Meet Jamie, Austin Area Doula, Photographer, and Childbirth Educator
Jamie Crouse Gwynn, Certified Birth Doula for the Austin Area
As a doula serving the Austin area, I provide pregnancy and birth support to birthing women and their families. My mission is to help you achieve an empowered birth by trusting in the innate capabilities of your body to give birth and through making informed decisions about their care.
I received my initial training from DONA in October 2013 and began attending births shortly afterward, achieving certification in September 2014. In 2016, I became certified as a birth and postpartum doula with DTI. I am also trained and certified with Stillbirthday as a birth and bereavement doula. As a certified Rebozo and Spinning Babies practitioner, I have enhanced my skills in labor comfort and optimal fetal positioning. I am a member of the Central Texas Doula Association, Austin Birth Professionals, and Doulas of Faith. As a HEART doula, I am pledged to a business that is honest, ethical, accountable, reliable, and thoughtful.
From my very first birth as a doula, I realized the beauty of birth and the desire to document those fleeting moments, even just with a cell phone camera. I have been interested in photography since I was a child, so several years into my doula work, I decided to turn my photography interest toward the birth space. I began learning about the special skills in birth photography and took a course with the internationally-recognized birth photography organization Birth Becomes You and became a certified birth photographer through them in 2018. In early 2021, after a rigorous portfolio review, I was also accepted as Certified Professional Birth Photographer. My work has been featured with Birth Becomes You, Exposing Birth, and Austin Woman Magazine.
My mission to help women achieve an empowered birth grew out of my own experiences of giving birth. My two sons, born at a local birth center, with the compassionate care of midwives, helped me to appreciate how the positive experience of giving birth can shape one’s life. I was inspired toward a career in birth work so I could help others have a positive birth experience.
Photo courtesy of Coley Cline https://www.coleyclinephotoandfilms.com/portfolio
Before becoming a doula, I taught English literature, having earned a Ph.D specializing in women’s literature. Since I have always been interested in women’s experiences and how they tell their stories, it has not been a radical shift to supporting women through one of the most life-altering experiences, that of giving birth, and helping them to have a birth story that they will be proud to tell again and again and again. When I am not at a birth or studying all things birthy, I am usually found chasing my kids around with a camera, curled up in bed with a good book, outside hiking and camping with my family, or trying to grow edible things from my garden, which must compete for space with all my roses.
Jamie's Philosophy
. . . trusting your body, your choices
My mission is to help you have an empowered birth through trusting in your body and in your decision-making capability. I can help you achieve an empowered birth, not because I have any special powers that I endow to you, but because I help you find the power you already have within yourself. Giving birth is probably the hardest thing that you will do in your life, and almost all women face a crisis in labor when they think they can’t do it, but they are able to call upon their deepest wells of strength, usually more than they realized they had, so it is an empowering experience to realize you are stronger than you ever knew. It is my role to encourage women during this crisis and to help them find the strength they need to press on and meet their baby. Watching this transformation, and seeing this joy and self-discovery is one of the most rewarding aspects of my work. I trust that women’s bodies were exquisitely designed to give birth and with the proper support and encouragement, most women can give birth to their babies normally. In a culture that fears childbirth, it can be very empowering to believe in your body and not give in to fear-based pressure and interventions. Another important aspect of my job is providing information and education so that women can make informed choices about their care. I trust that with the best information and evidence-based research, women are empowered to make the decisions that are right for them. It is an important part of the birth experience to remain in control of your medical decisions, and even those who need more medical interventions but whose voice is heard and respected can still feel empowered and positive about their birth experience. I will support you in whatever decisions you make about your birth, whether you are pursuing a hospital birth or out-of-hospital birth, a natural birth, a medically-managed birth, or a surgical birth. Whatever the circumstances of your birth, I am there to help you have a beautiful and empowering birth experience that will be one of your most treasured memories.
