A doula is a non-medical care provider, trained to support folks as they navigate significant life transitions and events.

Doulas provide emotional and informational support, and when serving in-person, physical support—think soothing touch—and in all contexts, they highlight good comfort and coping techniques, as well as advocacy tools to empower their clients and families along the way. Doulas do not replace medical care providers; instead, we serve alongside them, offering a compassionate, whole-person, non-clinical layer of support. 

There are many kinds of doulas:

• Abortion doulas

• Bereavement doulas

• Fertility doulas

• Birth doulas

• Postpartum doulas

• Full Spectrum doulas who address all of these reproductive matters 

• Death doulas

Specifically, as a birth doula, my job is to support people through birth. And although some birth doulas meet their clients or patients of medical care providers at “hello” in their birthing space, many mothers and birthing families connect with their birth doula long before birth, receiving prenatal support throughout their pregnancies and their early postpartum experience. That’s the comprehensive approach that I deliver here with Mother of Ease.

When people do know that birth doulas exist, they often imagine hiring one who just provides support in their birthing space. This is part of the work that I do as a birth doula, but my commitment to you is deeper and wider than the single day of your birth. As early as week twelve of your pregnancy, we can begin our work together. I get to know you and your intimate support partner very well. We have monthly doula prenatal gatherings (some of these are in-person) and communicate throughout each week of your pregnancy. I’ll accompany you to one or more of your primary care appointments (meet your providers). I educate you and answer questions on matters of pregnancy, providers of care, places of birth, labor, inductions and cesareans, childbirth, lactation, and postpartum experiences. And I stay connected with you during your first six weeks postpartum with in-person check-ins and middle-of-the-night what do I do? video calls. I am more than a birth doula, I am a Birth Continuum Guide. Here to truly journey with you - to and through.

Yes, I am! To provide an exceptionally supportive experience and elevate my commitment to supporting you through any birthing scenario, and eliminate reason for absence beyond the unfortunate—an illness, accident, or Act of God—I dedicate my birth support calendar to one family at a time. You will always be my only birth support client between your 38th and your 42nd expected week of pregnancy. No need to worry about me delivering double-hip squeezes or whispering sweet affirmations to someone else when your time comes. I am available exclusively to and for you and your family.

I am a Black woman with a young Black family. I am raising my family alongside my Black husband, and have done so, at times, in very isolating and stressful circumstances. I know very well what it is like to not have educated, empathetic, thorough support - and have keen sight for individuals who do not present, or come from, or are not surrounded by reserves of the care that they need. These folks, regularly, in this country, do not get the care that they need. I readily identify with my community - our joys and our challenges - and I have dedicated my life to sharing my wisdom, experience, education, and support with and for Black women, our families, and our community. I did not go through all that I’ve gone through to not preserve my energy and design my service for my people. In the United States, on average, Black women are 2 to 3 times more likely to die from pregnancy related causes than white women. And college-educated Black women are increasingly prone to suffer great harm (for what I have registered as penance for their competence) in comparison to far less educated white women. As a member of this community, I have designed a support framework that nurtures us in the ways that no other people, culture, community or system can. Black women deserve one another. And I hold my private offerings of support exclusively for us. That is what I like to do with my time, and my Black business.

I prioritize my rich and flowing personal service to few over a stacked pool of clientele in my birth support work. Here’s why:

Your care is exclusive. I do not overlap the estimated due dates (EDDs) of my clients, ensuring that your week 38 to week 42 is reserved exclusively for you and your birthing support. Unless an illness, accident, or act of God requires that I need to call on my back-up doula - I am who you will be supported by through birth. In my years of practice, I have yet to miss a labor or birth. You have my undivided attention during this precious time in your life, and I have designed my work to commit to you in this way.

I value connection. I offer private contracts to families I feel a genuine ease and connection with. Birth work is an intimate partnership, and I want to ensure we’re a great fit to walk this journey together.

My family matters, too. Supporting your journey to and through birth is a deep investment, not just for you, and for me, but for my family as well. Birth work involves long on-call periods and personal sacrifice. There are times when I miss birthdays, holidays, and other important family occasions - so I think of this when I say yes to a client. I honor my family by taking on a limited caseload, so I can give 100% to you and remain fully present for my family.

When I’m on call for you, I’m available 24/7. You can call me anytime, day or night, and I’ve designed my life around my readiness ready to travel to support you.

No, I do not work for a hospital. I work for you. I’m the founder of Mother of Ease, and I serve my clients and their interests at all times—through pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and early motherhood.

Nevertheless, I am deeply engaged in both hospital and community work. I’m a Novant Verified Doula, the creator of the Novant BIPOC Doulas site, and I serve on Atrium Health’s Community Advisory Board for the Community Doula Program. I regularly participate in conversations that shape how doulas show up and are supported within healthcare systems.

So while I don’t work for a hospital, I absolutely work with them—and always with your well-being and our community’s forwarding at the center.

Actually, this is a birth expression that is benefited incredibly by the presence of a birth doula. Just because you’re not laboring doesn’t mean you don’t need and deserve support—in fact, I’d say you need it even more. A cesarean birth is birth, birth is birth is birth. And c-sections are major surgeries—coupled with new or new again motherhood— this too is a deeply emotional and physical experience. Having someone by your side who is also trained specifically to support in operating rooms, who understands the flow and nuance of the cesarean process, and who has done this work before in this way, makes all the difference.

From preparing emotionally and practically beforehand, to supporting you and your partner during the birth (yes, even in the OR in some hospitals), to helping you settle into recovery and bond with your baby—my role as your birth doula remains powerful and necessary. This is how your child will make their way earth side, how marvelous. You deserve support, care, and a loving doula in your corner every step of the way.

Supporting homebirth as a birth doula in North Carolina requires education, courage, and a deep respect for families making informed choices in a complex system. While the state’s regulatory climate can be hostile to out-of-hospital birth midwifery, I believe in honoring the autonomy and wisdom of women and families who choose to birth at home.

Birth is sacred, and every family deserves the right to determine how and where they feel safest and best supported. My role as a doula is not to replace the midwifery care that may be limited by state laws but to provide unwavering emotional, physical, and informational support within my scope of practice. I help families navigate their options (like the option to choose out-of-hospital midwifery care, and the choice of said midwife), prepare for their birth, and advocate for themselves as they bring life earthside.

While the systemic barriers in North Carolina can feel heavy, they do not diminish the power, beauty, validity or necessity of access to homebirth. I approach this work with humility and reverence, standing alongside families who seek to birth in alignment with their values, even in challenging circumstances. Your choice to birth at home deserves protection, preparation, and respect—and I’m here to support that, and you.

Not at all. My role as your doula is to enhance, not replace, the connection and support you share with your partner. They know you like no one else, and they are a very, very special person to and in your journey. I see partners as an integral part of the birthing experience and work to empower them with tools, confidence, and guidance so they can show up in the ways that feel most natural and meaningful. I help your partner feel prepared and confident, offering suggestions and reassurance so they can fully support you without the pressure of “figuring it all out” in the moment. And I collaborate with your partner to create a strong, united birthing team. My presence allows them to focus on loving and connecting with you, while I handle things that neither of you need to focus on (like logistics) and provide consistent professional insight.

Birth can be unpredictable, and I’m here to step in however needed—whether it’s helping with physical comfort measures, providing emotional reassurance, or simply giving your partner full moments to rest and recharge. Hiring me as your doula is a way to support both of you, ensuring that the birthing process feels empowering and connected for everyone you choose to have involved (I additionally love working with our new grandparents). My goal is to honor your relationship and strengthen the beautiful bond you’re building as you welcome this new life of yours together.

Obstetrics and Gynocology Doctors and Medical Practices are indeed necessary when they are necessary. Advanced technology and surgery is sometimes required for the safety and health of both pregnant women and babies.

OB/GYN care has its place in pregnancy care. However, it is not necessary care for all pregnancies or all pregnant women. There are highly-skilled, appropriately trained PCP’s like midwives who can and do care for pregnant women and babies from reproductive beginnings to reproductive ends.

It is well within every person’s right to decide if OB/GYN care is welcome and necessary in their care during their pregnancy journey and ought be decided by the individual needing that care. There are truly wonderful OB/GYNs that care and support folks and their wishes, their choices, and elevate their autonomy. If you want and/or need an OB/GYN, find you one like that.

It is possible for people and organizations who do not personally identify with a particular culture, to invest in delivering culturally-hospitable care. Hospitality is dramatically underrated as a worthy service, with its ability to create an environment that allows space for the needs and desires of particular communities, particular cultures. The beautiful thing about employing hospitality is that it doesn’t require understanding, or empathy even - but an openness to welcome, a willingness to create an environment and tone that emits comfort and relaxation, security even, for the community in which it finds itself hosting.

Culturally-hospitable care is a practice available and accessible to any practitioner that approaches and delivers health and wellness care. Therefore, if one finds that their PCP, OB/GYN, Midwife, Doula, Chiropractor, Therapist and whomever and whatever entity else does not show hospitality to their culture - they ought find another one. Because it’s an easy way for a practitioner to display their willingness to care.

The midwifery model of care is one where the nurturing of the pregnant woman is holistically addressed and focused. Rather than a singular focus on the physical and surgical necessities of their patients, midwifery care concerns itself - in addition - to the emotional, psychological and social (and community) aspects of her care. They work to minimize medical interruptions and overused and/or unnecessary technological interventions and address the whole woman as a unique individual.

It is my belief that The Midwifery Model of Care, when it is functioning in its intended and truest form, is the most human and helpful model of primary care providing for pregnant women and their families. When surgical care is known to be needed or required, I find that having a midwife on your care team in addition to your needed OB/GYN is an ideal arrangement of provision.

Please note that many CNM’s and Traditional, Licensed, Certified + Professional Midwives practice differently and have different allowances and sometimes philosophies, and often practice in very different spaces and places. Do your research (or work with me for bespoke guidance here) and find a PCP that aligns with your philosophy of birth and your philosophy of care - the kind that you require to feel supported and cared for, and protected.

Relevance requires relevance.

Culturally-relevant care requires a connection not by happenstance or through a gathering of research. Not through ally-ship or a “feeling for” folks. Relevance requires empathy. And empathy requires a knowing through experience, through the living of. Through an “I’ve been there,” “your people are my people” type whatyaheard.

It takes one day of being a Black woman to know what is is to be a Black woman. It takes one day and a whole lifetime of being a Black person in America to know what it is to be a Black person in America. And there is no one on this earth who is able to relate and experience, able to provide culturally-relevant awareness and care for Black folks like Black folks.

We are always who we need. And when we find each other in health and wellness and love and relatability, when we see us and love us and take care of us? Sheesh. What a powerful thing. Find you some culturally-relevant care providers. We out here.

I am a striving follower of Christ. I believe in the presence of The Living God, The LORD, and The Holy Spirit. I became a Christian as a teenager, married a minister of the gospel in my adulthood, and we raise our children from our roots. I believe that I was called to birth work, and I continue to be called to this work by Him. Birth is sacred to me, and when I am witness, and as much as I am humanly able - protective - I see through eyes and work with hands that believe that life is a gift from heaven. My practice is private, and although I exercise and meditate upon my faith in ways that are both private and public, I refrain from soliciting my own faith with any of my clients’ own private and/or public faith. It is always lovely, when my client’s and I share a similar faith, and I am able to readily lean into language and rituals that comfort them as they journey to birth. When I share a different faith than my clients, I respect and encourage their language and rituals, and work to incorporate them as we partner together.