All About Houston Doulas

My name is Cole and I am an author, Houston doula, monitrice, midwife assistant, midwife student, and childbirth educator. I have been a childbirth educator and doula for over 16 years now. I have a wonderful Puerto Rican husband with whom I have 5 beautiful children, all who have given me very different birthing experiences. I originally started my path into formal training through the AAHCC as a childbirth educator and doula. I have, since then, chosen to de-certify, primarily because of my student midwife status. I am an independently contracted, non-affiliated Houston doula who works for the families and women that hire me; I don't work for any hospital, care provider, or certifying organization, and thus, I am not limited in what I can teach or whom I can advocate for.

I have written for such publications as Pathways to Family Wellness Magazine, Sacred Pregnancy Magazine, The International Doula Magazine, Whole Mother Magazine, Midwifery Today, and many others. I am the author of Bellies and Babies blog, a weekend intensive childbirth class, and a fully integrative and apprenticeship model doula training program.

I believe that it is not birth that is inherently risky, but often what we do to it. I am an advocate of natural childbirth, but more than that, I work to help women become empowered to make their own educated decisions and the best choices for their circumstances in labor and birth. My hope is to dispel fear and anxiety over this blessed event through advocacy, education, and support. I am fully supportive of hospital, home, birth center, and unassisted births. I believe in a woman's right to make an educated choice about where and with whom to give birth. As such, I am pursuing my midwifery apprenticeship to become a home birth midwife. I serve women in the Houston area and South of Houston.

A Houston doula is an assistant who provides various forms of non-medical and non-midwifery support (physical and emotional) during the childbirth process. Based on a particular doula's training and background, the doula may offer support during prenatal care, during childbirth and/or during the postpartum period. A Houston birth doula provides support during labor and birth. As such, a Houston birth doula may attend a home birth, or might attend the laboring woman during labor at home, continue while in transport to the woman's intended place to birth, and then complete supporting the birth at a hospital or a birth center.