Welcome to my blog! I’ve always wanted to say that. Well, since I started out in doula work a little over 6 years ago, anyway. I built my online presence primarily through Instagram, and have always felt the caption limit there to be – well – rather limiting. My love language is Words of Affirmation and it warms my heart to finally have my own corner of the internet where I can share as many words as I want. I’m so excited to start posting more in-depth content, including meaningful perinatal education, and musings and insights about doula life.

But let’s back up a bit. I didn’t always want to be a doula. In fact, I didn’t even know what a doula was, until after I was well into my own parenthood journey. No; little Liz? She wanted to be an astronaut. So how did I end up here? Read on to find out.

Liz at 5 years old trying out some astronaut equipment. — I really did dream about going into space. Or, at the very least, working on space-related things. As a teen, I had the opportunity to meet Roberta Bondar – the first Canadian woman astronaut – and naturally, asked how I could follow in her footsteps. She suggested that I start with getting an engineering degree, and so I did. I already enjoyed and excelled in math and physics, and came from a long line of engineers, so it was actually a natural progression.
But I’ll be honest. Engineering was hard. As I moved through that degree, often struggling to make it from one term to the next, space started to seem farther and farther away. I made peace with that, and after graduating, I traded my dreams of donning a space suit for the reality of a hazmat suit, which I did in fact don and doff numerous times while working on-site and inside of a nuclear reactor. (You could say, I traded one vacuum for another. Get it?). Over the next decade, I built a solid career in the nuclear energy sector, specializing in failure analysis and maintenance optimization, then moving into management and eventually technical projects, communication, and even executive suite support.

Liz is seen from the chest down, with a pregnant belly, and toddler in jeans and a hoodie hugging her leg, facing away from the camera. — During that time, I had my own two babies. Each time, I took maternity leave, then returned to work, and soon I had 2 little ones, 2 and under, who I had to leave each morning before they even awoke. (As an aside, I’m very grateful to have been able to take 12 and 16 months respectively – I recognize that for the privilege that it was!). Then I’d rush home from work to catch the train and make it to daycare pickup just in time. Get them home, eat, sleep(*ish*), and repeat. It started to feel unsustainable. I had these beautiful babies, and I barely got to see them.

Liz is seated on the couch in a dimly lit room. She is simultaneously nursing her baby, working on her laptop, and speaking to her boss on the phone. — “Work-life balance”

At the same time, I was reflecting a lot on my pregnancies, birth experiences, and postpartum periods. I have a supportive partner and immediate family, and I was still blown away with how much help we needed in those early days. It was hard. I struggled a lot, especially with breastfeeding. After my first birth, it took me months to get my bearings again and feel like I could go out into the world without it being a whole production. And once I did start to feel that I had some things figured out, I felt compelled to share my experience with other new parents. I’d find myself late at night, nursing a baby, hanging out in Facebook mom groups, offering my lived experience, accumulated knowledge, and encouragement to other new moms who were struggling.
My husband and I started to dream about the ways that our life could look different. We were looking ahead to when our kiddos would be out of daycare, knowing that the routine we’d settled into wasn’t going to align with the vision we had for when our kids started school. (We both worked in the same industry with similar schedules and professional commitments, and we could see that as a family, we needed more flexibility). Based on our own individual strengths, temperaments, dreams and goals, we agreed that it was natural for me to be the one to make a change.

It made sense. I was beginning to question my place in the world, and looking critically at the work I was doing and whether it was really what I felt called to do. It was important work, yes, but it didn’t feel meaningful to me. Not within the context of my new life priorities.

To back up for a moment: When I was accepted into a university engineering program (the only grandchild to follow this path, and the only woman engineer in the family), my grandfather (an electrical engineer) sent me a special book about engineering, inscribed with this note: “engineering is not a job – it’s a calling”. And I believed that wholeheartedly. But when I allowed myself to be truly honest, I realized – it wasn’t my calling anymore. There was a new tug on my heart – to make life a little easier for other people going through the journey to parenthood. I knew that commiserating in Facebook parenting groups wasn’t actually a viable career option, so I looked to my own experiences to see where my interests and skills might lie:

I loved my experience with midwifery. Maybe I could be a midwife? But 5 years in university was enough; I didn’t want to go back.
I was eternally grateful for breastfeeding support from an IBCLC. Maybe I could do that? But again, the time and clinical hours needed to get going in that field felt prohibitive.

I wanted to help families right away. Enter: birth work. I had had extra support for both of my births (my mom and older sister for baby #1; a doula for baby #2) so I knew firsthand how valuable it is. Plus, it fit with who I am, what I value, what I’m good at, and what felt attainable:

Nurturing, caring, comforting? Doing that on the daily #momlife.
Setting my own schedule (outside of the on-call aspect): exactly what we needed.
Asking questions, gathering and analyzing information, and communicating about it? My jam (truly, I had built my career on this).
NOT another university degree? Sign me up!

Selfie of Liz taken in the evening on a downtown street in Toronto. — (Leaving the office for the last time ever!)

And the rest is history! (Or, perhaps, a post for another day). I resigned from my corporate life at the end of 2018, and jumped right into learning everything I could about how to offer the most meaningful doula support.
And what a ride it has been. I was only just finding my footing in the birth world when 2020 happened, and the ability to offer doula support was challenged fundamentally. But I’m still here, and birth support is as essential as ever, and I believe that I am even stronger and more resilient for coming-of-age as a doula during that tumultuous time.
*One caveat* – when the story is laid out like it is above, it probably all sounds easy and natural. **Well, it wasn’t.** My decision to switch careers came about through a long process of soul-searching and reflection, guided by therapy and a variety of consultations, over the course of a year. A big part of making peace with my decision was realizing that my time and effort in obtaining an engineering degree and building a career were not, in fact, wasted (though that is certainly how it felt for a while). In fact – my engineering background has helped me connect with some of my clients in ways that I never would have expected. And, simply having gone through a huge career transition has given me a lot of common ground to stand on with my clients – after all, becoming a parent is one of the biggest transitions we can experience, and not only have I done that twice, it took a huge leap of faith to turn around and start helping others through it.

If you made it this far, welcome, and – thank you. This is just the beginning! I hope you’ll follow along here, because I have so much more to share. And if any of this resonated with you, I’d love for you to get in touch. Maybe you want to explore doula support, or maybe you just want to connect over one of our common experiences. Either way, I’m here when you’re ready.

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