Birth & Postpartum Doula

I have always been a space holder, always been desperate to find ways to support the people around me. My own lived experience with trauma & mental illness only increased this desire. I’ve always wanted to make it matter.

So when my friend, teacher, sister, mentor, Kendra Potter, offered a prenatal yoga training and birth doula certification last year, I eagerly jumped on it. I wasn’t expecting, however, to fall so deeply into birthwork, to the beauty of the body, the sacredness of the womb. I wasn’t expecting to have my heart race at the disservices birthing people confront through pregnancy, postpartum & into parenthood. I wasn’t expecting the passion or the anger. I knew then I had to do this work.

Pregnancy & postpartum are opportunities. Opportunities to lean & be held, to challenge & overcome, to find ritual & rhythm, to be gentle & reverent. I want to honor every stage of this process; the excitement, the exhaustion, the elation, the fear, the pain, and most importantly, the deep grief. I want to sink into that raw & gritty time & be with you in it. I want to challenge you to treat yourself with grace. I want to challenge you to confront the fear. I want to challenge you to mourn what is no longer yours, so you can fully celebrate what now is.

Pregnancy & postpartum are invitations, too. Invitations to let go. Let go of unrealistic expectations, let go of past hurts, let go of any idea of imperfection or not enough. This is your journey & whatever way you do it will be beautiful. Let me hold your hand & walk through it with you.

Find me on Instagram @avecarroll

Birth & Prenatal Doula

I’ve been attending to families in birth since 2013 & have completed trainings with DONA, Charlotte Rauthe, & most recently, a ten-day training with Angela Gallo.

The births of my own two children were swift initiations into the ferocity of birth & postpartum. I believe fiercely in the wisdom of the body and of birth. I feel that pregnancy operates as an invitation to descend, & that birth is a catalyst for a rebirth of every member of the family. I am passionate about inviting birthing people to confront the truths they are avoiding and to step into the power of their truths as a means to make way for the new life that is attempting to come through. I believe that birth & death are intimately knit together &, having faced many of my own deaths, I feel that we owe it to ourselves, our children, & to the collective to devote ourselves to the Truth of our lives, that we may die to what no longer is & be reborn into our fullness. Pregnancy, birth, & postpartum, I feel, are a most potent invitations to this rite of passage.

After taking a few years away from the birthing world to navigate my own deaths and the realities of motherhood, I am answering the call to step back into this work.

Find me on Instagram @_annamarie_hernandez