This week's featured doula: Kathryn Garceau

Kathryn Garceau is 28 years old.  She is married with three children of her own.  She has been involved in birth work for 2.5 years as of January 2020.  After going back and forth between a doula or a labor and delivery nurse, she decided that becoming a doula was the right fit for her. After the sudden death of her brother in early 2017, she decided to stop letting life pass her by. She trained with Doula Trainings International (DTI) in November of 2017.

Kathryn believes pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period are all transformative times of a person’s life, each in their own way. She chose to train to be a doula after having the interaction with her own doula at the birth of her second child. Her first labor and birth was not the experience she had ever imagined so she quickly began to prepare herself for the second one long before she was pregnant. That meant hiring a doula.  She considers a doula to be much more intimate than a labor and delivery nurse. A nurse is often in and out of the room, has more than one laboring person to be tending to, and much more paperwork to be filling out. Even the best labor and delivery nurses are pulled in different directions during their shift and cannot fill the gaps of care they wish they could. A doula is there from the time she is called straight through to the end when the family is settled and ready to be alone.  

Kathryn also believes in the power of being informed and making decisions based on the information presented. A family does not need to have an unmedicated, vaginal delivery for a birth to be considered a great birth. All births are great, the manner in which decisions are made is what really matters in how it is viewed by the birthing person and her partner. Kathryn knows without a doubt there is so much power in having all of the information presented to a birthing person. Knowing that the laboring woman is confident in her decisions because she made the decisions that are best for her. Being present for a birth, being a pillar of support is what Kathryn knew she is meant to do in this phase of her life.  

Kathryn is currently enrolled in a childbirth educator program through Birth Beautifully, and has plans to become certified in reiki and anything else that catches her heart as a calling. She has also completed her pre-requisites for an RN program. Kathryn’s five-year plan is to go for her RN in the hopes of working in an OB office with women’s health overall, moving forward to a labor and delivery nurse, then eventually coming full circle to her own midwifery practice.  

In her spare time, Kathryn enjoys reading, being creative any way she can, and dancing with her kids! ​

Ready to schedule a consultation with Kathryn? 

Meet Kathryn!