Welcome to my website, and congratulations on the blessing of your baby (or babies)! Once Baby Comes … is the fulfillment of a long-held dream to work in the health-care field, serving families, and changing lives. Let me share a bit of my story with you…

I am trained and accredited as a postpartum doula, and am a mother of four young children. My training has been extensive, and is continuously ongoing. I am accredited through the Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association of Canada (CAPPA Canada). In my role as a mother, I have survived postpartum depression, two miscarriages, pregnancy complications that resulted in a necessary early-induction of labour, and a newborn who required special care in the neonatal intensive care unit. I have given birth both with medical interventions and naturally. I have been incredibly blessed with three beautiful daughters, Mary Elizabeth, Anne, and Nicole (one of my angels in heaven), and three equally beautiful sons, Matthew, Christopher and Thomas (my other angel). I have had the wonderful experience of breastfeeding each of my children for over a year.

While there are few, if any, women who can say that they have experienced everything to do with motherhood, I do have a wide variety of relevant personal experiences to support the knowledge I have acquired through my studies and attendance of new mothers and their babies.

It is my job to care for mother and baby (primarily) and the rest of the family (secondarily) on two levels ~ physical and emotional. In this capacity, I may offer observations and non-judgmental advice which I feel, based upon my expertise and experience, is important for you to hear, as it relates to your and your baby's restoration to physical and emotional health.

As your postpartum doula, it is my job to “mother” the mother ~ to empower her to recover and restore her body from pregnancy and the trauma of birth so that she can take control back of her life in all aspects ~ physical, emotional, and spiritual. This can be a real challenge whenever a baby is born, whether it is your first or your fourth, because each experience is as unique as each child that is born. A new mother can struggle for a far longer period of time than she would if adequate nurturing of the mother was in place from the beginning.

The postpartum period is known, although not popularly, as the fourth trimester of pregnancy. It lasts beyond the customary 6 weeks, and can extend beyond even the three months of a “traditional” trimester. Each woman's postpartum period is unique to her life circumstances. Once Baby Comes … is here to help you through this very special time in your life.