“I moved to Vermont two years ago, and it has been magical so far! I was living in the suburbs of Philadelphia and had been hearing whispers about Vermont for years—how beautiful it is and how there is organic food everywhere–so, I started looking for farm jobs in the Fall of 2021 and ended up working at Walker Farm in Dummerston by the Spring of 2022.
My interest in birthwork began in 2016 when I met an amazing midwife while studying abroad in Senegal. She was mind-blowingly inspiring, and I wanted to be just like her. When I started college, I wanted to be a book editor, but the whole time I was in Senegal, my interest in sexual health and babies was becoming more and more clear. Upon returning home, I changed my studies to a midwifery track. I soon realized, however, that I actually hated conventional medicine. After leaving the midwifery program, I still felt a persistent and strong call to birthwork, so I started talking to local doulas and finally completed my birth and postpartum doula trainings in 2022.
A doula has a nonmedical role. I support pregnant people and their families along their perinatal journeys. As a birth doula, I meet with people prenatally to help them prepare spiritually, emotionally, and mentally for labor. Once they are in labor, I meet them at their birth space to provide continuous support. I am a quiet, but hands-on doula in the birth room. I tune into what the laboring person is needing, observe how the rest of the birth team is offering support, and fill in any gaps that are present. As a postpartum doula, I provide my clients with sacred ceremony space to help them feel nourished and supported as they move through the transition of becoming a parent.
I see pregnancy and labor as both a physical and spiritual journey. I like to dig into the spiritual side with people because it’s not as widely talked about or addressed. More than practicing positions or comfort measures, I have found that it’s about how emotionally and mentally prepped you are—knowing deep down that you can do it and no matter what happens, you are making decisions that resonate with you and are aligned with your deepest knowing.
To me, giving birth encapsulates the quintessential essence of being human – it is so completely spiritual and physical at the same time. You see the birthing parent working so hard, undergoing such physical intensity that they become super internal—on a different plane with themselves and their baby. The mother becomes a threshold from the spiritual realm into this physical plane and has to use all of her strength to help her baby cross from inside of her into this world. It’s so intense, energetically and physically.
When I was initially answering the call to move to Vermont, I thought I must be insane to live somewhere that got so cold but when I finally got here, I felt deep in my bones, for the first time in my life, that I had come home. At this point in my life, I never want to live anywhere else. A lot of stuff about me that makes me weird in Pennsylvania is really normal here–and that sense of belonging is deeply exciting. I see myself working with families and birthing people in the Upper Valley and Vermont for a very long time to come!”
Kayla Brookins, Brattleboro, VT
