Our
Story
Even in a city of 5+ million, it can be difficult to find training as a
doula— it can likewise be difficult starting out on your own in a new business. As doulas ourselves, Becoming Doulas is the outgrowth of our own journeys as birthworkers. We want to see our peers succeed in supporting their loved ones and friends, so we’re expanding access to high-quality birthworker education with a streamlined pathway for new doulas to gain a strong footing in their skills and a welcoming community to guide them.
We know this vocation is demanding; burnout is common when making a living on heart work. But with friends on either side, we can forge ahead in honing our craft, building better birth outcomes and reinforcing birthworker retention. Now more than ever, we can bond over our shared experiences, weaving our lives together again and holding space for the healing process no matter our background.
Becoming Doulas wants to extend an opportunity to new doulas to maintain the momentum of their progress post-training by connecting them with each other and a network of birth professionals across these O’odham and Piipash ancestral lands of the greater Phoenix area. You may later find you are interested in advanced/specialized doula training, midwifery school, or a career as a birth assistant! We want to make that transition as smooth as possible, with clear options and information up front so you can make the best decision for your work.
We take your investment seriously as we carefully decide which aspects of our curriculum are most relevant to the current birth climate of our community. We welcome your curiosity and input in adding specific content to our offerings. Please contact us with questions!
We see you as our future colleague— our future collaborator in providing excellent care for our clients and their families. Becoming Doulas intends to shift any societal dynamic of competition to cooperation as we grow, with you confident in your contribution to the birth space regardless of where life takes you. We know you will make lasting friendships and memories which will shape your vision and boost your strength.
Building a collective of loving, resourceful birthworkers who know their worth and provide exceptional support is our goal: we are ready to integrate your unique gifts and help you succeed in your dreams!
Ariella Chung
She/Her
Doula, Student Midwife
Hey, Hey! My name is Ariella Chung first generation of my family proudly wearing the Guyana flag. My cultural and family traditions run deep in my passion for birth work. Coming from a background in early childhood education specializing in infants through 4 years of age, with special needs, I discovered the options for obstetric care.
Coming from a family who grew our food in our backyard, and a mother who raised me on alternative medicine, the mentioning of a midwife and out of hospital births at age 14 really started the snowball effect. By year 18, my start in birth work as a doula flourished. I made it my role to ensure voices were heard, empowered, and physically supported.
My profession in birth work was not only a passion, but framework, and a vital part of my lineage starting with my great grandmother, and grandmother in island midwifery work. I have been intentional, with walking towards my calling into birth work, and continue to love serving right along side families committed for the whole ride. I’m a homemaker of all things vegan, sweet, and nourishing, while also enjoying a healthy amount of dirt out with horses and gardening with my partner!
Hannah Paz
They/Them/Elle
Doula, Student Midwife
Hannah is a believer in transformation, and in birth as a constant vehicle for change. Every birth reshapes humanity: the people who give birth, the people who love them, the newly born, the birthworkers who support them, and the community which encircles us all. Birth is a portal to otherworldly human strength; strength which lives inside each of us.
To support another human in birthing new life is to witness the peaks and depths of who we are as we become who we can be. To be born in safeguarded consent, bodily autonomy, and empathy is to birth a loving world. Together, grief can be acknowledged in compassion. Sacred space for healing can be held with intention. Growth is inevitable. We birth ourselves as we choose to bring the many parts of us into community with resilience and integrity.
Hannah is a person of intersections: they are a writer, a parent, an advocate, a friend. They are dedicated to a trauma-informed, multicultural, gender-expansive perspective for birth work and birth education. They trained as a doula in 2016 before birthing their children in hospital and at home. Hannah is committed to facilitating self-determined birth for every client and an ethical, sustainable pathway to birthwork for every fellow student.
Hannah loves deep conversation, bold food, eclectic music, and learning wherever they can, having earned a degree in microbiology with another in progress in midwifery. Hannah is passionate about universal human rights, solidarity with Black and Indigenous lifeways as community medicine, and studies languages in their free time to those ends.
Wherever you’re at, I’m here with you!
We are built to work together for our mutual success! The world we want to live in exists between our determined hearts, our prepared minds, and our joined hands.
