Get to Know the FSDC Resident Doulas

It's been a few months since we announced the Full Spectrum Doula Care resident program.  Getting to work with our these awesome women with all their new doula enthusiasm has been invigorating.  Doula work is a unique field; every doula forges their own path and gets to answer the call to this work how they best see fit.  So working with these women has not been so much about teaching them, but more like collaborating and combining forces. 

We'd like you to be able to get to know them better so we asked them to each write briefly about why they became doulas.  If you're interested in learning more or utilizing their services, check out their pages under the Our Doulas tab or mention who you'd like to contact when you fill out the form on our Contact Us page.  

​by Jenna Chidester

Felecia Graham, photo by Rushes & Waves Photography

Hello, hello! My name is Felecia Graham. I'm a native of the Pacific Northwest, born and raised in Portland, Oregon. I am a mother  of four with one surviving son named Zahmi.

Why did I become a doula? During my last pregnancy I experienced racially traumatic induced stress from multiple care providers during my pregnancy, birth, and postpartum period. I didn't like how I was treated as a women of color. I felt like I had no say in how I wanted my birth to go. I want to minimize the trauma induced stress dealing with infant mortality for women of color.  That's why I am a full circle and full spectrum doula.

I love helping women, children, and families. My motivation to pursue my certification and becoming a doula is to help all families but mainly to do culturally specific work for families of color that include women, trans, genderqueer, and gender nonconforming people. Now here I am, a doula of color stepping into this life changing role and ready to take on the world and make magic. I received my doula training from midwife and doula trainer Shafia Monroe, she incorporates the 20th century African midwifery traditions and rituals in the training. I learned so much and I can't wait to learn more to help empower and support the families I will be working with, one birthing experience at a time.

Hi! My name is Ariana Micek.  I'm a mother of a three year old girl named Stori and a newly wed living in North East Portland.  

I just wrapped up a 10+ year career in the hospitality industry as both a server and bartender, during which I learned so much about people serving them at bars and restaurants all over Portland.  I consider that decade of interpersonal work a sort of training for what I will be doing as a doula.

I knew I wanted to be a doula as soon as I had my own child. I knew I WAS a doula the moment I knocked on the door to my first client’s home after she called me in a panic because her waters broke five weeks ahead of schedule. Her partner opened the door and she pushed passed him to throw her arms around me and thank me for being there. As unprepared as I thought I was, I looked back later at that moment and realized that I had already done my job as a doula; I showed up.
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         Since that birth, I am much more prepared with tools for labor, a sleeping bag in my trunk, and full tank of gas in my car! But the best tool I bring to a birth or to a home for postpartum is myself. I want to be there for my clients in any capacity they need me to be and I am ready to adapt to each family’s unique needs. My favorite part of this job is all of the variety and the openness that is required of each person involved to work through this year of incredible transition.

Ariana Micek, photo by Rushes & Waves Photography