AMARYLLIS KNIGHT |
*** We were specifically looking for a doula who could support us during our home birth. It was our second home birth and we wanted to create a warm and loving birth experience for our older, 4 and a half year old daughter. Though we’d discussed the birth process with our daughter and she had watched numerous videos, our fear was that we’d be so caught in the moment that we may not be able to respond to her needs. ~ Karin R *** Though Amaryllis Knight makes her living as a Doula, her services in the case of my child's delivery were absolutely priceless. There is no way my wife Dani & I will ever deliver without her in the future. We were 8 days past our due date and at our OB's office for our weekly check up, when he informed us that Dani's ambiotic fluid was dangerously low, and that we would need to go straight to the hospital to induce, possibly even needing an emergency C-section. The rush to the hospital was both exciting (and nerve racking), and we wondered if we would even need Amaryllis with the high probability of surgery looming. I am so grateful we made the decision to call and keep her involved in the birth, a phone call that proved to be the turning point in our highly emotional morning. I'm a Music Producer. My job specifically is to hear ideas an artist may not, provide a professional extra set of ears, & always help bring out the best in every artist I work with. These traits are almost indentical to what Amaryllis provides delivering parents in my experience, though truth be told, I exercise my opinion & offer advice in doing what I do, and Amaryllis does not. She is an exceptional listener mostly, & only when appropriate provides examples from her previous deliveries without her personal opinion attached. Her real life experience helping to deliver babies with so many families, all with assorted birthing plans are where her examples come from (not from books or articles), which to me makes all the difference. With parenthood looming, and at a time when you question every step being the right one for your child, Amaryllis always made us feel that whatever our choices were, that we were safe & in good hands, & that there was nothing wrong with our particular birth being a unique story. Our labor & delivery lasted a whopping total of 38 hours. Initially, Amaryllis always made sure we had space to ourselves & constant comfort when things got tough. She never once stood in between Dani's & my experience. After 24 hours of being at the hospital Dani had made zero progress, was famished & began to develop a slight temperature which had to be remedied by incapsulating her entire body with ice. It was at this point and this point only (I am proud to say) that I began to lose my cool. Amaryllis suggested I go to the hospital cafeteria & get myself something to eat, & she stayed with Dani while I did so. The smallest action of nourishing myself, the simplest of tasks I could not come up with on my own to do made all the difference for me at that point as a husband & expectant father. By that time (and by a far margin), Amaryllis was absolutely the only person I would have ever been comfortable leaving Dani with....even for a minute. Coincidentally, after I returned from eating things began progressing rapidly for the first time since we had arrived, and it looked like we would have a natural birth after all. Within 8 hours (and without surgery) my wife delivered our healthy, beautiful son Tiger. From our lovely meetings all throughout the pregnancy, to the moment we held our boy adoringly in the hospital, having a Doula named Amaryllis Knight was the greatest thing we did for ourselves at a time when all of our thinking was obsessively about what was best for the baby. We will always consider her a member of our family, and with the highest respect recommend her services to anyone planning on having a child. ~ Jaymee C *** |