Grace Van Bruwaene

Hi! I’m Grace (she/her). My journey to doula work also began during my university years, when I found myself unexpectedly pregnant right before starting third year. As I prepared to welcome my first child into the world, I fell madly in love with birth. After accessing midwives for my subsequent babies, I decided I wanted to be a midwife when I grew up. My husband suggested that I try doula work to see if it was the right fit. About two years in, I decided that doula work was the right space for me. 

Of my first ten clients, only one of them was a first time parent. All of the rest had birthed at least one baby before, and they were hiring a doula this time because they wanted a better experience. For some, their birth just wasn’t positive, for others they actively identified it as traumatic, and for a smaller number, they now had an active diagnosis of PTSD following their birth. This introduction to birth led me to building better birth planning tools that helped people identify their goals, communicate them with their care providers, and put in place strategies to achieve those goals. I also accessed training that was specifically geared to supporting folks birthing after a traumatic experience. At the same time, I launched a birth trauma support group, that both met locally and throughout the province. 

Fifteen years later, it’s really hard for me to distill down all of what I do and care about into a few short phrases. But at the end of the day, I want people to feel supported, like they know their options and how to access them, and that they feel empowered as they move from pregnancy to birth and then into parenting. Whether it’s through postpartum care, birth support or teaching childbirth classes, these values are always front of mind. 

When I’m not working, I am a parent to three young adults. You can find me going for accidental long walks (10 km+) with my spouse of over two decades, working on one of my many fibre WIPs, or feeding my family yet another experiment. I almost always have a book on the go.