E40 – Womb Warrior Angela Gallo – Diving Deep into Lessons from Birth and Doula Life

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Doula’s, they are becoming more and more well known in the realm of maternity care. I had no idea what a Doula was until I was pregnant with my first child in 2010, and I thought I was rather aware! So now that I am one, I just love them, and in particular one very well loved Doula Angela Gallo. Why? How can we not feel drawn to the radiant energy that Angela throws out, her life experiences have brought her to this work, to serve, to advocate and to honour a woman in this life changing journey. This podcast, we both delve right into the journey of Angela, we talk about her life changing births, how she navigated her experiences and what lessons come from this. We talk birth workers, midwifery, photography, Mexico and more! Climb aboard for this inspiring episode and see the story behind the woman that is extending her self to change the way we perceive and act upon brith and maternity care.

So we begin this episode with Angela’s first pregnancy, this is where it all began. Angela was then, a self described fiercely independent and mobile creature and could not see how children could fit into that… So this is where most of us can agree, pregnancy forces us to re-evaluate and change so many things about our life, perceptions and how we truly see the world we know it. Rebirth some call it!

Angela talks about the pregnancy and how she was so fascinated with each and every day she describes feeling connected and so humbled by the process that her body was going through. Now at this time Angela’s husband was flying in and out from work, this is where the concept of a Doula was discovered as Angela was away from family. Her Doula was a lifeline and provided her with confidence, resources and all that she needed to have this good outlook into the approaching birth.

So 40+5 Angela went into labour, the labour was 45 hours, long and stretching the challenges of the transition from maiden to motherhood. Angela describes feeling supported, even though the birth was (in her thoughts) intensely medicalised. Yet at the 35 hour mark the epidural bought much relief to her  and some needed rest. After 3 hours of pushing, Angela describes the sensation of the shell of the past leave her as her daughter Ruby was born. This birth really shaped the word Doula in Angela’s mind, things were happening, she was pushed to the physical limits and found this so profound, that she knew that this was the path to help women achieve these experiences, fill the gaps and explore the full spectrum of Doula work.

We talk about Angela’s first experience as a Doula, with a young baby, we look how Angela felt after her training and how she spent the following years planning and seeing how it all works for her. These years were difficult. From there we talk about the life of a Doula and the toll it can take on the relationship front. We both concur how this has come up in both our lives, both seeking the support for Doulas in the family and community networks. I mean with many things it looks so much different when we are supported. This a great piece of the interview where we really extract the essential needs to support birth workers together. Meaning, we are all essentially in this together and Angela’s work is a credit to that.

We hop into the next pregnancy. Angela describes feeling wild! The due date was the same as her daughter Ruby. Yet at the scan they discovered it was a non-viable pregnancy, Not long after this Angela become pregnant again with Odin. This again was not far off Ruby’s birthday. Angela describes organising her birth team and we head into the birth at 41 weeks. The birth took some twists and turns with the birth pool blowing up and ambulance arriving when Angela wanted perhaps for it to not come.