Who we are...

We are a group of birth and postpartum doulas providing support to pregnant women and their families in and around Madison, Wisconsin.

Each of us offer our own independent doula services, but we work together as a collective to provide back up support to one another, and meet regularly to discuss birth topics and current research and practices. Collectively, we have attended a total of 494 births (as of October 2012).

We are individually unique, coming from different backgrounds and inspirations, and offering various levels of experience and services. Within our group we have a midwife, a student midwife, a professionnal photographer (thx Lea for the photos on the site!), hypnobirthing and childbirth educators, lactation counselors, placenta encapsulators, a prenatal and postnatal fitness educator, a relaxation/hypnosis practicioner, and a licensed massage therapist. Having this diversity allows us to provide peer teaching to one another which enriches our scope of practice.

Collectively we all share a passion for supporting women and their families in pregnancy, birth and postpartum. We all have given birth ourselves (some of us several times!) so we each understand the joys and challenges that pregnancy, birth, and motherhood bring on a very personal level.

A little history...
Our group started out in 2005 when several of us began working with each other to provide back up doula support. Over time, we decided to hold a monthly meeting for our clients to get to know the other doulas and to discuss birth topics.

As a few more doulas were added to the group, we started to meet more regularly, share resources, discuss labor support techniques and current research, and learn from one another's experiences.

In the spring of 2011, we finally decided to give our group an official name, the Madison Doula Collective (MDC).

Monthly Meetings
As mentioned above, a special aspect of the MDC is that we offer our clients a chance to meet with our group monthly so that they may become acquainted with all the doulas in the event a backup doula is required during a birth.

These meetings offer our clients not only the chance to meet with the doulas, but also a chance to build community; a chance to meet others who will be birthing with the support of a doula; and an opportunity to discuss and ask any questions about pregnancy, birth and postpartum.

One of our favorite parts of the doula group meeting is when our clients come back and share their birth stories with our group. It is so empowering to hear real birth stories first hand during pregnancy, and it also gives the pregnant mamas a time to ask questions about each birth experience or about newborn or postpartum care.

Interested in coming to meet us? We offer a meet and greet before our monthly group prenatal meeting so you can come and ask questions to us individually. We meet at Happy Bambino the first Sunday of every month. The doors will open at 3:15 pm and our meet and greet will start promptly at 3:30 and go until 4:00 pm. Following our meet and greet, our monthly group prenatal meets from 4:00 - 5:30 pm. Here are our upcoming meetings:

June 2, 2013 **there will not be a meet and greet at 3:15 pm this Sunday due to the Speed Doula Dating event at Happy Bambino. You are welcome to join us for our monthly group prenatal that will take place from 4:00 - 5:30 pm.
July 7, 2013
August 4, 2013

Supporting our community

As a group, we are all committed to supporting local resources that serve women during pregnancy and childbirth by donating $25 from each birth we attend. The two organizations that we are supporting at this time in Madison are Small Miracles (a free doula service for women unable to afford to pay a doula) and The Rainbow Sisters (a non-profit bereavement doula service for families who experience the loss of a child).

 

Thank you to Maureen Cassidy Photography for our group pictures and to Lea Wolf Photo for the birth photography!