Rena Chandler
HBCE,
PCD(DONA)
Mother
Rena lives in Beautiful Vista, California with her partner and three boys.
It all started when…
I was a 12 year old and going with my mom to work. My mom is a RN and one of her patients at that time, was a baby with cerebral palsy. It was a known fact that the hospital intervened in this birth and caused serious complications for the mother and child. I, being only a kid, didn’t realize that doctors and delivery rooms could jeopardize giving birth safely. I thought doctors were there to help not cause harm. A few years later as a teenager and avid book reader, I read texts supporting natural births in quiet, know what to do manners. And that made more sense to me than our current OBGYN and delivery set up. I sensed and heard having a baby here (in the United States) was fearful and not always respecting the mother’s choice. Unpredictability in the hospital delivery rooms was normal and birthing babies was much scarier for moms (and babies) then it needed to be. And so, a few years later I sought evidence based knowledge supporting what I innately knew birth to be-an instinctive, natural, normal, human experience. I read classics like, Ina May Gaskin’s books, watched documentaries and read other material supporting this natural birthing wisdom. What we see and hear, past or present, having a baby comes off as indeed scary or even terrifying for many mothers, babies and families. Seeing what I witnessed as a young girl with my mom, and the misinformation out there, birthing needs to be normalized again. It doesn't need to be so terrifying anymore. We have to re-learn how to birth our babies, let go of fears surrounding birth and embrace what is truly in us, our magnificence to birth in a calm, healthy, empowering manner.
Becoming pregnant with my first son, I knew I wanted to find a birthing class that aligned with my vision and truth of birth. I stumbled upon HypnoBirthing and signed up. The program, teacher, techniques and overall approach towards birth was exactly what I was looking for. One year after my first son was born and still passionate about my own calm hypnobirth and this innate need to share the wisdom about birth and how beautiful, normal and calm it can be, I became a certified HypnoBirthing Educator.
While I love teaching HypnoBirthing and helping families feel confident in their births, I noticed a huge gap of care and support during the postpartum period of many mothers and families. Also, the realization that I needed so much more support in my own postpartum experiences as did friends around me, I decided to take my passion further and become a DONA certified postpartum doula. Mothers also need nurturing and support during the early weeks and months of their postpartum period. I’ve been helping mothers and families with birthing education and postpartum support since 2015. My dream is that one day every mother will have the access and guarantee of positive birth education and postpartum support.
