I trained as a doula in 2021 following the birth of my daughter, Olivia. I was pregnant during the pandemic in 2020, experiencing pregnancy in isolation and needing to do all the research around labour and birth myself. I had never heard of a doula before. But with all the time in the world on my hands, this research proved to be vital to me preparing for what was to come. I couldn't help but wonder how on earth anyone could do this sufficiently themselves and work or have other children! Most people I knew seemed to think that this level of preparation wasn't necessary but to me, it absolutely was. Olivia's birth was an incredibly straight forward water birth in an MLU and I felt on top of the world afterwards and thought 'everyone should feel this way after birth'. (Keep an eye on my blog for my own birth stories). Incredibly sadly, my Grandad passed away the day Olivia was born. Postpartum dealing with grief and isolation and I only discovered doulas after this period... it made total sense that this was a calling.