Helping with Parenting and Childbirth in Boone, North Carolina--Allison Rallons and Samantha Wright

Interview conducted at BRAHM by Willard Watson for the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum, Blowing Rock, North Carolina, in conjunction with the Smithsonian's "The Way We Worked" exhibition.

Who are you, When and where were you born?
AR - "My name is Allison Rollans and I was born in Salisbury, North Carolina in 1973, on September 14th and I have a twin brother who was born six minutes after me."

SW - "My name is Samantha Lee Wright and I was born in Wilmington, North Carolina with a twin sister as well who came out 18 minutes after me in 1987."

What do you do for a living?
SW - "We are doulas, and what that means is we support parents during pregnancy, childbirth and the early postpartum with all the emotional, physical, and educational challenges that come along with journeying into parenthood."

AR - "Samantha is our point childbirth educator she helps families learn about the aspects of labor what to do what to expect and I am also a health coach so I help support the families and moms on nutrition, and diet, and lifestyle management. So we work together, and we also have a team of doulas that work with us."

SW - "And as labor doulas we support parents during child birth, that is one of main roles, so we are in the room and we work along with the healthcare team just to make sure childbirth is as comfortable as it can be, for that experience, and help those parents achieve whatever goals they want out of that experience. So it’s a lot of feet rubs and shoulder massages and helping dads not feel like deer in headlights and bringing out that strength within a woman who feels like she doesn’t have any more strength to give, and they always do, and it is a really beautiful process."

Read the full transcript below.

Tags: BHS-work, BHS-Main-Street, BHS-Job-You-Had

Asset #7811