About
Hello, my name is Katie! Let me tell you about myself......
My husband Chris and I have two kids that are 22 months apart, Ava and Grayson, and two dogs. I got into postpartum doula work because of my own personal experience.
My pregnancy with Ava was the pregnancy that dreams are made of! No awful pregnancy symptoms and pretty straight forward. I prepared and educated myself for a natural birth, but that plan didn’t work out how I envisioned. After a long labor with hours and hours of pushing it ended in a c-section. This experience left me feeling neglected by doctors, depressed and robbed of the childbirth I envisioned. This experience set me up for a really hard postpartum recovery physically and mentally.
This was when I began to realize that there is a lack of care for postpartum women and parents in general. After the 6-week checkup I was left to figure out everything myself. I tried to lean on doctors, but they told me I was fine. I knew that I wasn’t, and I was not going to accept my issues as my new normal. I researched alternatives to help me heal and after a lot of work I finally began to find a new normal…then I got pregnant again 13 months postpartum.
This pregnancy was unexpected, I was not ready mentally or physically, but due to doctor error with my IUD I became pregnant. My second pregnancy was the complete opposite of my first and I was miserable almost every day. I had a scheduled c section which made recovery a little easier, but then things took a turn for the worse.
My second child was extremely difficult the first 7 months of his life, my body felt totally destroyed from now both of my pregnancies and c-sections and once again doctors told me I was fine and were suggesting things that were not working but they couldn’t give me any other resources. COVID hit, I lost my job and then postpartum depression started. To say I felt alone, hopeless and broken is an understatement. I had never felt so low in my life.
I began to endlessly research how to help myself, I advocated for myself and argued with doctors when I didn’t feel heard, and I FINALLY got to a place where I felt happy and that I could mentally deal with the physical healing aspect. I got here with a little bit of help from western medicine and lot of help from my nutrition and fitness background, therapy, alternative medicine and physical therapy.
This experience made me angry but made me feel determined to heal myself. There was A LOT of trial and error, but this made me determined to help other woman move through this journey in a less confusing, lonely and frustrating way.
I never want another woman to feel lost, alone, or unheard during their postpartum experience and that’s why I became a postpartum doula. With my personal experience, postpartum doula training through Birth Arts International, B.S. in Nutrition as well as a fitness background I can be your guiding light so you can fully heal from the inside out. I will be that person for you that I wish I had. I will hold your hand, be your shoulder try cry on and encourage you every step of the way.
Moms deserve to feel mentally and physically healthy so we can thrive, not just survive.