The voice of a Doula

How can maternity help a woman to find her inner calling? You can find an answer in the story of Emanuela Geraci. Following her heart she started to help other women in a very transformative time of their lives: giving birth.

Over the past years I have understood clearly how special my relationship is with my mother and how we often resonate at the same vibrations.

It also happened when my mum described Emanuela to me, writer and founder of Mondo Doula, a school for those who want to accompany women throughout their pregnancy. I felt the desire to see, know and to ask her how she became herself and how she developed such an unusual career.  

In order to meet her I went to her house surrounded by olive trees in the Tuscan countryside. She opened the door and introduced me to a world of secret rooms and every kind of objects that talk of a life rich of meaningful experiences.  To my great delight Emanuela invites me to take a sit at the kitchen table, the room where I feel most comfortable in any house. After preparing a cup of herbal tea and a short meditation we started to talk.

It is by following her heart that Emanuela has become a Doula when in Italy nobody knew this name or this job. She told me that one day she understood what she was doing when reading an article in a magazine:

In reality I didn’t have a clear project in my mind at the beginning. What was feeding my curiosity was the need to understand myself and what was going on.’

‘Thanks to my personal experience I felt what was missing. I didn’t have any emotional support and general nurturing. I acknowledged the gap between what I was expecting, an unconscious expectation about what the role of a mother in our society could have been, and what I experienced in my life. It made me realise that many mothers live an experience of loneliness and they are not understood because we don’t have the tools. We don’t live in an environment that can hold this big transformation. It generated a desire to know more. For this reason I started to read anything about the subject of maternity. In reality I didn’t have a clear project in my mind at the beginning. What was feeding my curiosity was the need to understand myself and what was going on.’

And Emanuela followed this need to understand herself and, by honoring her needs, she also learnt to understand the needs of other women and take care of them.

‘It was a seed that germinated. I understood, with my skin, with the experience, what women need during the pregnancy, the birth and after that. Because a crisis is a big opportunity that can open the door of a new identity, a different one. And this process can also be very painful and destabilizing. There is no one in our society who takes care of this process.’

Listening to her words I can feel the same passion I experience when I work on my project about how to live following your inner calling; the passion that a person has when going towards a direction, not because she has to but because she can’t help but to do so.

The strength of her passion let the seed of Emanuela germinate spontaneously or, as she often said, ‘synchronistically’. Thanks to fortuitous encounters and experiences that prepared her, she first started to be a doula and, later, to teach others this profession. Emanuela relaxed and connected with an energy that was moving other women who were also working within themselves in a similar way.    

All the doula schools started in the same year in all the European countries. And none of them were in contact with the others.’

‘You tune into a stream and things just happen: think of the fact that all the doula schools started in the same year in all the European countries. And none of them were in contact with the others.’

But how is it possible to tune into a stream? This beautiful woman told me that she started to work on herself when she was 23 years old.

‘The more you are open the more you can live in the present and in unity.’

Emanuela follows a structured daily routine and she is very clear about what to focus on, her job, rest or her intimate relationship. Usually she starts her day doing an hour of exercise, meditation or yoga. She is also part of a meditation group focussed on the theme of releasing.  At this particular time her life is oriented towards the research of ‘balance’:

‘There was a time when I was working much more and it was the right thing. It gave me the opportunity to gain some experience. But now I need to be in balance. I feel that it is the right thing. I knew that there was a ‘too full’ or that I was fulfilled with what I had done. I was happy with it. Five years ago I started to need same empty space that I was partially dedicating to creativity. And I did it through writing because I have always loved it a lot . I first wrote ‘Le favole dei nove mesi’ and later  ‘La vita dei non nati’. And I’m now writing another book. I needed to create some empty space around myself and I started to eliminate what was not necessary, what was giving me less. I started to put boundaries and these boundaries grew more and more…’

You just need to relax because the change is already there.

I asked her my usual last question and I got a message that speaks directly to my heart and I’ll always keep with me. When someone knows that she needs to change she just needs to stop and listen:

‘You just need to relax because the change is already there. And so it is just a question of listening and the more you are relaxed the better you can listen. At the end the most important things of my life happened when playing.’

To know more about being a Doula and how to acquire the skills to do this profession: www.mondo-doula.it

If you are searching your inner calling schedule a chat with me and see if I can support your journey!