Introducing...
LAURA FURNISS
DOULA AND COUNSELOR/THERAPIST
Healings Hands Birth Services
Call 406-223-8303
Email healinghandsbirth@gmail.com
Website healinghandsbirth.wixsite.com/doula
Who do you work with?
“I work with birth and adoptive families throughout the pregnancy, postpartum and adoption placement periods. I hold dual certifications as a birth, bereavement and adoption doula.”
What do you do for them?
“I offer prenatal, birth, and postpartum support for families who are choosing adoption for their child and pre-birth, birth, adoption and post placement support for families who are formed through adoption.”
Why do you do what you do, particularly as it relates to surrogacy/growing families?
“As both an adoptive mother who has experienced loss on my own journey to parenthood and someone who has worked with birthparents who are choosing adoption, I have a strong passion for assisting these families through their experiences, which involves unique experiences that are different from the journey many families take to becoming parents. I feel this is a specialized area that I can bring my own experiences and knowledge to and offer focused support for families who become parents through alternative means.”
What is your favorite part of your job?
“I love seeing families come together, after what for many has been an incredibly difficult and painful journey fraught with grief and loss. There is a unique mix of deep pain and intense joy that come together to meet during the most beautiful and sacred of moments.”
What is your favorite memory or story from working at your job?
“I attended a birth a couple of years ago that involved an adoptive placement. Both birth parents were there, as well as the adoptive parents, an OB who was an adoptive father himself and myself as a doula who has also been touched by adoption. After the birth, while so many people, including friends and family and medical staff, were milling about the room and helping the birthmother, I caught a moment that I felt was too sacred to interrupt even with a photograph. I watched the adoptive father, who had waited so long to be a parent, as he held this tiny baby girl in his arms, the two of them completely lost in each other's eyes. It was as if time stood still and all the noise and motion in the room faded away, leaving me focused on the two in the corner of the room, uninterrupted, as they began their bonding and journey as father and daughter.”
How do people get in touch with you/start working with you?
Visit my website for more information, or call or email me. I will be happy to answer any questions and begin the process of getting to know each other.