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My Professional Journey
Hello! My name is Alexa Rivas-Bath and I am a black doula in the Calgary, Alberta area. I recently completed a full birth and postpartum doula training workshop through Chavah Childbirth Services Inc., with Dona International certified trainers Erin Moyen, Kathy Larabee, & AJ Hadfield. I am currently working towards my full certification with Dona International as both a birth & postpartum doula. I received training in the basics of breastfeeding at this workshop as well. I previously worked as a camp counsellor/facilitator with Our Lady Queen of Peace Ranch, which is a not-for-profit camp for underprivileged, disabled, or at risk youth, from all over Alberta. I was also a caregiver for my grandmother with Dementia for two years prior to her move into LTC.
I have always been fascinated by babies and motherhood. Since I can remember, I have been surrounded by pregnancy, babies and children - I am 7 out of 14 siblings in total and I have over 20 aunts and uncles. Growing up there was nearly always a baby in my arms, and I was always eager to help the new mama's with anything they needed. I am biracial (Jamaican & Irish/British) and I was raised in a bilingual household strongly influenced by the Salvadorian culture of my father. I am both an only child and a sibling, and both the first child and the middle child. I am a sister, an auntie or a tia, a prima or a cousin, and I probably have enough nieces and nephews to populate a small country.
My mother was a young mother and also a single mother for part of my youth, and my grandmother was a young, single woman as well when she had a baby, whom she made the decision to have adopted. Both my mother and my grandmother were also for the most part alone, unsupported, and/or under high stress during their labours. I have always been curious how different each of their memories of their individual childbirth experiences, as well as the image of themselves as a mother thereafter could be if they had received the necessary support.
My story as a doula technically began when I was 14 or 15 and I begged my parents to let me be in the room to help for the birth of my baby brother - a day i'll never forget. However, my journey truly began when I heard the many stories and birth experiences of my sisters, friends, and even strangers - stories of pain, neglect, confusion, fear, judgement, and sometimes potentially fatal consequences. I saw an immense need for emotional, physical, and informational support, in the areas of labour, delivery, and postpartum care - especially in underprivileged and BIPOC communities. The mere fact that women are still to this day, dying in childbirth from completely preventable causes is infuriating, heartbreaking, and inadmissible. The World Health Organization reported in 2017 approximately 810 women died from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, every day. In Canada the maternal mortality rate was 8.3 per 100,000 live births, and the most common diagnosis was predominately related either to complications in the first 6 weeks postpartum, or postpartum haemorrhage. The list of challenges facing women in birth in the modern world is outrageous and abundant.
There is a clear and prevalent need for advocacy through empowerment and support not only for women giving birth but for families in general. Research shows continuous labour support can increase the opportunity for positive outcomes for both the mother and the baby, as well as the woman's overall satisfaction with the experience. It is also my strong desire to fill the gap in the lack of support provided to the partners in childbirth as well. This is why I decided to pursue my passions by becoming a doula. I truly believe that if each family had access to the necessary foundational, informational, and non-judgemental support during their transition into parenthood and their child's transition earth side, our potentials for resilience, adaptability, emotional regulation, self-esteem, and fulfilment could be significantly improved in the long run. I am very passionate about healing generational trauma not only within my personal ancestral line, but within the generations of society as a whole as well - and what better place to start than from the beginning! I desire to help facilitate this necessary change and growth towards healing for our society, by supporting as many families as I can. A healing start for a better future!
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Government of Canada, S. C. (2019, November 26). Deaths, 2018. The Daily - . Retrieved September 22, 2021, from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/191126/dq191126c-eng.htm.
(Government of Canada, 2019)
World Health Organization. (2019, September 19). Maternal mortality. World Health Organization. Retrieved September 22, 2021, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/maternal-mortality.
(World Health Organization, 2019)
Bohren, M. A., Hofmeyr, G., Sakala, C., Fukuzawa, R. K., & Cuthbert, A. (2017, July 6). Continuous support for women during childbirth. Retrieved September 22, 2021, from https://www.cochrane.org/CD003766/PREG_continuous-support-women-during-childbirth.
(Bohren et al., 2017)