
Dealing with anxiety had been a big part of my adult life so far, one of those anxieties being a fear of pregnancy and giving birth. My husband Michael and I have been together for more than 15 years and having a family of our own meant the world to us. As my mid-thirties fast approached I knew I had to find a way to rid this fear so my bigger fear of never experiencing motherhood didn't become a reality. This is when I started looking into the role of a Doula and found Cheryl. Cheryl made us feel comfortable from the first time we met, offering us all the advice and support we needed from the beginning of the pregnancy right to the very end. Cheryl made me feel confident in my abilities and our decisions each step of the way. All this aside though, we could never imagined how much Cheryl would be a support to us on the day our beautiful boy arrived. Our labour was long once admitted to hospital as my body would progress then stall for several hours at several points. Cheryl was there from the early hours of the morning till the early hours of the next morning, giving both my husband and I emotional support and having all the right tools and advice each step of the way. Having a longer labour saw us see several shift changes with the hospital midwives so having Cheryl there the whole time, a familiar face with years of experience in these situations, was certainly reassuring and invaluable to us. Looking back, my husband and I could not have imagined bringing our little boy into the world without Cheryl. She kept us both feeling positive, focused and confident in what we were doing having not experienced anything close to this before. We will be forever thankful.
Tonya, Michael & Harlan