I don't believe in "signs" but the one friend who has had my back throughout this journey was a rep for the makeup company Younique and it definitely felt like it was meant to be!
My mind was made up and I applied for the course with Younique Postnatal in February this year. I wasn't able to take time off to do the next available course as it was too short notice but I signed up for the June course.
I got some pre-coursework sent through and worked through it and was ready to start the course!
I was a little unsettled in the first instance that I was the only person on the course without children of my own but it became apparent very quickly that this was not a pre-requisite.
Whilst working through the classes, I noticed that almost all of the language used was heteronormative. This is not an issue in and of itself, however, it was something that stood out quite starkly to me.
By the time I had finished the course, I realised that I wanted 100% to work alongside queer and/or trans parents.
When I mentioned this to my friends, they were overwhelmingly supportive!!
I had a lot to think about and a lot of research to do!
I reached out to numerous queer/trans parents via Facebook and the general response is that whilst queer-friendly services are great, queer-lead services are preferred. I will be talking more about this in my next blog.
Once I had finished the course, I had some post-coursework to do before it became officially official.
I felt very supported by the facilitators of the Younique Postnatal course and I would most certainly recommend it to anyone else who wishes to become a postnatal doula. There is a group on Facebook for those of us who have completed the course to reach out in case we are struggling and it is very reassuring.
Tune in next time when I will talk about my journey to becoming The Queer Doula.
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