Jessica Faulkner

I attribute my success to God, honestly. I'm so thankful that I'm able to do this work because it's not for everyone. A part of the birth side, there's also death, and birth doulas can be bringing in life, but there's also death doulas. I'm on the very good side of it, but I'm also curious about that other side because this is life processes, and I'm always curious about transitions in life. With birth comes death, so that's something I look at in my work too, knowing the other side of it and how that can affect a family. I've dealt with miscarriages or stillbirths in the past, but thankfully it's not a lot. Just knowing that the work that I deal with can be unexpected in that way as well, like if someone says their baby is not able to be detected, that's something I have to also mentally prepare for. Having both sides of the spectrum, you have to understand those sides in life. So at all costs, I attribute my success to God, and being able to mentally prepare for all sides of this work, because some of the work can be unexpected.

The best career advice I've received is believing in yourself and knowing that it takes the courage to know that you, as a person, will only know what's best for you. If you are the person that chooses to make a change, and that change being what you believe in, just go for it. Don't look back. No matter how hard it might take, if you really want something, you will try your hardest to get it. It's not easy to propel and expand your career. For me, I'm having a little challenge in my career where I want to be more than just what I'm doing. I want to get more in the medical field, and it's not easy doing that as well. So it's like, okay, what things do I have to do to get past this? I'm trying to be an ultrasound technician, and it's a different field, but I love it because it ties in with women's health and mammograms and babies. So I'm gonna make it happen.

My main thing is to have them understand the ins and outs of the career, so if they see themselves in a long-term career path. For my job, it takes a lot. Again, it's not for everyone. For me to have done this career path for 8 years says a lot, because a lot of people stop within 2 years because of the lack of motivation, but also because they don't know what they're doing to be in it long-term. So really, my advice is just finding how long you want to be in this, and also if you're willing to upgrade your life for this. Women's health is so diverse and has many sides of it, and I'm in a part where it's a crucial impact to the well-being of a mother who gives birth, but also the baby that chooses to also be born within the mother. I think just knowing women's reproduction and reproductive health, as well as cultures and how different cultures believe in giving birth, and knowing the process of history behind birth is super important. If they want to really get into it, this is the way: just researching and finding exactly how you see yourself in this career.

The biggest challenge would be not knowing what to expect fully, especially if there are some issues. For example, not knowing if a provider will listen to my client, or not knowing if they have the idea of, like, hey, I'm going to this hospital, but we've heard that they have a high cesarean rate online, and I really don't want that. However, depending on how an induction goes, for example, that can be a challenge for me because we don't know how long it could be or how it could go, because inductions actually increase your chances of a C-section. So those are the things that I do find challenging.

I would say boundaries are an important part of my life, because I deal with a lot of different people that have different perspectives, emotions, or similar perspectives and emotions. Knowing how they impact me, those people, whether it's a family that I'm supporting, and making sure that they also know I'm a human being too, although I see myself as a Wonder Woman with them. And it's a beautiful part of my life to know that I'm doing this for them and helping them, and we have stories, and knowing that I made an impact and it was a great outcome is something I value as well. And then, knowing my value of just balance. Balancing different ways of your life. So my business focuses a lot on knowing mentally, physically, emotionally. When it comes to boundaries, we have to figure out where we're going with the boundary, if it's a friendship, if it's romantic, if it's a co-worker or an employee versus employer. Knowing those different ways of lines and not crossing them, but respecting them, and then also balancing your personal life, your financial life, your mental health. These are things that, thankfully, in my business, I can work with, and I know well enough to make them work for me and figure them out. So those are definitely my values in life: trying to balance out my relationships and just things I do in my life, financially, career-wise, and relationship-wise.