Doula Retreat

I'm feeling refreshed, replenished, and renewed!!! I went to the Utah Doulas Association Fall Retreat this past weekend. What an awesome bunch of ladies to be surrounded by.

I went expecting the usual birth conversations, how best to help a client, ect. but what it was, was unexpected. I have rarely encountered a place outside the temple where you could feel the spirit so strong. The women that came to the retreat were from all different walks of life, religion, families, but yet we totally recognized eachother as sisters on both a spiritual and energetic level. It was an emotional retreat, tears were shed, hurt feelings and incorrect beliefs surfaced and were acknowledged. There were no judgements or criticism, but unconditional love which I know is rarely felt.

We celebrated our callings in life as doula's. What an honor it is to assist women in bringing a new spirit to earth! We talked about how faith and prayer are essential to a doula, no matter her religious beliefs or she had none at all. We talked about the need for doulas to take care of themselves so that they could care for their laboring moms. We learned about the Samaritan goddess Inana, her path to self-discovery, fascinating story. We expressed ourselves through art by molding clay into what we thought women serving women would look like to us. Doula is the greek word for "woman's servant". I molded my clay into a husband and wife embracing eachother, with a doula behind them embracing them, supporting them.

Most important to me was that I found the softening of heart that I asked for in helping me forgive another doula(see the previous post below). Forgiving her was very important to me, it was the only way to move past the hurt. And I have. It truly was a life changing weekend.