Where our Doulas work. Pt.2. Jess of Oyster & Olive Birth Support
The second part of our feature on where our OBC Doulas are and what it’s like for them where they work.
Hi, I’m Jess of Oyster and Olive Birth support. I’m based in South Bristol but I cover all of Bristol and North Somerset
There are a lot of doulas in Bristol! But we are quite a close knit bunch. When meeting clients I do encourage them to meet as many as they can and will usually have met the others doulas they've seen already. It also means I can recommend another doula if I don't mesh that well with someone. That comes from knowing the people around me. It was a bit daunting in the early days, trying to make a name for myself. But I think coming from the OBC doula group, I felt more comfortable finding my voice in a group of other birth workers and not constantly feeling the imposter syndrome creep in!
We have two main maternity hospitals in Bristol and they are quite different (different trusts). We used to have a brilliant birth centre as well but I quietly don't feel that stoked about birth centres so I'm not missing it all that much! I have found that it has had to be a careful negotiation when working with these trusts. One has an excellent home birth team and I have got to know lots of the midwives on the team and we are becoming good friends and supportive of each other in our very different roles. The home birth provision by the other hospital isn't good at all, run by, often begrudged, community midwives, and less confident to support physiological birth.
My approach is definitely not an all-guns-blazing one. I make an effort to be kind and courteous to ensure the birth environment stays positive. But sometimes I do ask to have a chat outside of the birth room and try to make it clear that I am there to 100% advocate for this family and my ears and eyes are open!
I co-host a Pregnancy & Parenthood drop-in group in South Bristol - a sort of 'come along if you fancy and have a cuppa and a chat'. I usually take a few books and props but so far the conversation has flowed nicely and they have been really great! I feel like it's important to offer this space for free - something really informal but where you could go with a newborn or when you felt a bit fed up in your third trimester! Sometimes people bring their older kids along and it turns into a bit of a playgroup! As well as this, I have started reaching out to other birth workers and related professionals to include add-ons to my doula packages. Things like pregnancy/postpartum massages, Mummy MOTs, postpartum food boxes. To try and create a network of people who offer different things so parents can see what's available to them but also really easy to access - I do all the bookings etc!
Finally, I volunteer for ProjectMama, supporting refugees and asylum seekers through their pregnancies, births and fourth trimesters. This is hard work, where a lot of time and attention needs to be offered. I have learned that I can only manage to support one woman at a time with this because they need and deserve a lot of care. This feels really important to me though, to balance my workload and be able to support them and work with this beautiful charity.
It definitely helps me to feel enveloped in the birth world. To feel 'real' and knowledgeable. It also opens my experience net massively, just talking to people about their pregnancies and births. I hope it gives me some credibility as well!
The work also impacts my community positively! Our pregnancy group was shared by a few people on local WhatsApp groups and that felt great, like it was needed!
In the greater Bristol community, the ProjectMama work definitely feels very important - raising awareness as much as anything else.
We know that it takes a village - becoming a parent can be so isolating, lonely and scary if you're unsupported. Not everyone can afford to have full doula support but luckily some can - and those that can fund the extra projects when the support can be extended out to everyone. Where I live in South Bristol we are a community - there is a high street with a bookshop, greengrocer, butcher ... the primary schools all come together for a lantern parade every year. The community centre is active and central. These things help us to bring the community together and our community is rife with families. Things like free drop-in groups can be a real life line, a way to make friends and merge into the community. This feels like a way to give back to a community that I was raised in and ensuring people don't feel the loneliness that is so often felt by new parents.