 

So it's funny, I've reflected on this many times growing up. Anytime anybody had babies, I was excited. As I got older and I watched that show, this is going to date me, but on TLC called A Baby Story. 

I would watch that show. The babies would come. I would literally just like ugly cry. I thought it was the most beautiful thing in the whole entire world. Never in a million years did I think I would work in birth, but I just thought it was lovely, just so amazing. 

Then when I got pregnant with my first, Savannah, I knew that I was going to choose to birth in an out-of-hospital setting. That was my personal choice. I took a birth class as part of preparing (for birth) with my husband and I remember sitting inside my own birth education class, literally looking over at him and saying, “I'm going to teach these classes one day.”.

I just loved how much he and I connected. I loved how much learning made me feel so much more confident and what lay ahead. I felt like, wow, this is amazing. And I felt supported, you know?  I sat there thinking every woman should feel this confident in herself and more present to the process, whatever her goals are.  We all deserve that. So it was seated right there in that moment that I know I would work with expecting mothers. 

That was over 11 years ago now. Shortly after that I had Ben, 12 months and three weeks later.  (Baby boot camp is what I called that.) After that I jumped into birth education teacher training!

There's so many titles out there that range from “credentialed” to “self proclaimed” when it comes to birth professionals. Could provide a clear explanation of exactly what a doula is and what role they play in birth?

So not all doulas are certified childbirth educators and not all certified childbirth educators are doulas. But in the birth world, from a professional certification or professional training perspective, you can get certified to be an educator. That means of course you're taking a curriculum, you're learning what to teach, and you're learning how to teach.

And then there are different kinds of childbirth education programs out there. Some are geared towards different ways to achieve a natural birth and some run the full gamut and provide an overview of what birth is in general. I took a childbirth education class with my childbirth educator to be certified in birth education, and that was incredible.

Now, a couple things about doula work, is that it's not required to be certified to be a doula. There's no overarching legalities that say that you have to be certified. So, some people who practice as doulas may have practiced with someone in their community. They may have learned because of their own birth experiences. And/or they may have taken an actual credentialed program. 

Honestly, you know, I think there's benefits to all of it. I think it's an individual and unique choice for each person in terms of what they're looking to do and how they want to show up in their communities.

I did childbirth education first, and then I became a doula. I personally trained with a local midwife and did a course with her. Again, there are lots of other organizations out there too. I'll be honest, there's a little bit of drama in the doula credentialing world. But just like any person you're going to work with, whether credentialed or not, I'm always of the belief that you gotta interview, you got a chat background, you got a chat approach, you got a chat belief, you got a chat all those things in order to make sure that who you're going to work with is aligned with your overall goals.

Would you agree that it’s so important to be comfortable with the professional you're working with as well as the lens they see things through?

Yes, that’s spot on. I think it's important to understand the place that the person you're working with is coming from. Something that I love about you and your practice (Barbara) is that you are an expert in X, Y, Z things, right? And you're also encouraging your clients and people that you work with to recognize the expert within themselves. It can be a bit of a fine line out there, especially when you're a new mom or you never had a baby before because you're looking for the experts. But in my practice, the greatest opportunity is to continue to bring that expert focus back to the mom and to be more the guide. 

Is it true that mothers who birth with a doula statistically have less c-sections (cesarean sections)?

It is! Yes! It is evidence based and it is true that people who work with a doula and/or have (personal) continuous labor support (this doesn't equal nursing staff at a hospital) have a 25 percent decrease in the risk of cesarean overall. But doula specifically, there's a 39 percent decrease in the risk of cesarean! 

Is it possible that that number is relatively skewed based on the type of person who would choose to hire a doula?

Yeah, but when you think about it, most people are birthing in the hospital in this country.  So to pull statistics, the large majority surveyed were probably giving birth in the hospital. So skewed-ish, and yet powerful still at the same time.

What are the differences between a hospital birth class and a full on private birth class? I want people to understand this because I know many who didn't even know there were options outside of a hospital.

Absolutely, I get those questions a lot actually. What's the difference? Why would I take your course? Or why would I take a different course versus a hospital class?

The first thing I'll usually say is, the hospital birth classes have a vested interest in making sure that the people that are birthing there understand their policies, their protocols, and their norms. It's really kind of about being a good patient within the system. So oftentimes there's a heavy focus on what it looks like when you get to the hospital and the procedures they're going to do (like the I.V. or the cervical check for e.g.). Maybe a little bit more about what epidurals are all about or a hefty discussion about inductions.  Because often that can be the case when you're having a hospital birth. Remember, there is a high percentage of inductions in this country. 

A lot of it is through the lens of the space and place that the person is birthing inside of.  What's semi problematic about that is if someone is thinking they may try to have a low intervention birth or a not as a non-medicalized birth, those classes aren't going to teach you what that looks like. They're not going to teach you how to do that within that system. 

So the benefit of a private class is that you're going to, in most cases (I can't speak for all courses of course) focus on understanding the physiological process of birth. To know what's happening in the stages and phases, how to cope, how to breathe, how to move, how to work with yourself inside of that process. Some classes are going to be all about natural birth, but even some of the natural birth classes will talk a little bit about intervention and medicalization. Alternatively, sometimes they don't really talk about interventions because they want to keep the eye on the prize from a natural birth perspective. Each one's different.

In my own personal practice I think women deserve to understand first and foremost what the birth process looks like from a un-messed-with place to really know what it looks like and how to prepare. And, to understand if that route feels good to them or if they're open to interventions like an epidural.

Understanding the whole landscape, I think, allows for more informed decision making. If you only are looking through one lens, then you don't have the whole big picture.  An out-of-hospital class is going to give you the whole scope so that you can make an informed decision.

There is so much noise aimed at expecting mothers in general. Not just aggressive marketing which I'm on a soapbox frequently about, but also how you should feed your baby, how you should support infant sleep, how you should give birth…and the most surprising thing for me was that this came not just out of books and blogs, but also from close family and friends! How can you know what birth plan is right for you when it is so hard to drown out all of that noise? 

That question gives me goosebumps because truly I think this is where it all starts. Having the courage, the confidence, the practice, to tune that out.  To build the trust within oneself that you do have wisdom inside of you, even though you're a first time mom and you've never birthed before.

I call it rebellious at times to be so connected (or so hell bent) on being inside your own experience. That is a little rogue in today's landscape and noisy conversation about birth. That's why I get so impassioned about the opportunity to work with families and women in education and coaching. Because it’s the practice of helping them understand how to have their own language and their own words to put to the birth experience.

Maybe I'm biased (I think it's the best bias ever) but I believe education is where it starts.  Because how else do you speak about something that you've never done before? If you don't have the words, the background, the context, et cetera. It's like you are truly learning a foreign language, but you're not able to yet speak it or you're speaking someone else's version of it. 

When you don't have your own understanding or set of beliefs; or when you don’t start to discover “oh that sounds good-ish or that doesn't sound good-ish to me”, then how do you navigate in a noisy landscape? There's a way to pull the information to you that allows for that inner understanding, and I really do think it starts with education.  

Let's say that a mom knows how she wants to give birth. What is the best way she can prepare for birth confidently?

There's so many different ways to do this, but if I had to pick my top three, it definitely starts with education. 

Then my second one would be creating a daily practice (or even weekly to start) that has you tune into yourself. Like after you brush your teeth, sit down for a couple of minutes and just be with yourself. If you're already pregnant, I love recommending one hand on the heart and one hand on the belly and tuning into you and that sweet babe. Even if you’re not pregnant, this is still potent. Just creating some space to tune in and listen. If you're noticing that there's some stress, worry, doubt, or some noise then get present to that noise and just hear it. Give yourself some space for it, right? Because it's there to help inform and to give clarity. So tuning on a daily basis is magical to be able to see ourselves and hear ourselves. 

The third would be to identify practices that help to keep the headspace protected. Meaning if you know that you want to go “X” direction regarding your birth or pregnancy, you really want to do your best to notice when “Y” things are coming in. And, if something coming in makes you feel stressed then you block it out. Like, “Okay I'm not going to hop onto that social media channel or go down a Google rabbit hole.”.

It's those practices of not doing and then the practices of doing that impact us. So you may notice: 

• I feel great when I breathe consciously for two minutes.

• I feel great when I read that book.

• I notice that when I listen to this podcast that it really enlivens me and makes me feel like I'm on the right path. 

Being able to notice those things are incredibly helpful. 

Those few things that you just mentioned: getting yourself educated with someone you feel like has the right lens for you, taking little moments to be still and listen inward, and then really tuning out and pruning aggressively what is not serving you sounds simple but powerful when it comes to birth anxiety, which seems so common. I'm of the impression that it's just a natural and normal part of the experience to have some anxiety about jumping into something you've never done before. Could you explain how fear and anxiety play out physically in the birth process?

I say to the women (and families) that I work with so often that fear is there when we embark on a path we’ve never been down before. It's there to try to keep us safe and a normal part of the process when we've never done something as powerful as childbirth before. 

When we can start to harness those daily practices and notice, “Wow I really supported myself in that moment. I got through that stressful thought. I just took some time for me.”. It’s called building proof. So when you're in labor and those contractions are coming you've already built proof that you can breathe through the moment. You can notice an intrusive thought that comes, make room for it, and then allow it to go. So the practice of protecting the headspace ahead of time during pregnancy is so incredibly important for the birth process later. 

The mindbody connection is so potent during the labor process. Because if fear is running the show during the labor, then there's tension and resistance to what's happening in the body.  And that creates something called that fear, tension, pain cycle. Which in turn, sends stress hormones. And in birth, if there's a higher amount of stress hormones, then the labor hormones (like oxytocin and endorphins and all of those magical things) can diminish a little bit.  So stress hormones come up, birth hormones can go down, and that can sometimes slow and hinder the labor process. 

So again, working with ourselves ahead of time is important.  

What is a good piece of advice that an expecting mother is not likely going to get at the doctor's office?

The first thing that comes to mind is she should know that birth, in most cases, is not a medical event.  About 20 percent of pregnancies are considered high risk, but around 80 percent of pregnancies are not. Most pregnancies and birth experiences are not, or don't need to be, medical events. Birth is a physiological process, meaning it is of the organism, of the body, an innate experience. So as long as someone isn't considered high risk and doesn't need extra intervention or monitoring for example, their body does not need medical intervention to give birth. 

The message here is that your body is fully capable of growing a human, therefore your body is fully capable of birthing your sweet babe as well.  And this is important to remember in a world where there's a lot of conversation around how scary or how “necessary” certain things are to bring babies into the world. 

If you would like to get in touch with Dawn Herring or learn more about her birth education courses you can visit her website at www.empoweredbirthsandbeginnings.com.  The homepage even has a “schedule a chat” button where you can schedule a complimentary chat to ask her questions, learn about her practice, and learn about what she does and offers. Dawn’s mission is to help women feel supported in a way that feels aligned for them.

Dawn also shared a BONUS link to her free resource here on “10 Ways to Prepare for Birth like a Badass”.

Thank you Dawn!