Welcome!

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As you peruse this site, my hope is you will find comfort and resources. Whether you need this service, interested in learning the art of accompanying the dying or are fellow doulas and midwives to the dying, may you find what you are seeking.



    "When you do things from your soul,
    you feel a river moving in you, a joy."

         ~ Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

_Accompanying the Dying...a practical guide and awareness training...It is ready!

I have developed a course that will mentor those wishing to serve the dying. We will work together by phone and through assignments.

                             Please visit ~

                     The concept of a midwife and doula in relation to dying is emerging.

Most of us understand the midwife and doula role in the birthing process. Along with being an emotional and spiritual support for the family, the midwife is a skilled, trained practitioner who attends the birth of a baby. The doula provides emotional, spiritual comfort and logistical assistance. We can use midwife and doula to describe the essence of how a person can support another in the transition from this life as well.

                                                                 The Concept

In the dying realm, we can use these terms but the roles are not delineated the same. Those of us who attend to families who are losing a loved one call ourselves a variety of things. Among them are death doula, death midwife, doula for the dying, midwife for the dying, transition guide and death guide; there may be other names. Some of us are nurses, some of us are not. There are males among us but for the rest of the site, I will be using 'she' and 'her' for simplicity.

Doulas and midwives to the dying provide emotional, practical and spiritual support. Each doula is unique in her type of service. Some are mostly spiritually based and there are some doulas who are nurses as well, trained and experienced in the specialty of hospice and palliative care. Each midwife and doula brings her unique way of being with the family and her own specialization. You will know it when you find the person you want with you at this vulnerable time.

                                                   Acknowledgment of the Need

The comforting presence of the midwife and doula is a relatively new sector in end-of-life care. Services from hospices like "11th hour" volunteering and "continuous care nursing services" acknowledge the importance of having more support during the final hours preceding death. The only barrier to this extra care is that the family may not qualify for the continuous care service or there may not be a volunteer available to sit with the family.

The above services are the best we have so far and thankfully these services are here. Just know that midwives and doulas for the dying, people who can be with you throughout the process as you would like them to be, are growing in number. My hope is one day this kind of support is available to whoever wants it.
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This site is a Quality of Life Care project.
      This site and all the work I do is dedicated to my mother who died June 15, 2005.  *A song I wrote for her*                       An article: "Doula for the Dying: Austin Woman Shepherds People Nearing Death"                                                 
     Copyright © 2009-2012. All rights reserved
     last updated: 2/11/12