Today we’d like to introduce you to Darline Turner.
Hi Darline, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My story really began in late July of 1978. I was sitting at the kitchen table, my mom was cooking dinner and the news came on with Walter Kronkite announcing, “This is CBS News with Walter Kronkite. Today, British researchers James Watson and Francis Crick announce the birth of the first-ever test tube baby!” The news summary went on, and I was mesmerized. My 12-year-old brain could not wrap itself around the fact that a baby had been born in a test tube. How did it fit? How did they get it in there?? So many questions…That one news report sparked my curiosity about women’s reproductive health. It influenced how I studied in school, the undergraduate programs to which I applied and it breads in me a curiosity of how can women’s health be done differently and how can women’s health be done better?
When I got to college and started the pre-med curriculum, I quickly learned that it was not the discipline for me! I did graduate with a Bachelor of Science Degree and went into reproductive research. That was fine, but I missed working with people, so I went back to graduate school and earned my Master of Health Science Degree as a Physician Assistant. I worked clinically for nearly ten years, and while I was able to see and serve many people, it still wasn’t quite the fit that I wanted. That all changed when I got married and moved to Texas in 2000.
I had had an inkling that I may have some difficulty having children when I was diagnosed with Uterine Fibroids when I was 29. But I was able to manage my symptoms with diet and holistic approaches, so I didn’t really worry much about it. But once I got married-at 35!!-I knew that if I was going to have a family, that had to take precedence. So I put my career on hold and got about baby-making.
I lost my first pregnancy, and given my history of fibroids, my OB sent me to a fertility specialist. He told me that the fibroids had to go otherwise I likely wouldn’t carry a pregnancy to term based on their size and location. So I had a myomectomy in December of 2001 and was pregnant with my daughter by February of 2002. It was an absolutely miserable pregnancy! I was sick from 6weeks on, all day, every day until she was delivered at 36 weeks and six days. The misery was even more palpable as I was away from my family, my friends, my tribe. My daughter and I were mutually excited to be done and I went into labor at 36 weeks six days. I was progressing quickly for an “advance maternal age” first-time mom, and the OB on call worked quickly to deliver my daughter via cesarean section. Then all Hell broke loose! My daughter was in respiratory distress and I began to hemorrhage. I remember feeling really sick, throwing up, and panicking because I didn’t hear my baby cry. Everyone in the room was running hither and yon, I was loopy and my husband was just standing there in horror watching as his wife and his child struggled. I remember thinking that someone needed to get him out of the room, to tell him what was going on, and to tell him that we would be okay, but no one did. I couldn’t do or say anything as they had put something in my IV and I was dazed. They eventually took my daughter to the nursery and my husband went with her. I was by myself, and all I could think of was, “I went through all this to have this baby and I might not live to see or hold her”.
Obviously, I lived. And of note, in four short weeks, that baby will graduate from high school. I had another miscarriage two years later and gave birth to my son the year after that. My OB wanted to put me on bed rest while I was pregnant with my son, and given my history, it wasn’t a bad idea. But what was I supposed to do with my then 3-year-old? Her father was traveling the world for work and it was just the two of us. SoI went on modified activity restriction. I was to stay mostly with my feet up but could drive my daughter to preschool, to the grocery store, and to church. I had about a 6-mile radius in which I could travel. During this time, I began writing a women’s health column for Austinwoman Magazine and blogging about my pregnancy experiences. I also developed a DVD of modified exercises to do for women on bed rest because when I asked my OB what I could for exercise and to remain strong, she had no ideas. All these columns, all these blogs, and the Bedrest Fitness DVD were the foundation for Mamas on Bedrest & Beyond, the company that I started three years after the birth of my son.
Mamas on Bedrest & Beyond has grown and morphed into a full spectrum doula support, education, and resource service for high-risk pregnant mamas since its inception 15 years ago. I have had the great honor and privilege to serve and support hundreds of moms locally, nationally, and internationally through a myriad of pregnancy complications, as well as to be present for some amazing uncomplicated births. For a woman to give birth-especially when she’s been told that she may have difficulty or not be able to give birth at all, it’s a blessing that I really cannot explain. I want all women to have that joy and blessing-if they so choose-and work to make it so.
I now train and mentor other women of color to become full-spectrum doulas, guiding and supporting women in their communities along their pregnancy journeys. It’s a path I never could have imagined as that 12-year-old girl, sitting at my mama’s kitchen table, listening to Walter Kronkite. It wasn’t listed in the choice of majors at either university I attended, and people still don’t always understand what I do, nor why I would forge such a unique path. But necessity is the mother of invention. When I needed support, comfort, friendship, a confidante who know what I was going through, it wasn’t available. So I’ve made it my mission to be that support, the confidante, that friend so that no woman will be alone and afraid on her journey to motherhood and beyond.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It wasn’t easy getting started in business. I had no business background, and it was a steep learning curve. Particular challenges fir me were,
-Starting a business while having small children
-Learning the legalities of establishing a business, and making sure that I had everything in order with the state and the IRS.
-Getting the required certifications to be credible
-Learning about Marketing
-Learning how to do business with the city, state and federal government.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Mamas on Bedrest & Beyond is a full spectrum doula service that provides support, education, and resources to high-risk pregnant women who may or may not be on prescribed bed rest. As part of my work, I now provide education and training to other people who want to serve high-risk pregnant women, who want to eliminate birth outcome disparities, and who want to work to reduce maternal mortality, specifically in black and brown birthing people. I am currently developing curricula for people interested in doing birth support work and am offering opportunities for more training and employment.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
There is much work being done to eliminate birth outcome disparities between women of color and white women. There is much research and evaluation looking at implicit bias, racial bias, inequity in services and service provision. We are literally going to have to fundamentally rethink how women give birth and what the role of support providers really is in this process. Since the middle of the 2oth century, women’s health and maternity care have been driven by the will and the whims of physicians. While physicians must play a role, I think we have come to the conclusion that the current mode of care is not serving women well here in the United States. So it’s time to think of new (or perhaps old) ways of providing maternity care and women’s health, and that is opening up the disciplines to new thinking and providing opportunities for new providers with new skill sets. It’s an exciting time.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@mamasonbedrest.com
- Website: www.mamasonbedrest.com
- Facebook: facebook.com/mamasonbedrestandbeyond
- Twitter: twitter.com/darlinedoula
- Youtube: youtube.com/mamasonbedrest
