Nicole
I began my Birthing From Within® doula journey after becoming a mother, getting married, and receiving "the call" of yoga. I had been inspired by a lifetime background in dance, and as motherhood and domestic life became an integrated part of my shifting identity, it was natural enough that I would feel a pull towards a specialized form of yoga. So in 2003, I set out to explore that calling and found my way into the warm lap of prenatal yoga. I quickly grew into a new and very full part of myself while apprenticing and then teaching yoga to pregnant women in all stages of their prenatal and postpartum journey. As my love for teaching and enthusiasm to support women and couples on their birth path developed, the doula in me was born.
I completed my doula and advanced mentor training with Pam England, author and originator of Birthing From Within®, and have been serving women and couples in the Portland area ever since. I am a mother, a wife, a doula, a mentor, a friend, a dancer, a yogi, and always an avid learner of whatever life throws my way. My passion for the art of birthing envelops my practice as a yoga teacher, a childbirth preparation mentor, and an Inanna Doula Care doula.
It is the birth journey itself I love, the process, the road I travel together with parents as each one is "born" into new parenthood. I adore holding space for this experience, and appreciate witnessing the newness of life in many ways as it unfolds during pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum. No birth is the same, and this exciting truth inspires me to live in the fullest expression of myself in each moment of service as a doula, and in every story of which I am a part of the awesome whole.
Katherine
I fell in love with birth and birthing mamas after attending a close friend's first birth. Shortly after I discovered the doula profession. I have taken two Birthing From Within® training courses with Pam England and am currently working towards completing the rigorous mentor program to become a certified Birthing From Within® mentor. I also plan to become a certified BFW doula as well. I obtained my official doula training from DONA (Doula's of North America) in 2006. Since then I have been attending births and learning and growing as an individual and doula with each and every experience.
I have two amazing young children, Reilly and Roland ages three and two. The birth of my children, my first by cesarian, the second one VBAC, or vaginal birth after cesarian, has transformed me as a woman, mother and doula. In only two births I experienced a wide array of birth settings, care providers, emotions and outcomes that have only strengthened my work as a doula. I look forward to sharing my experience and love of birth with you.
Katrina
Katrina Bubas, a local herbalist in Portland, Oregon, is the founder of The Village Apothecary - a local resource specializing in herbal support for women. Katrina studied master herbalism at the Australasian College of Health Sciences, is a Level II Reiki practitioner, is currently studying indigenous botanicals and ecosystems with the Arctos School of Herbal and Botanical Medicine, and is the mother of the world's coolest kid (except yours, of course).
All of her products are handmade in small batches, right here in Portland, Oregon, and are Local, Organic, Ethically Wild Crafted, Home Grown, with Reduced, Compostable, Reusable, Recyclable Packaging, and delivered in a Veggie-Oil Fueled Vehicle.