Formal Statement About My Career

I am a researcher, college faculty member, doula trainer, and educator focusing on intimate relationships.  I started out as a birth doula in 1988 and became a DONA International birth doula trainer in 1997.  Providing doula care is still a satisfying part of my life.  On my own and with my colleagues Karen Kohls, PT, and Ruth Ancheta, M.A., I have taught over fifty beginning doula training workshops.

In the last few years, I have also published research on women's sexual experiences (see the Publications page).  I teach several psychology courses at Madison Area Technical College, including their Human Sexuality course.  I am also an AASECT certified Sexuality Educator. 

Besides teaching doula trainings, I also teach Parent and Infant Attachment workshops for professionals who work with postpartum families.  I developed these workshops for the Family Living program division of the University of Wisconsin-Extension system.

My main areas of research are on effective labor support by doulas and the psychological needs of mothers and fathers during their labor and birth experience.  I completed my dissertation in June 2010 in Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (see the Publications page).  So far I have completed interviews with 52 doulas, 30 mothers, 18 fathers, and 6 nurses from all over North America.  One article has been published and others are currently in different phases of the submission process. 

Curriculum Vitae

Background Information

I was raised in San Jose and in the Napa Valley of California.  I was lucky that my home was in a rural area and I was allowed to roam outside for hours by myself.  Nature is still my anchor and my solace.  My grandparents lived in Napa for over fifty years and I am a frequent visitor to the area.  I have also spent a great deal of time in San Francisco and can get around without a map!

I have three young adult children who all reside in Wisconsin.  One of my unknown talents is that I like to renovate houses that are in poor shape! 
 

Why Birth? 

During my senior year in high school, my much older sister had a home birth.  Because of our age difference, we weren't very close and she lived far away.  But I was really curious about her choice–why would someone DO that?  A few years later, my best friend from kindergarten went into labor quite suddenly. I ended up as her only support person during a very quick labor and birth.  It left me with a lot of questions like:

"If she was having trouble breathing, why not have her sit up than lay flat on her back?" 
"If he was coming out so quickly (labor was one hour, 42 minutes), why did they cut her vagina open and then sew her back up again?"
"If baby Joel was crying so hard, why did they say his lungs weren't mature and take him away to the nursery (where we heard him bawling for the next 15 minutes)?" 

Upon returning to school, I wrote and researched about alternative birth practices and birth centers for my classes.  Eventually I had my own children, and became a childbirth educator and professional birth assistant. 

Through birth, I see the opportunity for personal growth and empowerment for my clients.  They will need strength and to know themselves in order to make the important decisions that parenting demands of them.  The world is in flux and there are many opportunities to have one's values tested.  Understanding what matters to you as a person and as a parent and being able to honor those feelings and values while still respecting others who disagree is important work.  I feel that I teach and model that when I work with families.  It isn't important that they agree with me, but that they know themselves and make choices based on knowledge and understanding their alternatives. 

I love this work because it feeds my soul.  I couldn't not do it.  Babies are fully formed, conscious, small people who are dependent on big people to meet their needs and to form their consciousness.  When we understand that truth and how to nurture and guide our children by our own behavior towards them, we change the world.  My part in it is to help families by spreading this knowledge about birth and infancy and parenting and helping people to open their eyes that this matters.

Why Sex?

I think most of us who are sexuality educators or counselors initially started with a question.  And that question was, “Why?”  Whether it was about a behavior, a value, or a sexual practice, we wanted to learn more about it and to understand what was behind it.  Much of human sexual behavior is still a mystery in one way or another.  In this last decade we are beginning to realize how much of what we feel is actually influenced by our biology.  Because of the historical feeling that sex was private and somehow shameful, asking questions about sex has had this same stigma.  Unless it is deemed relevant to public health, it is very difficult to obtain funds for sexuality research.

However studies show that open dialogue and acceptance of sexuality as a normal part of being human leads to better adjustment and satisfaction in life.  Because I don’t feel shy talking about intimate matters, becoming a sexuality educator felt like a natural next step.  Using my doula and interviewing skills, people naturally open up to me about their experiences.  So I find sexuality research compelling and needed in our culture. 

May 2005

Things You Wouldn't Know (Unless I Told You)

If I could drive any car I'd drive: an Aston Martin Vanquish.
What I do drive:  a 1998 Volvo sedan with a 'WI Doula" license plate.

My favorite vacation:  Usually involves somewhere warm with a beach and flowers blooming.

I don't like coffee. 

If I could have dinner with anyone famous who is not currently alive:
I would choose Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck to discuss the development of their theories of evolution. 

If I could go back in time and change history, I would:  Speak up so that women's experiences of childbearing do not take a back seat to reproductive rights in the women's movements of the 1960's and 70's. 

The most annoying thing about growing old is: all the maintenance!