Welcome to "My Birth Blog" with Transforming Births Doula Service!
My Birth Blog is kicking off with a little introduction about me. More topics to come!
Thank you for visiting "My Birth Blog":) This is an ongoing blog where anything doula or birth related is posted. This first post is about myself, how I got into birth work, and the journey of creating Transforming Births Doula Service. Hope you enjoy the read! Please let me know if you have any topics you'd like to see posted or if you'd like to post on the blog yourself. Just Shoot me an email from hitting the quick and easy "get in touch" button at the top right hand corner!
Well, to begin...
My name is Cherilynn Whitten, Founder and Owner of Transforming Births Doula Service. Born in San Diego, CA and raised in North Carolina. I love traveling within the US and Internationally. I'm a real southern girl at heart, enjoying good food, family, friends, and the outdoors! My husband and I have settled down in Raleigh, NC and continue to build bridges towards unity as a couple (kids will come in the right time for both of us). With my husband's degree in Business and mine in Theology and Pastoral Ministries, we make a great team and I am excited for what's to come for us both!
Now let's hop into the fun birth stuff...
The journey to becoming a birth doula and more educated about the birth world didn't just dawn upon me one day. It was actually a slow progress that developed overtime as I began to experience the birth world a bit more hands on. In 2018, I had experienced someone's birth story that I wasn't prepared for and my first thought was, 'how can I help her?'. That is just the beginning of where my birth doula journey began. After that, I had attended a dear friend of mine's sacred home birth, which during so, my mentor at the time was her birth doula. As I walked through the front door into her living room I thought, 'Wow, this is out of this world.' I sighted a precious birth setting with my friend relaxing in a tub during labor, two amazing midwives and her husband assisting, a photographer, and lovely encouragements written on banners hanging up all over the walls. There, I experienced the beauty of true sisterhood and community support that I never imagined existed. That is when I had the desire to be apart of women's journey's like that in labor and birth, to support them in one of the most significant transitional events during their lifetime.
After a year and half of witnessing my first home birth, I looked into training as a birth doula with DONA International and began my education with that organization. Unfortunately, I started my training during COVID-19 and I could not attend any in-person trainings or births. Even though this was a downside, the delay was crucial in my personal self-development and inner healing journey that contributed to my role as a doula. As time went on, while only able to complete some of the DONA requirements, I was able to reflect on myself as a doula some more. People I know and trust have affirmed my character as a caring person full of compassion, informed, driven, nurturing, grounded, peaceful, discerning, and patient. I was able to look at this list of qualities and strengths and apply this into my doula identity. As I continued to develop myself into a grounded and well-informed doula, I continued to pursue personal healing, birth education and experience, education and becoming a Certified Birth Doula with DONA (CD(DONA)).
This naturally led me to start thinking through starting my own business as a birth worker. The idea settled in for a few months as I reflected my strengths, weaknesses, passions, goals and how I'm initially wired. As I worked through the parts of myself that were nervous and doubtful about starting my own doula service, the adventure of creating and birthing my own thing sounded too exciting to pass up. What I have learned about myself is that I am a visionary, and go getter, I am not made for a 9am-5pm 40 hour work week, I love being my own boss and I love helping people improve their lives with the tools and education I have been given. But most of all, I LOVE birth. Ever since experiencing my friend's home birth before my training begun, I fell in love with how birth was meant to be and what it could be...natural, unmedicated, uninterrupted, safe, sacred, whole, and all the while being a portal for a personal transformative experience...even through the mess, through the real and the raw of what birth is. I hope to help accomplish this as a birth doula for every birth that I attend. As I move forward towards my goal in business and education, my ultimate goal is to bring unwavering support to moms and families to experience a positive, healing, and healthy childbirth!
I have yet to experience childbirth and parenting myself, but the continued transformation that I experience with every birth I attend is beyond words and I so look forward to that time in my life! This is not the end of my story, but I'd like to invite you to invite me on your journey to become transformed through birth. Whether it's maiden to motherhood, or you're a pro and have a fourth kiddo on the way, as you bring a sweet babe into this world, it would be my honor to be a part of the journey with you.
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