Today we’d like to introduce you to Dinorah.
Hi Dinorah, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I became a doula in 2019 after accepting a scholarship for The Full Spectrum Doula training through Birthing Way College of Midwifery. I partnered with a local nonprofit that worked exclusively with Medi-Cal clients and set up aspiring doulas with guidance to receive a Traditional Health Care Worker Certification to bill insurance companies for doula support. The grant-funded certification allowed me a roadmap to make doula support my primary income. I gained experience and education through nonprofit referrals who needed support in various local hospitals. The experience that came along with the first few years was tough; the Medicare-approved hospital referrals came with a lot of systemic challenges.
Our training included classes in Childbirth Education and pain management. The focus of our training was to help us navigate clients’ emotional care, while promoting movement through labor and delivery. My training was unique because it blended the science of being born, and the emotional and spiritual aspects of birth as well. Through extensive trauma-informed care training, community health care training, and advocacy training, we aimed to center pregnant people’s lived experiences and honor clients’ birthing preferences in hospital environments. After being in the service industry throughout my life, to my surprise, most of my stamina for this job came from my background in restaurant work. Working under intense pressure, communicating with networks of people, working doubles and managing chaos while holding space for joy and celebration, doula work and the restaurant service industry exercised a lot of the same skill sets. My first doula mentor told me “it takes more grit to be a doula than most people realize.” I smirked a little at that perspective because my Father always told me “it takes a lot of grit to be a Santana.” So I knew this work was meant for me from the day of my own birthing experience with my son. I already knew grit and I came from chaos. The chance to hold space for both in the name of birth is what hooked me in, and ultimately why I dig deeper into my practice. I loved building my practice in Oregon, however I couldn’t see myself in my own practice. Doula work at first felt like I was missing out on something more in tune with my own culture. My doula practice led me home to San Diego, California. Where I currently practice labor support. Serving in my home town, where my family built their lives, has been the missing link in my practice. I currently work with a few client refer portals in San Diego, Ca.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Birth is generally a smooth road; navigating hospitals is not. The United States rates highest in birth mortality rates for our black population. We also rate high in C-sections; we also rate very high in interventions such as membrane sweeps, inductions, and epidurals. Most of the time, birth does not need interventions. With a waterfall of interventions, it becomes less likely for movement and natural progression of birth. Setting up a calming, peaceful environment is key to a birthing person’s experience overall. Studies show, doulas help! However, some nurses don’t make us feel welcomed and can undermine the value of what our very specific role is in the birthing room. I’ve been shut down and talked over several times in the birthing room while suggesting different positions to birth in. I’ve had professionals scoff, roll their eyes, or get pushy during times of key milestones in the birthing experience. Not all hospitals are alike; not all staff are alike, but I do have my favorite hospitals to work in. However, I am not here to “pink wash” the system; I am here to disrupt the practices in the labor rooms that have proven to make things far more challenging for my clients, and nurses with blatant bad attitudes towards birth plans, and doulas can make or break our time together in that room.
We are also still birthing in the hardest, least effective, most pain-inducing position: on our backs with legs in stirrups. Most expecting people don’t know their options in the birthing room, and how to effectively help baby move down for a less painful birth. I seek to help clients navigate their birthing experiences and honor their desired goals and birthing preferences as safely and respectfully as possible. A supportive birthing team should hold space for those goals, and a non-supportive nursing staff in these situations can make things very intense in the laboring room and cause harmful stress to my client and their experience. I’ve had nurses for hours deflect and neglect reasonable clients’ requests not to birth on their backs, and they can straight up ignore those requests, taking away a woman’s agency to birth how she chooses. Stressed-out clients do not move through birth effectively; they shut down.
Upfront costs of maintaining a substantial doula practice are all out of pocket. We are mostly independent contractors, so we deal with a lot of burnout. Including financial hardship, emotional and mental health hardships, and poor healthcare options.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I specialize in labor support and immediate aftercare. I recently joined Raya Health Care, which is a portal for referrals and private clients for labor support and placenta encapsulation. I am known for showing up and tuning in! I love birth, and I take great joy in holding space for my clients. I specialize in traditional birth work. I aim to help expecting birthing people and their families navigate the birth experience. I like to keep my approach simple; breathing+movement+position are the pillars to effectively move through birth with fewer interventions and interruptions. When we create safe spaces to birth, our bodies move labor down on their own and create room for connection and ultimately joy.
I am most proud of my clients who really just go for it! When I see them breathing and swaying and moaning during labor. As their exhales become louder and their contractions grow more intense, the wall we put up as women to protect ourselves comes down. We stop being performative for the comfort of others around us. I watch birthing people grunt, and sweat, and growl. I watch them dance and sing softly to themselves. I watch them echo the experiences of their mothers and their mother’s mother before them. I watch women bend, twist, and contort; I observe birthing bodies become portals; I am most proud of that aspect. That I get to hold space for something like that, regularly.
I hope what sets me apart from other doulas is my radical optimism and dedication to advocacy in the birthing room. After all this job and this on call lifestyle take a lot of grit. And grit I have, I am proud of that.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
My biggest supporters are my family, especially my son, Dexter. He’s very supportive of my practice and really all of the side quests that stem from doula work. My sisters and their partners for holding me down and stepping up when I need you the most. My community of 92113! My friends, my coworkers, my fellow artists, cooks, bartenders, every barista, herbalists, and street vendor on Logan Ave. Too many community connections to list! Really, I have incredible community in my life.
Freddy and Amber, and Chef Lety, for being the world’s best neighbors and a real example of friendship and community, always considering Dex and me when all of you have your own lives; you all make room for us, and for that I will always remain grateful. I will forever try to pay the generously forward.
Raya Health Care for giving me my start here in San Diego, CA. They are a wonderful organization to partner with and have been very supportive of my doula practice.
Sory of Artesanal_sory has the most incredible robozos! She’s been so kind educating me on the robozo and all it has to offer. They are just a really special business to support on Logan Ave. I use her robozos for all my births.
Pricing:
- Insurance accepted and Medi-care approved!
- Placenta Encapsulation (inquire for pricing)
Contact Info:
- Website: find me on findraya.com!
- Instagram: dinorah_sandiego
