Sweet Peace Doula

05/27/2026

Doula work is soul work. Yes, it’s magic. It’s also heavy. It’s also holding someone else’s discomfort. It’s also knowing when you aren’t needed. It’s also knowing what’s the difference between your emotional responses and what is their emotional response (spoiler they don’t always mirror one another).

But there’s a reason I keep finding my way back. It will either drain you or fill you up. I think 19 year old me would think we’re a pretty cool doula. I’d also think she’d be proud of the way I navigated through and around a season where I questioned if doula work was worth it.

This birth (like all) taught me so much. It also made me realize that yeah - it really did take 50+ delivers to feel confident !!! Not because I know it all. But because I’m finally comfortable with knowing I can’t know it all (ironic). But I can, and am gifted, at still navigated the journey with you regardless.

Grateful is an understatement. How lucky am I to have found the thing that lights my soul on fire 🔥

Shout to for absolutly rocking my world and changing my practice for the better. I am convinced of becoming certified in their training now - hopefully someday soon!

05/26/2026

9 years ago today, such vivid memories from all I learned and witnessed while in the Philippines!!

⬇️ the caption I wrote along with this imagine, from the original day I shared it.

“Psalm 63:7 “For you have been my help in the night, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.”

What a life to live. To aid in the bringing forth of new babes. What a life to be given. What a precious calling that weighs upon my heart. Thank you Jesus for being my hands, my heart, my eyes and ears during birth. Without him, I am nothing ❤
..they named her Divine.”

05/19/2026

Once upon a time, I was a newbie doula. I went on-call and my world went on pause. Cancelling plans, waiting to book personal appointments, constantly picking up my phone during the day and in a panic in the middle of the night.

But that isn’t exactly sustainable to one’s nervous system 😅 I would have been so “on” by the time I got the actual birth, my energy quickly faded. Or in one case, I was so jacked up, I found myself as the one throwing up in the bathroom!!

It took time and experience to realize that the best thing I can do for myself (and my client) is to continue living life as if I’m NOT on-call!! Sounds counterintuitive but hear me out!

If I put my whole life on pause every time, I wouldn’t really have much of a life 🤷🏻‍♀️ this is actually a boundaries issue but we won’t get into that this post.

Best piece of advice I can give a newbie doula? Just make the plans, look up cancelation policies, don’t tell anyone you’re on call; and move on. They WILL call you EVENTUALLY I promise. They also need a doula who’s rested, alert and calm when the time comes.

Other ways I like to prepare my body for a birth if I am feeling buzzy, or have a spidey sense the day is coming are…
• intentional time in nature
• weight training, pushing my body physically
• focus on food! Eating a good meal
• shifting my focus to what my brain can juggle (being a mom & a doula is a whole new mental load)
• a warm shower
• grounding myself in rituals that I’ve created specifically for birth, for example: taking my time while braiding my hair

Are you a newbie doula? I’d love to connect!

05/15/2026

Just felt like this was a crime to be still sitting in my drafts 😂👸🏻👑

05/15/2026

03/31/2026

Here she is, Part 3 folks. I’m curious your thought on this one. To those of you following along this journey I am so grateful for your time and responses. For those catching up right now, I’ve decided to share my birth story, this part and the first and second are all linked in my bio 💜 a gentle reminder: my story isn’t rainbows and butterflies. This portion deals with some intense emotional and mental health struggles. Please take care of yourself first before reading.

This photo is proof of my late night blended oatmeal baths 👌🏼

03/20/2026

Buckle up folks, cause we’re getting down to the nitty gritty now. Feeling pretty vulnerable & yet like I’m shedding something heavy…and that feels good.

Please review the trigger warning below.
Link in the bio 💜

PLEASE NOTE: *Trigger Warning*

[ My birth story contains personally experienced and expressed pain, description of medical procedures through my POV. Medical trauma/birth emergency. Conversation around care and postpartum complications. Details about pain, discomfort and personal trauma will be shared. Please consider first and make a choice that is best for you and your well being. If you’ve yet to have a baby, I do not recommend reading. You deserve to read positive birth stories but of course the choice is still yours. My story is mine and is how my body interpreted what happened. ]

03/19/2026

PLEASE NOTE: *Trigger Warning*

[ My birth story contains personally experienced and expressed pain, description of medical procedures through my POV. Medical trauma/birth emergency. Conversation around care and postpartum complications. Details about pain, discomfort and personal trauma will be shared. Please consider this first and make a choice that is best for you and your well being. If you’ve yet to have a baby, I do not recommend reading. You deserve to read positive birth stories but of course the choice is still yours. My story is mine and is how my body interpreted what happened. ]

Hey friends, I’ve debated for many years on whether or not to share my birth story. In the past I’d offered snippets of insight. There are many reasons for why I did and then why some of those posts got deleted.

But in this moment, I’ve decided to document my lived experience as a way of letting it go. For some reason I am feeling compelled to share.

And honestly, I am really writing it for me. I have no expectation of you to read it. I am also unsure how long I’ll keep it up for others to access. And I will still be telling future clients to not read, or know details until after their own birth.

I often feel my birth story makes me feel as if I don’t belong in this space as a birth doula. My story doesn’t feel appropriate to share over coffee. In fact I often feel a little misplaced. My story made me feel like I’d failed not only at birth but at being a doula (somehow). Sharing here and now is my way of being vulnerable and coming up against those negative, false beliefs I’ve kept private in my head. And honestly, it feels lonely carrying such a monumental, life changing event tucked away because it’s too graphic to constantly relay “hey this thing happened to me and now I’m forever changed”.

I’m seeing this as letting the light shine in on what was once the darkest of times I’ve ever experienced. I hope you see and hear my heart. I no longer feel shame in my experience. You can’t fail at birth 🫶🏼

Love, Elisa
💜

Substack link in my bio

03/15/2026

Can I tell you about my Dad?

A little bit of a different post than my normal. But it’s apparently Long COVID Awareness Day. Our lives changed that first wave, just like everyone’s. But our COVID nightmare continues while most people have moved on. My Dad is an incredible human, who just so happens to also carry this invisible illness.

What came of that Spring in 2020 was a frantic family meeting, high emotions, and whoops….a positive pregnancy test! Yeah. I like to think Moses knew Papa needed a buddy & and a reason to keep going and decided to come along at the perfect time. At 18months old he would seem to “hold” Papa in return, gently patting his back.

Long COVID impacts individuals very differently. The range is just as odd and unpredictable as is the disease itself. But it changes capacity, energy, brain-focus, physical exertion to name a few. I say it’s invisible because there are no markers to suggest someone with Long COVID is suffering. But they are, if anything individuals with LC are drowning not just in the physical but the mental/emotional toll.

I’m sharing today because this awareness day gave my heart the opportunity to talk about our story. One that often feels forgotten, who wants to dwell on COVID anymore? The world healed. While the Long COVID community continues to hurt. It’s unfair to say the least. My heart goes out to the LC community.

In this photo my Dad and I are on a canoe trip, I’m 19! We floated on top of our life jackets in the warm Ontario lake water. Watched the annual August meteor shower sitting by the camp fire. Paddled under rainbows. It was an incredible trip.

Our camping trips might involve the trailer now. Less portaging and more chatting around the fire than before. But that’s my Dad, a quiet steady companion. A wonderful Papa who still plays and makes up activities and games on a bad day.

We are hoping and praying for further resources and potential cures as research continues. But it’s still a long road ahead, that’s very unknown. Tomorrow LC awareness day will end. But I hope you remember beyond just today. For just like we needed one another back then, those with LC need you still now.

03/13/2026

Doulas are like push up bras. There to hold a girl up and support you, but defs not to be the main character.

(Does anyone read captions anymore 😆)