Francesca Duhaime

Francesca has been honoured to call many places home. Born and raised in Scotland, with much of their family’s time spent in Italy from when they were very young - then after attending culinary school in London they later lived in India and China before moving to the USA. After collecting much along these various paths, Francesca found their way to doula work somewhat unexpectedly - but as soon as they arrived it made perfect sense, bringing together and giving them a place to put so many of their natural skills. In deep pandemic May 2020 they had the honour of assisting their best friend through the homebirth of her second child, a late pregnancy shift organised after learning the hospitals were no longer allowing any support people to accompany birthers. Only a matter of weeks prior, they were holding an elderly loved ones hand as she passed, also at home and surrounded by family. Both of these experiences were such peaceful, powerful examples of how a moment of transition can look when we allow people to have the choice and support we all deserve - which fuelled a desire within Francesca make sure more people could access this in more environments, and remember that our bodies usually know exactly what is needed when given the space to listen. Being pushed to then dive deeper into the world of birthwork, they entered a 17 week full-spectrum maternal health practitioner certification, which only solidified their passion for this world and their belief in the fact that reproductive justice is everybody’s business. How we hold people during each phase - from manoeuvring preconception and planning for the future, through the many choices of pregnancy and the vulnerable intensity of labour, to the ever shifting unknowns of postpartum life after a new human arrives - it all has a ripple effect that touches so many facets of society. Everyone deserves to be able to make the choices that are right for them, and have access to the resources they need to fully understand what options are available to them, no matter the setting or someone’s background. Part of Francesca’s role especially as a birth doula focuses on helping their clients understand those options - medicated or unmedicated, hospital or home. There is such an overwhelming amount of information available to us at all times these days, it can be hard to know where to start when making decisions - and this is often especially true when it comes to the world of birth. As a doula, Francesca cares deeply about helping folks navigate this overwhelm so you can learn how to best advocate for yourself - whether that’s in the hospital room or in response to an enthusiastic family member’s opinion! They believe in fostering as many opportunities as possible for you to remember that you are the one in charge of the experience, whether things go exactly to plan or not (spoiler alert: they usually don’t) and that there are still ways to find what makes most sense for you with each shift. The approach of postpartum life presents a new category of often challenging decisions. The limited amount of support folks have access to in this time puts a huge amount of pressure on parents who are trying to learn about their fresh new humans and their new selves too. During this time, Francesca is always sincerely grateful to provide any kind of support that allows a family to be able to focus on that enormous and important task. Whether that’s basic household support like cleaning bottles, preparing as many snacks as someone needs, emotional processing of the birth, helping you find those incredibly important moments of rest - or simply finding more ways for individuals and families to be as comfortable as possible as they figure out these new roles. No matter the stage or phase of someone’s process, or the way someone wants to approach an experience - being with humans in these moment of transition feels like the deepest honour, and is something Francesca intends to never take for granted as a sincere privilege.