So I went to the health department a couple of days ago to get my son's immunizations. He was about a month late getting his 4 month round due to the move. I was speaking to the nurse that was giving the shots, and she pointed out that it would not bother her for me to nurse my son after his shots and that she breastfed her children. Well, here I am thinking...Awesome!, this is an open-minded lady (which no one else at the health department seemed to be).
I asked her about how to best reach out to the large community of pregnant teens in our area to offer my doula services (which I will do for free for teen or military moms). She said "Well, most are on Medicaid, so they can have an M.D....they don't need a doula." I was confused, since I don't know what having a doctor has to do with labor support. After a few more exchanges, I realized that she thought a doula is a midwife! While I would love to be a midwife, a doula is nothing close to a midwife.
I explained this difference and she seemed to understand a bit better, but then started to ask why you need more than your husband (this said after she told me how much her husband annoyed her during her births).
I think that educating this area on what a doula is will be more of an uphill battle than I anticipated.
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