I want to be clear about something: I did not have a plan.
Twenty-three years in IT. That was my life. I was good at it, it paid well, and honestly for a long time it was enough. When I had my baby, something shifted; but even then I wasn’t out here researching career changes or scrolling doula certification programs. That’s not how this happened.
What happened was Dee.
I went to a babywearing session with Dee (a postpartum doula, yoga instructor, and all-around amazing human who I’d taken yoga with throughout my parental leave) and somewhere between figuring out the wrap and chatting about work, she said something that stuck with me: how rewarding postpartum support is. I mean, she literally gets to smell newborns for a living.
I went home and thought about it for approximately two weeks, and life happened and I forgot about it.
January 1st, she DM’d me.
“Just wanted to point out there’s a training coming up. I know you were eyeing it.”
I had already seen it. I’d looked at it and decided it wasn’t the right moment – I was just about to go back to work, we had just gotten back from France, I needed to curb the spending a lil bit. But that one DM was like .. that was the sign that maybe it is the right moment. It’s January first, new beginnings, new year, new me, new … career?
So I said “fuck it, let’s do it” and signed up for Motherwit Postpartum Doula Training.
What happened next genuinely surprised me. I breezed through the training in a way I haven’t experienced with much of anything. I signed up for extra courses. I read extra books. It just clicked.
My first clients came through Dee too. And I’ll just say this: the joy in that house on my last day with them is something I’m going to carry for a long time.
I didn’t have a plan, but I think it might be working out.