Wombsisterhood Message Boards

What were your earliest symptoms?

A thought provoking call to Midwives A lament, a reckoning They come to us wide-eyed, full of wonder. Trembling. Brave. Bellies swollen with promise, hearts swollen with questions. Primips. The first-timers. The ones who’ve never done this before. They are not broken, but they are cracked open. Not complicated, but complex. Not burdens, but becoming. And yet; They are turned away. Quietly. Kindly. "Not this time." "I’m full." "My bandwidth is low." "My season is shifting." And behind those words is the truth we don't want to say aloud: First-time mothers are hard. They take longer. They ask more questions. They labor through layers of fear. They need presence; constant, steady, undivided. And presence costs something. So midwives begin to retreat. For rest. For their children. For boundaries. For balance. Valid. Understandable. Human. But in their absence, a gap yawns open like a wound. And it swallows women whole. Because the system is waiting; not with arms of mercy, but with hands of steel, ready to hurry and slice and silence. They walk into hospitals hoping for peace and come out carrying scars they were never told were optional. Their bodies stitched. Their spirits splintered. Their stories rewritten without consent. And in the grey area between the midwife who couldn’t and the system that wouldn’t stands the doula. Hands raised. Heart open. Trying not to drown in the ache of responsibility. Because where there is no midwife, the doula becomes the anchor. The educator. The emotional buoy. The silent intercessor. She walks a tightrope between service and liability, between sacred support and systemic entanglement. And still; we normalize this We act as though it is enough. But is it? When the women who need the most support are the ones left with the least, what are we building? Who are we protecting?' We are not blaming midwives. We honor their labor. We bless their boundaries. We understand the weight of it all. But we must speak this truth: Turning away the first-timers is turning away the future. The regulations coming down on the birth community between midwives and doulas creates a need and an inability to fill that need. There is a growing lack of legal access for mothers seeking alternatives to the standard hospital model. And the options available are not expanding in ways that protect or preserve the sacred, physiological design of birth. The first birth is the blueprint. The origin story. The soil from which a woman’s motherhood grows. If we lose her there, we risk losing her trust forever. So what now? We need a new kind of net. One stitched with collaboration, creativity, and compassion. Where midwives, doulas, educators, and community gather not around what is easy; but around what is needed. Because first-time mothers deserve to be held. With wisdom. With reverence. With presence that doesn’t flinch. And until we make room for them, we are not reforming the system. We are repeating it. So may we rise. May we remember our call. May we unlock the gates of true education and self agency And may we make space for the ones who haven’t done this before.

She doesn’t chart or diagnose. She does something far more powerful She remembers what the mother forgot. A doula is not an advocate for law, She is an activist for love. Not there to speak for her But to remind her she has a voice. She fills the silence with presence. She replaces panic with prayer. She doesn’t bring confrontation into the birth space She brings Heaven. Because when fear walks in, She doesn't brace for battle She kneels. She listens to the Lord before she opens her mouth. She sees what doctors can’t The strength rising behind the contractions, The Spirit hovering over the waters. Doulas reduce cesarean rates by up to 39%. They Inform, Educate, Empower. They greatly reduce the risk of unnecessary intervention. They slash requests for pain meds in half. Yet even with these miracles in hand, We ask them to do more: Argue. Prove. Protect. But a doula distracted by confrontation loses her anchor. And when the room pulls her into chaos, She can no longer guard the peace. We weren’t sent to fight the system. We were sent to shift the atmosphere. Faith Driven Doulas are not just birth workers They are birth educators, watchers, space keepers, Spirit-bearers. Faith Driven Doulas carry living water into parched places. They wrap sacredness around the vulnerable. They call forth LIFE in its rawest, holiest form. She is not there to win an argument. She is there to hold the line of grace. She is not the power. She carries it. So let the world debate protocols and policies. But let the Faith Driven Doula rise Unbothered. Unmoved. Unshaken. Because when she enters the room, He enters before her. If this calling speaks to your heart CLICK HERE to learn more about how you can become a Doula