INFOCUS
ENRICH THE MOMENTS SURROUNDING YOUR CHILD’S BIRTH
WRITTEN BY JUDY GOPPERT PHOTOS BY JAMI BOWMAN
B
lissful Beginnings owner Janice Ingram believes every woman deserves to be pampered, treasured, and revered when she welcomes her little one into the world. A doula is a professional trained in childbirth who provides emotional, physical, and educational support to an expectant mother, someone experiencing labor, or a mother who has recently given birth. Their purpose is to help women have a safe, memorable, and empowering birthing experience. “I believe doulas are needed more than a lot of people know,” says Ingram. She began in 2018 when she noticed the increasingly downward spiral of adequate care for women of color and their infants. “I was working in the criminal justice field and had just had my daughter, and unknowingly at the time began fighting my own battle of postpartum depression,” she explains. “I wanted
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SIMPLYkc MAGAZINE
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SEPTEMBER 2021
Pictured: Janice Ingram, owner of Blissfull Beginnings Doula Services
to share my experience and advocate for those women—and women in general—but in the postpartum.” She decided to reach out to a woman she highly admired and ask her thoughts on the next step. The woman suggested becoming a Community Health Worker (CHW) and gave Ingram all the information she needed to begin. “As the story goes, sometimes you
don’t get to choose your road, God chooses it for you. I earned my certification as a CHW and there began my birth doula journey,” she smiles. Each new client receives a complimentary consultation, either virtual or in-person, to go over expectations. Ingram believes all women should feel supported and advocated for in their birthing space. She provides not just compassionate care, but calmness to
