You are the World Doula Services supports women on their pregnancy journey

By Valorie Brecht For many mothers, giving birth is one of the most physically challenging experiences of their lives, but also one of the most rewarding, as they are bringing a new life into the world. Becoming a mom changes a woman forever.

Ashley Schmitz of Loyal wants to help walk women through that process, so they can have the best labor and delivery experience possible.

“My goal is to be there to emotionally and physically support the mom and her partner,” said Ashley, who recently began her business, You are the World Doula Services.

A doula is defined as a person trained to advise, inform and offer emotional and physical comfort to a mother before, during and after the birth of her child. The doula is an important part of the mother’s birth team, providing the knowledge, skills and experience to help the mom achieve the best possible outcome for her and her baby.

Ashley has always had an interest in birth, but it wasn’t until recently that she pursued being a doula as a career.

“I started my undergrad program in medicine, with the goal of becoming an OBGYN [obstetrician and gynecologist],” said Ashley. “But looking further into the schooling required, I realized financially that it was not what I wanted. I ended up getting a degree in agronomy, as I have a background in raising hogs. But I still wanted to do something with birth.”

Ashley set the idea aside for awhile. In the meantime, she married her husband, Nick, and three years ago, they had their first child, Wesley. Although Wesley is a happy and healthy little boy now, he had a challenging birth. Wesley was due at the end of July that year. Ashley’s feet and hands began swelling significantly in the second week of June. Ashley contacted her provider right away.At first, she was “kind of brushed off” because she didn’t have any other symptoms. By the end of the week though, her symptoms had escalated to feeling like she had the flu and strong side pain to the point of vomiting. She went in to the hospital and a battery of tests eventually revealed she had preeclampsia. She was told by the doctors that she needed to have a Cesarean section right away.

“The feeling of being scared just immediately sank in and how it came off was, my life and the baby’s life were in jeopardy… It was like, there is no further discussion. We need to roll you into the ER right now.”

She ended up getting the C-section and Wesley was born at 33 weeks. He had to spend 35 days in the neonatal intensive care unit so his lungs could fully develop.

Looking back at the experience, Ashley wished she had had someone there to ask more questions and find out if there were any possible alternatives as opposed to going into surgery right away. She allowed that maybe the situation was indeed as serious as medical staff portrayed it and surgery may well have been the only option, but she still wishes she would have had more information to make an informed decision.

“That’s one thing I hear from people over and over when I talk to them about their birth stories when they go into C-section, it’s like, ‘Well, you’ve been admitted for this long. We could use this bed space for somebody else. Let’s just get you in the OR [operating room], get this baby out so we can get the next person in.’… I’m not OK with that. I went with midwifery care because I’m not just a number. I’m a human; my baby’s a human and we have voices,” she said.

Because of her first birth experience, when Ashley became pregnant with her second son, she decided to seek out a doula to help her with the birth process. She reached out to a couple of people to see if they had suggestions. They recommended Robin Dietel of Stratford, who runs Mema D’s doula services. Ashley took her friends up on their advice and was not disappointed. She said there was a “night and day” difference between how her first birth went compared to her second birth. She was able to go a lot longer without medical intervention. She said Robin did a great job helping her through the whole birth process, including helping with exercises to stimulate labor, getting Ashley’s husband involved, coaching through pushing and taking photos, which Ashley had requested.

“We did an epidural and she did an amazing job explaining the risks and advocating for me in that way,” Ashley added.

Ashley appreciated having that additional support person and felt it made a big difference. The experience inspired Ashley to ask Robin how she became a doula and start looking into it as a career option for herself. In March, she learned that Family Health Center of Marshfield was providing funds for doula training. She decided to apply for the program and was accepted. After completing many hours of classwork, she will be receiving her certification through DONA (Doulas of North America) International.

As a doula, her purpose is to advocate for her clients’ wishes and desires, and help them feel empowered to make their own decisions instead of feeling like the decisions are being made for them.

Ashley was careful to specify that she cannot provide medical interventions during the labor or delivery process — that is up to the midwife or OBGYN. However, she can support a mother in her goals during pregnancy.

“Not that any intervention is wrong, but

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Ashley Schmitz Doula, from page 2

for example right now the big push is to limit Pitocin or the epidural… A lot of providers kind of try to push labor and get these girls in and out as fast as possible, because the hospital makes more money that way, right? So that’s where I step in, because a lot of these women hire me as someone because they want to be more present in the birth. So that’s where I could be like, ‘Hey, Suzanne, are you aware that they’re wanting to put you on Pitocin to speed up contractions? I know we had discussed at a prenatal appointment that you didn’t want to be put on Pitocin. How are you feeling in this moment? Are you still wanting to go without any intervention or are you OK with them hooking you up to an IV and getting contractions going?’ So that is my role as a doula, is just making sure that their wishes are honored as much as possible.

“My goal is that they leave my care thankful that they had a good experience and not saying, ‘Ugh, I wish I had more informed consent’ or ‘I really wish they wouldn’t have pushed the epidural on me.’” Services provided include one prenatal visit, continuous labor support during active labor, availability for messaging and/or phone support as needed starting at 38 weeks of pregnancy, and a birth journal. For those moms planning on having a Cesarean section, Ashley offers one prenatal visit, support on the day of the procedure, assistance with breastfeeding after birth and a birth journal. Add-on services include additional prenatal visits, photos during labor and delivery, and a postpartum visit.

The prenatal visit is a time to talk through the mother’s birth wishes and fears; goals for labor and delivery; what she sees as Ashley’s role in the birth; and “what is your plan A and if that doesn't go well, what do you have in mind for plan B.”

Ashley is also happy to provide birthrelated information, such as fact sheets on the pros and cons of Pitocin, for example; birthing positions or many other topics. A lot of her information comes from the organization Evidence Based Birth.

“I’m a very evidence-based person. We’ve been birthing for thousands of years. Why are we pushing all these interventions on women just to get them in and out of the door? To me that’s not how our health care should be set up. What’s frightening is that the maternal mortality rate, as of 2023, especially among black women, is so high in the U.S. It’s 2024. What is going wrong? If we have all this great technology, you would think it would be going down, not rising. So these are the reasons I get so passionate about birth,” she said.

She hopes to use that passion to support expectant mothers in any way possible. Ashley is offering her services to women in Clark, Marathon and Wood counties. She would be happy to discuss her services with any prospective client and can be reached at youaretheworlddoula. com or by messaging her business on Facebook or Instagram.

She chose “You are the World” as her business name because of a photo frame with pictures of her sons she has at home that says, “To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you are the world.” The quote captures the extraordinary bond between a mother and child, but Ashley also sees it in another way. She said moms are amazing, and as a doula, they mean the world to her. She wants to do everything she can to support them.

“Moms do so much for their kids. They are usually the main caregiver. Moms deserve the best care,” she said.

Follow Ashley on Facebook at “You are the World Doula Services” and Instagram at “You are the World Doula.”