I find myself in a Starbucks outside the Missouri S&T campus, starting my doula business all over again. In the fourth state of my time as an Army wife, I have the drill down.
Update website
Update social media
Research local and state business laws and regulations
Create local resource list for future clients
Make face to face connections: doctors, midwives, Chiropractors, massage therapists, maternity and newborn photographers, fellow doulas
It becomes a way of life, another thing to prepare for on the list of Army moving.
Despite what sometimes seems as a mountain in front of me, the one thing I have learned is this:
I know there is always good in front of me.
My time serving as a doula in Oahu, Hawaii, was truly beyond my wildest dreams – I was so busy with clients (the busiest I have ever been, YET!), able to serve in a birth worker non-profit organization and meet so many fellow doulas and birth workers that influenced and inspired me, able to open my first newborn photography studio, serve at four different hospitals and birth centers, and best of all, serve the most beautiful families as they welcomed sweet life into the world.
While my new county has 953,920 less people than Honolulu County, Hawaii (Seriously! It's mind blowing!), I know there are families in Rolla, St James, St Robert, Waynesville or Fort Leonard Wood seeking the one-on-one labor support a birth doula provides.
Once we get to know each other better through our prenatal consultations, they know while I may be observing for a moment, I am never doing nothing.
They know I am there to support dads, partners, and spouses, and not take their place.
They know I am there to honor their birth preferences without personal judgment, bias or discrimination (I am here to support ALL families!).
My hope is that it never takes long for them to tell that their confidence, their comfort, their experience is my number one priority, care and concern. It is my calling from above! I serve all my doula clients like I serve my own sweet little family, that is, with my entire heart and soul.
There is good in front of this doula on the move, currently residing in Missouri. I can feel it coming.
“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 4:13-14