World Doula Week Essay Contest Scholarship Winners
Congratulations to our World Doula Week Essay Contest Scholarship First Place winners Kayla Howard and Nori Tobon, who will each win $500 to go toward the doula training of their choice.
Kayla Howard’s doula training of choice is the ReByrth - Doula Training Program by the NBDA, National Black Doula Association.
By Kayla Howard
When you place your time, effort, emotions; your entire life, into a person, place, or thing you love dearly, there are endless opportunities that are ignited within. Placing all of these actions into these things could also be known as an investment. Investing time, love, patience into the lives I bring into the world means everything to me.
Working within my community to help low income and young mothers who might not have the support needed or enough support to help them during their labor whether it is their first or 5th , has always been a big goal of mine; however, it came in different forms.
As I look back on my life, I have experienced, seen, and heard a lot when it comes to being an African American woman. I’ve always had the passion to help the minority, especially the children. In the beginning I wanted to become a person who wears many hats who help mothers, infants, and children. Starting from a Neo-natal intensive care unit nurse, to becoming a childcare owner, to now a doula who can affect her community directly. I want to be that planter who always plants special seeds in those who I come in contact with on a daily. As time progressed I started doing research on a more intimate setting between mother and support system and that is where I came across becoming a doula.
On my journey in becoming a doula, I have also taken up becoming a loving gardener. Becoming a gardener takes love, time, patience, and support.
In my life, I have noticed that the support that a doula gives a mother, a gardener gives their plants. Plants need endless support of the gardener and in fact this coincides, to a certain extent, of a doula’s support to a mother. The support that aids in the person or plant’s ability to thrive efficiently within their environment and taken back into the community. Given this opportunity for growth, it allows me to invest all the more into myself by being able to travel to different states and bring the knowledge and the different views back to my community and many other surrounding communities. Every birth is its own birth and not one type of training will do. Investing more into myself, so that I can invest more into my community to bring love, light, and safe births.
Giving each birth its own tailored to attention, love, care, and patience coincides with planting seeds and doing the upkeep of them until they bloom.
Actions taken towards investing my doula education and work into the community also prompts for giving the mothers access to someone who has the same views as her and is able to invest their time into her and her unborn child. Allowing the mother access to an application that can aid in any questions or concerns or even just check ins with a doula of her choice within her area and her financial range. This application allows the mother to match with a doula by a questionnaire or just a quick search. Investing time into the mother for her to find a doula, tailored to her and her birth.
Great things take time however investing every drop of time into building knowledge and having opportunities will bring me to this point. To be a part of the change to be the next catalyst that will change lives one birth, one life, one community at a time.
Nori Tobon is a birth and postpartum doula trained through Doula Trainings International. Nori’s passion has always been caring for and empowering others. Nori has been with Doulas of Capitol Hill since 2019.
By Nori Tobon
As I sat at my desk today, talking to a dear friend, who was contemplating a transfer she had scheduled for a month from now, I realized how badly she needed a fertility and preconception doula who could be her support right now.
I have been a support in her journey since the first time she began her rounds of IVF. She’s done 4 rounds, holding her courage and hope together, at times by herself. She worried aloud to me about whether her love-filled marriage would survive their bitter disappointment, one more time. She worried that following through with a transfer in the midst of a global pandemic would be irresponsible. How could she navigate the world, knowing she had taken on the risks of exposure and possible unknown health risks to her baby? How could she cancel and devastate the hope she had that it would work THIS time? When she began, she felt that the whole world knew more about what she was undertaking than she did. I’ve heard many people on their fertility treatment experience talk about the steep learning curve and feeling like they couldn’t make head nor tail of all the information being thrown at them. They needed help and didn’t know where to look for it.
In the time that I have been providing pregnancy, labor, and postpartum support to clients, I have had countless conversations with moms about their journey with fertility treatments and how exhausted and lonely they felt by the time they saw a positive test result.
I feel strongly that many, many people would benefit greatly from having an opportunity to work with a doula who provided them with fertility treatment support from the beginning of their journey.
I want the same fulfilling experience of providing continuity of care for someone through their birth journey and postpartum, to expand to fertility support. I have heard, over and over again,
“I would have given so much to have you there with us through that experience. I felt like we were on our own island.” and, “I felt like my partner needed help supporting me through the hormonal and emotional experience. I could see them struggling to know how to help, and how to keep their own hope and faith in the process.”
I see a need, and I want to help! I would propose to use the $500 toward a specified Fertility Support Specialist training and certification program online, with Bebo Mia. I feel strongly that this would be a helpful offering to Doulas of Capitol Hill Clients and will go hand in hand with the Full Spectrum Doula training I have completed with DTI. My hope is that it will continue to provide both the agency and my practice an even broader spectrum of applicable support, that is led with compassion, kindness, and empowerment. Thank You!
Congratulations to our second place winners as well, Yvonne McCombs and Kaely Harrod. Each will be recieving $100 towards a doula training of their choice.
Thank you to all who entered. It was a joy to read your stories!