From E-Commerce to Birth Work: My Journey to Becoming a Doula
For those who have been following my career for some time, my decision to become a doula will either make perfect sense or feel completely unexpected. It all depends on when our paths crossed.
If you met me while I was at Shopify, fostering conditions for Indigenous entrepreneurs to thrive, you might think that e-commerce and childbirth have little in common.
If you know me from my work at Actua, you might wonder how STEM education relates to motherhood, aside from the stress of registering for summer camps (amiright?).
And if you’ve known me since I graduated from UVic’s Bachelor of Education program, you might think I’ve finally returned to my roots.
But the truth is, my purpose in life has always been to offer learning experiences where people can experience belonging without bounds and feel safe to fail in their pursuit of self-actualization.
Creator blessed me with a gift for seeing your gifts and knowing how best to bring them out into the world.
As an educator, I’ve walked alongside my students as they’ve grown. I started teaching in preschools, moved through K-12, co-created and taught the first social entrepreneurship course at OttawaU, built alternative education programs, and led onboarding and career education initiatives. No matter the setting or age group, my true work was never just about learning outcomes and impact measurement. My mission was to see past the trauma and tribulations we carry, which tell us we’re unworthy, incapable, or don’t belong in our own journey to self-actualization.
In trying to bring forward the gifts each of us are born with, I often had to find ways to break through the shields and stories we’ve built around us to survive trauma – something we’ve all experienced – that protect us from falling short of our own expectations.
It’s no wonder I adopted COYA as a mindset to help people remember that we’re not the products of circumstances, but rather the consequences of our actions.
When I followed that realization to its core, I saw that many of us are born into trauma. Even our experiences in utero can be traumatic, as can our births and early years if they lack the attachment, love, teaching, and support necessary to move from survival to thriving.
So, while it’s important to remind people that we aren’t defined by where we come from, the environment at the beginning of life has profound implications for the rest of our lives and our descendants.
What if we could improve the circumstances offered at the starting point of life?
If we want to ensure that all humans can access the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (a concept rooted in Blackfoot wisdom), we need to protect pregnant people, offer births that don’t feel like traumatic medical events, and welcome babies earthside with as much celebration and ceremony as possible – just as our ancestors did.
With my chronic illness progressing each year, I have less energy to waste on anything that isn’t fully aligned with my gifts. If I only get a few spoons a day, I want to know that I’m using them in the most impactful way.
Despite a successful year for COYA Productions, producing four impactful courses, I knew I had to focus my efforts with even more precision.
In 2024, I will not produce any learning programs for others; instead, I’ll finish creating my own. I’ve been delivering this training in real life, here in Lekwungen Territory, and will work to digitize it by the end of the year so that more families can benefit from what I believe to be good medicine for the next seven generations.
In 2024, I will launch:
Birthing babies isn’t so different from coaching Indigenous entrepreneurs to thrive. Many entrepreneurs I’ve worked with birthed their business ideas while on maternity leave or when their kids were young, realizing they needed to design a world around their kids’ needs, not their employers’. Whether we’re gestating life in our bellies or our minds, when we birth it into the world, we become responsible for the consequences of our actions. The more time we spend in community, sharing knowledge about this, the better.
What does STEM education have to do with birthing? Everything. One way to increase the sense of ceremony in birth is to reduce the fear that prevents a birther from surrendering to their body’s transition. We do this by increasing their knowledge about their body’s incredible ability to perform the miracle of life.
And if there’s another reason to become a doula in 2024, it’s as an act of resistance against colonization and patriarchy, which are destroying the very planet that gave us life. All our mothers are tired. All our babies are crying out for things to slow down. Birthwork is a rebellion, and if the genocide of Palestine teaches us anything, it’s that the safety and protection of women and children have never been more urgently needed. Unless we act differently, nothing will change.
So, this year, I’m rolling up my sleeves to be alongside as many birthers as I can, helping them birth their babies and their families into this world. The world is desperate for the hope new life brings. We are all being called to return to our origins, to lean back into family and community-making, not dividing and conquering. Our babies are begging us to stop the bombs and help the birthers (not all identify as moms).
That’s why I became a doula with the Nesting Doula Collective in 2023. I invite you to request me as your doula in 2024.
All my relations,
Jace Poirier
