ProDoula
CURRENT STATUS: Pre-CD Labor
BUSINESS NAME/AFFILIATION: Martha Bishop, Doula
SERVICES PROVIDED: Labor Doula Services
About
AREAS SERVED: Franklin County, Hampden County, Hampshire County, MA Greenfield - Holyoke - Northampton - Springfield
CONTACT INFO:
Phone: 413-588-7483
Email: marthabish@gmail.com
Meet Your ProDoula
Background/Experience that you think is beneficial to Doula work: I provided childcare for 11 years for one family. The baby boy was three months old when I began caring for him. I mothered without being a mom. I am a sensitive, intuitive, calm person. I naturally tune in to people and their needs and people naturally relax around me. This is who I am and have been my whole life. My doula training gives me the tools to use my natural talents most effectively for people giving birth.
What led you to become a Doula?: When I first found out what it means to be a doula, I knew it was a natural fit for me. I am a calm person. I speak softly. I am comfortable with emotion. I can be with people experiencing their own experience and be quiet. I use active listening and validate feelings. It’s like breathing, I don’t think about it, I just do it. I am attuned to the feelings of others, and I naturally know how to *just be* with someone and allow for the experience of feeling feelings in the moment, not fix, discuss, judge, criticize, or anything else, *just be*. I have no sense of time, things take how long they take, however long that is. When my very first client told me “You helped me have the healing birth I wanted.” I thought “Oh yes. This is it for me.” It was incredibly satisfying to do nothing more than be myself with this mother through her labor and delivery and learn later it was exactly what she needed.
What are some positive comments made about you by other people?:
“She is just so “even,” that’s the only way I can describer her. She listens, she values, she helps, she’s calm….” L.H.
“With the arrival of our second child, I was looking for a birthing experience where I felt empowered and in control. Martha was very receptive in helping us achieve this goal….Martha was a wonderful addition to our birthing experience and we would have been lost without her support.”
C. S.
“ We highly recommend Martha as a birthing doula as she is so relaxing in her demeanor yet strong in the comfort she provides. She helped me have my “healing” birth since my previous births had been traumatic.”
S.C.