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Meet the Writers
An Anthology of Canadian Birth Stories:
Inspiring Stories and Essential Guidance for Parents, Parents-to-be, and Healthcare Providers
by Ashley Lightfoot
Residing in Squamish, BC with her partner, Eric, two kidlets, and a kitty, Ashley became a certified doula after the birth of her first child. She adores helping families create peaceful and joyous transformation. Ashley is a member of the BC Doula Services Association, as well as the Tantalus Wellspring Society, a charity which assists those experiencing barriers in accessing mental wellness therapies.
She can be reached at www.moonbeamdoula.ca
A Blazing Birth
by Mandee MacDonald
Mandee MacDonald lives in Napanee, Ontario. She is a Queen’s University and Southeastern University alumni. She is also a hairstylist and a teacher, but at the moment she is a stay-at-home mom to four little ones. So, these days, she changes diapers, makes peanut butter sandwiches, and watches Paw Patrol. The days aren’t always glamorous, but she counts being a mom as one of her greatest accomplishments.
Cutting Ties
and Letting Go
by Lori Sebastianutti
Lori Sebastianutti is a writer of creative nonfiction. Her personal essays explore feminism, fertility, and faith. Her work has been published in The New Quarterly, The Humber Literary Review, and The Hamilton Review of Books, among others. You can read more of her work at https://lorisebastianutti.com and follow her on Instagram @sebastianlwrites.
A Healing Birth
by Karen Price
Karen Price lives in Kingston, Ontario. She is new-ish to the Kingston area and works for the Limestone School Board. She has two sons, ages 11 and 8.
Luna Rising
by Mercedes Papalia
Mercedes is a multi-disciplinary storyteller through art, design, and creative writing. Her journey began as an acting and vocal student at a young age and she continues to expand and diversify her creative practices. She currently works as an interior stylist, visual artist, and production designer for film and television. Mercedes is a devoted mother, wife, and lover of fresh flowers and authentic Italian food, forever in the pursuit of a beautiful life.
It All Makes Sense Now
by Camille Ramsperger
Camille Ramsperger is a 26-year-old single mother to a beautiful baby boy named Theodore. She is a full-time nurse working in the emergency department at her nearest hospital. She meant to write her birth story so as not to forget it, and the Birth Story Contest gave her the motivation to do so.
Riding a Tsunami
by Janelle Connor
Janelle Connor is from Oakfield, Nova Scotia. She is a wife, student, financial advisor, aspiring writer, and a proud mama to a curious and charismatic little boy. To read more from Janelle, visit her blog at https://soulnourished.home.blog/
Worth It
by Angela Douglas
Angela Douglas is a marketing communications professional, author, and proud mother. She writes thrillers and non-fiction. This story marked her return to writing after a lengthy absence. When she isn’t working, she writes in her studio with her bulldog Frankie. Angela’s debut psychological thriller EVERY FALL, comes out in January 2025. Angela lives in the Okanagan with her husband and kids.
Find Angela at https://www.angeladouglas.ca or @anglynndouglas on social media.
Birth Plan
by Brittany Oliver
Brittany Oliver has been an Ontario midwife for three years and has recently become a new mother! In fact, she is currently on leave with her beautiful baby girl, born on April 14th, 2020. The shift from midwife to mama has been wonderful, eye-opening, challenging and so fulfilling. Creative writing has been a hobby and outlet of hers since childhood. She lives in Welland, Ontario with her husband and daughter, their aussie shepherd, and 13-year-old turtle.
Delivered
by Christine Folan
Christine Folan is a married mother of two living in Southwestern Ontario. She is a high school English and Drama teacher for the French Catholic School board in her region. An avid reader, she is trying to instill a love of fantasy, adventure and mystery into her children by making them lovers of books and stories.
She Who Brings Forth
the Blossoms
by Leah Timmermann
Leah Timmermann lives in rural Eastern Ontario. She works as a midwife but is currently on leave with her 3-month-old daughter. She and her family live in a tiny house that they built on their family's land. She loves reading, cooking, and anything outdoors.
Our Rainbow
by Dana MacDonald
Dana has been a registered nurse for 10 years. She is currently working as a surgical nurse at Kingston Health Sciences Centre.
She lives in Kingston, Ontario, and is a proud mom of two kids (Dylan and Zoe) and one dog, named Storm.
Reclaiming my Birth Story
by Danielle BoByk
Danielle was born and raised in Vancouver, BC, before moving to Kingston in 2013 to be with her now husband. She has a degree in kinesiology from the University of British Columbia and worked in various positions as a registered kinesiologist before shifting her focus to a career in editing. She is now a freelance editor who works primarily with self-publishing authors as well as the editor for a vintage car club magazine.
Believing in Your Body
by Jenna Kovacic
Jenna is enjoying life with her husband, son and daughter. After her first birth experience, she knew she needed to do something with her newfound passion and so, she became a doula! She is a promoter of self-care, a lover of meditation, simple living, books, any outdoor activity and tries to be as present as possible in her everyday life.
You can reach her on Facebook or Instagram : @over.the.moon.birth
Mother Knows Best
by Julie Meier
Julie was born and raised in Calgary, and now lives on a farm where she can enjoy a view of the Calgary skyline and Rocky Mountains as she writes at her kitchen table. Her work has been published in several online journals and she has been shortlisted for a number of flash fiction story contests. When she is not writing, you might find Julie outside cuddling sheep, or devising new ways to embarrass her teenagers.You can follow Julie at Twitter @Julie_M_Meier
A Full Moon Eclipse Birth
by Kristin Nuttall
Kristin has had the opportunity to attend many births as a doula and biodynamic craniosacral therapist. The more she learned about birth, the greater her reverence became and the greater her passion grew in assisting mothers to have empowered birthing experiences. Kristin’s greatest birthing support mentor is Gloria Lemay from Vancouver, BC. Many women of the Sea-to-Sky corridor had had "Gloria babies". Kristin took the "Wise Woman Way of Birth' and "Birth Takes a Village".
Through the Doula's Eyes
by Jessica Cheyne
Jessica is the owner of Soothe Doula Services. What motivated her to start it was hearing the stories of many birthing people and their journeys, many of them negative and trying. She knew there was a way to help curve the fear that came along with labour and delivery. Having three difficult labours and births herself, she felt it was time to educate not only herself, but also others on how to have a birth that they would be happy to share and remember.
Jessica lives in Woodstock, Ontario. She is also the owner of Jarful Refillery. You can follow her @jarfulrefillery.
Just Like Hollywood
by Alison Ryder
Ali Ryder is a Canadian advisor on policies and programs that help the homeless. She's lived in Kingston, Ontario for 16 years since attending Queen's University. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, ultimate frisbee, and board games. This is her fifth pregnancy and first birth.
A Dramatic Debut
by Sara Wettlaufer
Sara and her husband Paul are originally from the Hamilton area. She is an elementary school teacher while he is a member of the Canadian Armed Forces. Due to his military career, they currently reside in Petawawa, ON with their daughter and two dogs. Prior to this recent move, they spent two years in Brantford, ON, where their daughter, Isla, was born. They are indebted to the Community Midwives of Brantford for their fabulous care during her birth.
Surprise!
by Sheena McDonald
Sheena lives in Toronto with her husband, two-year-old daughter and two cats -- who gets a shout out in her story! Although she is able to fulfill her love of writing on a daily basis as a communications professional in the non-profit sector, she will seize any opportunity to write creatively.
Wednesday's Child
by Sara Wood-Gates
Sara Wood-Gates is a single mother of two children living in Burlington Ontario. She has spent most of her career in various customer service roles from serving in restaurants to planning events to counselling job seekers on their careers. Currently, Sara works as a Pre-Sales Solution Architect for an American company which has allowed her to work from home since 2013. Sara is excited to draw from her wealth of personal stories as she dabbles in writing.
Labour, Delivery and a Grateful Grandmother
by Sharon Chisvin
Sharon Chisvin is a Winnipeg mother of three adult children and a grateful grandmother of two precious grandsons. She works as a journalist, editor and oral historian, and is the author of the children’s picture book, The Girl Who Cannot Eat Peanut Butter.
The dark road to life
by Mica Pants
Mica Pants (he/him), is a queer trans artist from South Frontenac County, Ontario. He is passionate about art, energy work, and spirituality. He has spent over a decade hustling in the social services and has recently carried and birthed the newest addition to his family. He has not written about it yet.
Follow his @micapantsart or www.micapantsart.com
The Middle Child
by Gretchen Huntley
Gretchen Huntley is an author from Kingston. She wrote three children’s books as well as a book on her son’s journey with cancer. She is the founder of The Get Well Gang, a group of crafters who make and donate 100% cotton caps to cancer patients.
During the beginning of Covid 2020, she turned to poetry to help her through the dark times. The outcome was a small poetry book called Reality and Me.
Curbside Delivery
by Sabrina Malach
Sabrina Malach is a lifelong environmental advocate working in urban agriculture and pollinator conservation. She is a beekeeper and an urban farmer and her sweetest harvest is the birth of her beautiful daughter, Mira Orli. Sabrina lives in Toronto.
Oliver's Birth
by Anne-Marie Laplante
After leaving Ontario at the end of high school for adventures in Montreal, Lake Louise and Vancouver, Anne-Marie and her husband moved back to Kingston in 2010. While living in Vancouver, she was immensely lucky to have been the Office Manager at Pomegranate Community Midwives from 2006 to2010. She remains eternally grateful for everything the community taught her about the strength of women and the power of birth.
Her boys are now eleven and fourteen years old, and they live in the Skeleton Park neighbourhood.
In Gratitude
by Scarlete Flores-Singh
Scarlete is a mom to an adorable six-year-old girl. Despite the challenges that came with her pregnancy, recalling her beautiful birth story gives her peace and hope. She wrote this story for her doula, Rachel.
A Doula Letter
by Carrie Allen
This letter was written by our doula, Carrie Allen, after our daughter’s birth in Canmore, Alberta. I have Carrie’s permission to submit the letter. The letter was part of Carrie’s doula package and we had no idea how special it would be to have such a wonderful gift. It was so special, in fact, that we asked the doulas at our following two births here in Ontario to write letters as well, so now each one of our kids has one. It’s hard to find the words to describe how supported I felt from all of our doulas before, during, and after our births. Here’s to all the birthing mommas who have a doula as part of their support team.
My Mom Job Journey
by Bonnie Jean-Louis
Bonnie Jean-Louis is the founder of The Mom Job - Univers Mamans. She is an experienced professional Photographer and Community Health Coordinator and she is also a certified Labour, Birth and Postpartum Doula, Perinatal Educator, PAIL Advocate and Birth Photographer.
Bonnie is passionate about providing adequate evidence-based holistic moral support, the right to choose one’s primary care providers and preferred birth place, while rethinking and advocating for The Mom Job.
You can follow her at @universmamans on Instagram or at https://www.facebook.com/universmamans or call 613-494-5007, to access our free phone service to discuss with a doula.
After Hours
by Jennifer Osmond
Jennifer Osmond, from Badger, Newfoundland, currently lives in Clarenville, Newfoundland, where she is raising her three beautiful daughters with her husband of nearly 12 years. When she learned about a writing contest involving birth stories, she knew exactly what story she could contribute. The pregnancy with her second child highlights the challenges of smalltown hospitals where there are only a handful of OBGYN’s on staff. After hours is a whole other ballgame to be won.
At Light Speed
by Lisa Brenner
Lisa lives in Kitchener, Ontario with her partner and three children. She is an Ayurvedic practitioner, a Pre/Postnatal Yoga teacher, Reiki Master, and Doula. She weaves all of these beautiful practices together to provide loving care for birthers and their sweet babes. The immediate postpartum period has her heart! You can connect with her on all social networks as Wise Roots Therapies.
Miles to Journey Through
by Aly Guildford
Aly has settled in Huntsville Ontario. She met her husband in high school and they have been together ever since. They currently have two children, a son born in 2016 and a daughter born in 2019. Aly is a Registered Early Childhood Educator and uses her knowledge on a daily basis. She enjoys reading and writing, and so she was thrilled to contribute a meaningful story about such a precious event. Midwives attended both her births and their support was out of this world. She believes everyone could benefit from having a midwife and/or a doula!