After roughly five years working as a doula and childbirth educator, Brenda Marlin says that she has learned that there are many, many ways to give birth. But no matter how diverse each woman’s individual journey may be, Marlin’s mission remains the same. As a doula and Birthing From Within Mentor, Marlin works to empower women and their partners, helping them find a voice in their own process and encouraging them be completely present in their own unique birth experience.

Q: What sets the Birthing From Within approach apart from other childbirth education methods like Lamaze or Bradley?
A: For me personally, I feel like there’s not only the component of education with Birthing From Within but also the mentoring piece. (Teachers) are mentors and not experts. We try to build on the experiences of parents and focus on helping them keep their birth sacred.

Q: What do you mean by that?
A: To really be present at the birth and not to hold on to any perfect birth scenario. Part of my role as a mentor is to help parents figure out a way to be open to whatever comes during birth and not to hold on to a particular plan. You just can’t plan birth. There are many, many ways to birth a baby, and it’s the birth of a family too. And you know, my journey is not your journey. I have already had my births. My work is to try and help families surrender and to really be in the moment of their birth.

Q: How do you teach this concept in class?
A: The overarching goal is to give moms practices that they can use during their births to keep them aware and focused on what is going on with their bodies. We provide a lot of practical information along with multi-sensory exercises like visualization or walking through a labyrinth that I draw on the ground. We try to focus the mind. In Birthing From Within, we talk a lot about the labyrinth, using a labyrinth as a metaphor for going through childbirth. You actually journey through it. It’s not a maze, and you don’t get lost. Eventually you get out, but while you’re there, you don’t know what’s around the corner. Ultimately you get to the center and get to your baby.

Q: What are some of the pain coping techniques taught in Birthing From Within?
A: The pain coping practices incorporate lots of focus on breathing. That works beautifully. It helps women to get out of the intellectual part of their brains and move into the instinctive, intuitive part. It also helps with fear. We talk about fears and visualize how to cope with specific situations if they were to come up. We also prepare partners and develop a mindset that is pain-coping. There is pain and then there is suffering. When we experience pain and fear in other parts of our lives, the mechanism is designed to keep us safe and let us know that something is wrong. The pain we experience in labor is different. It has a purpose, to birth a baby.

Q: Does this approach focus on natural childbirth or is it also for women who are considering medication for pain during their labors?
A: You know, I give lots of information and focus on options for natural childbirth and teaching women how to cope without unnecessary interventions. I offer what the research and the evidence says and the options that are out there. But the compassionate use of drugs can be just that, compassionate, if the situation warrants it. I’m not one to say that there is one right way. There is a different experience to be had in each birth, and that’s not my decision to make for anyone.

Q: How long do classes typically last and how many couples do you teach each session?
A: Usually most classes are six-weeks long, but I’m also working to establish weekend intensives for parents. The most I will take is five couples, and typically it’s three or four. Because of the way that we are so intensive and due to the emotional component (of the class), I think it just works better this way.

Q: How did you discover this field?
A: I decided to become a doula after the birth of my oldest child at a birthing center. During my pregnancy I had such wonderful support from my colleagues from my work. I was the fifth mom in two years to have a baby, and I had wonderful women all around me. My previous career required a lot of international travel, and I didn’t want to do that anymore, so I switched careers six months after my daughter was born. I took the Birthing From Within class while I was pregnant with my oldest. Pieces from that helped me identify how I wanted to birth my baby. This childbirth education has really been a complement to the work that I do as a doula.

Q: As a birth practitioner in our community, what would you like to see change within the local birth culture?
A: There is such a dichotomy here because we either have doctors who deliver babies in hospitals or we have homebirth midwives. In our culture birth is generally viewed as something that you do in a hospital, so I would like to see us come back to some middle ground there. That’s such a valuable option for mothers because it’s not all or nothing. I think that intermediary steps are needed to work with doctors to make that hospital option a more mother-centered, baby-centered experience.

Q: What is your ultimate goal for the birthing women that you serve?
A: It’s helping them find that voice in their birth experience. If they feel like they’ve been heard, then that can go a long way in helping them have an experience that they are able to be at peace with. If I see moms who feel like they didn’t have that voice, then that can be disempowering.

Q: Why is mentoring women and their partners through the birth process so important to you?
A: I believe that the future of people is based in the process of birth and early parenting. Giving families the support that they need and the mentoring that they want is so valuable in making that transition in parenting. Because of our culture, these days many of us don’t automatically have those mentors in our lives. I feel like it’s a gift that I get to be a part of this process. I love it. I love that I’m part of that guidance.

To learn more, contact Brenda Marlin at 512-289-7196 or at doula@mothersmentors.com. 
 

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Julia Hockenberry is a writer and doula living in Marble Falls, TX. She studied vocal music at Florida State University and was a classical music announcer for WFDD radio in Winston Salem, NC before becoming a news anchor for WNAV radio in Annapolis, MD. Hockenberry has also written extensively for The Capital newspaper in Annapolis, MD, as well serving as a contributing writer to The River Cities Daily Tribune and The Highland Lakes Business Journal in Marble Falls. In addition to being a perpetual student in the dynamic fields of pregnancy and childbirth, Julia is married to husband, Jay, and has three children, Clara, Ben and Calvin.