Doula Hired...!

Doula Speed Dating was a success last week and we found (and hired) our Doula! It was an interesting event. It took place at a chiropractor’s office and we were situated in a treatment room (sitting on the adjustment table) and each Doula would come to us. I am so glad we had this opportunity. Finding someone otherwise would have been very difficult. I can’t imagine calling and booking appointments for interviews over and over again. We ended up doing 9 interviews in one night and in some cases all it took was seeing them to know they were not right for us. I wouldn’t want to be stuck with them for an hour consultation after that! We saw experience ranging from “I’ll be certified in September” to practicing for 20 years. It was funny when we’d ask how many births they’d attended and they’d proudly say “2”. Another one was clearly building her resume for Med school. The Doula we selected was more mature and experienced than most of the women we saw. I loved her the moment she came into the room.
After the event we went home and reviewed all of the material. I was hesitant to e-mail for a follow-up appointment right away so we waited until the next day. I was able to do some web searches to find out some more info. She seemed pretty cool so we booked a meeting for later in the week to have the inital consultation. We were on vacation and I had wanted to go to the east end at some point so we went to her house (in The Beaches) for the meeting. When we arrived we were surprised to see a rainbow flag on her front porch. I swear we did not pick her because we though she was queer! We don’t know for sure if she is but not everyone has a rainbow flag hanging around. At the very least she’s queer positive which is always a bonus! So yeah, we have a queer family doctor, OB and potentially now Doula. We live in a bubble. It’s times like this that I think leaving Toronto would be a mistake.
I just sent the deposit and agreement in the mail so we’re officially booked with her. Our prenatal visits will not be until November or December so until then we’ll have contact by e-mail or phone as needed. I’m glad we got this out of the way early. Especially with a due date of December 30th!
Also, I’m not sure how this came up in our conversation but I had mentioned that I had originally been booked with an OB at Mount Sinai but cancelled the referral when I read reviews of her on RateMDs. She asked if I knew the Doctor's name and when I told her she asked if she could “have an unprofessional moment” and said that we’d dodged a bullet. Apparently this OB is a total witch. Our Doula said her “heart drops every time she hears someone has been placed with her”. OMG. I’m so glad I went with my instincts to switch without giving her a chance!!!!!!! I’m telling you – RateMDs is awesome!