Doula Gives Raw Look into Her Overnight Job — and Glimpses at Late Shifts Go Viral (Exclusive)

Overnight doula Chelsea Tate and client.Photo:Lauren Jolly Photography

Lauren Jolly Photography

“We offer just about every service doulas can offer — from childbirth education to belly binding,birth photography, and more. We also have aninternational board-certified lactation consultant(IBCLC) who runs her own independent practice but offers her services as part of some of our packages.”

Overnight doulas, in particular, have seen a rise in demand, with Tate explaining what those services offer and how that relationship begins.

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While those scenarios make developing a care plan easier, Tate says that “very stressed and frazzled emails from mamas at 2:00 a.m., desperate for sleep” also aren’t out of the ordinary.

“In those instances, as a doula, it’s our job to be able to attune to our clients. I can absolutely show up at someone’s house with no notice and not having had the opportunity to get to know them and learn who they are and what they need while I’m with them,” she says. “From my experience, I know what questions to ask. I know from being a mom myself how exhausting and stressful it can be those first few weeks. Sleep is a huge priority for new parents and that’s usually the main goal of an overnight shift, to maximize parents' sleep.”

Basiclactation training, feeding schedule tracking, light housekeeping and sibling care are more services that help new parents and the whole family “transition” into their next chapter.

After atraumatizing C-sectionwhere she felt doctors were “pretty dismissive of how I was feeling,” Tate knew she wanted to learn more about the birthing process, both as a mom and a member of the field.

“With my son, my water broke at 36 weeks, which was weird to me because I already always heard, you know, if you’re a first-time mom… usually you go past your due date, or at least make it to your due date.”

“The whole experience felt very systemic. I struggled with postpartum depression and anxiety pretty badly after that. And in my research after the fact, knowing I wanted to have more children, I started to learn what a doula was and felt called into this line of work.”

She adds, “It really inspired me to turn something that was so negative in my life into something positive. And I have been so honored to be able to support hundreds of families throughout the course of my career and watch them be able to implement their wishes and come out on the other side with a positive experience. So it is really been amazing.”

Though there are some tough spots in the work, such as an unpredictable schedule with little downtime, Tate welcomes the opportunity to educate and help others and has found thatTikTokis another way to do just that.

Tate says many commenters wish that the services were available to them during their pregnancies, while some have also been inspired to check out the line of work themselves.

“Of course, snuggling babies is so fun to do, too. I’ve been able to work with just about every type of family you can imagine in my 10 years — I’ve handled twins, surrogate, postpartum work, everything — and it’s been amazing to come in and provide that unbiased and non-judgmental support all types of parents need. It warms my heart to be able to offer that.”

Doula working with laboring mom.Lauren Jolly Photography

Tate says she’s very open with her kids — Sophia, 7, and Levi, 9 — about her work and what it entails.

“My daughter is definitely a little doula in the making. I launched a doula training organization this year and sometimes I become good friends with some of these women, who have kids the same ages as my own. We’ll do little play dates and my daughter will always want to see the babies and snuggle the babies and she swaddles them in her own little way.”

Tate is proud of the business she’s built and hopes to one day grow it into a full-fledged birth center after taking some time to step back from day-to-day doula work to pursue nursing school.

“That’s why I do the work that I do and that’s why I created the training organization that I did as well and made it so affordable so that there can be more doulas that are properly trained,” she continues. “I also run an internship program for my newly trained loads who offer low-cost or no-cost services to families in need. That way they can gain experience and also be able to make our services more accessible to people who need them.”

“I believe that a doula shouldn’t be a luxury, but something accessible to everyone. So this is the way I’ve figured out to provide for myself and provide work for my doulas, but also provide opportunities for less fortunate families to get to experience these resources.”

source: people.com