Happy New Year! As I step out into this new year, I am thankful for all that 2014 brought to me It has been an exciting year as I have just completed my first year as a birth doula and launched my business, Empowered Birthing Professional Doula Service. As always, it is an honor to be allowed to be part of each family's birth team and present in the sacred moments of new life. I have enjoyed getting to know each family that I have worked with, and I have learned immensely from each birth that I have attended. To each and every family, I thank you.

The highlights of last year have been many. It has been my pleasure to serve thirteen families as they welcomed their newest additions into their hearts and arms. I have served in three birth centers and five hospitals in the Austin area, and have been able to witness a variety kinds of births, natural, medically managed, cesarean, and VBAC. In July, I submitted my credentials and applied for my certification with DONA, and in October I received word that I am a certified birth doula. During the summer I also received training through Stillbirthday in order to become a birth and bereavement doula. This was an intense training that has prepared me to serve in births during all trimesters and all outcomes. I have just submitted my final projects and should receive my certification shortly. I have also begun working on my credentials as a certified EC coach with Go Diaper Free. I hope to begin offering classes and private consultations for families wishing to practice Elimination Communication (aka infant potty training) with their babies. If you or anyone you know is interested in this service, please send them my way. I have also started a cloth diaper and baby carrier rental library that will be available for clients to try out different items before they make their own purchases. It has been a year full of learning and I am excited about the new services that I will be able to offer families.

I look forward to serving many new families in the coming year. I hope to build on these successes and branch out even more in the coming year. Come check out what's happening here at Empowered Birthing! And bring on 2015!

We would like to announce the birth of baby Gideon, born to Chris and Sondra on October 28, 7:48 pm at St. David's North Austin Medical Center. He weighed in at 8 lbs 14 ounces and 21 inches long. Sondra began her labor at home throughout the night and then moved on to Austin Area Birthing Center where she continued to labor naturally she had planned and did a great job with the support of her husband Chris. Eventually it became necessary to transfer to the hospital and to have a cesarean birth, but she was still able to walk into the operating room on her own two feet. What an empowered mama! I am so proud of her strength, courage, and resilience throughout the whole labor and birth.

Sondra working through labor with the support of her husband Chris

Sondra and Gideon, bonding during recovery