I am Caitlin Walsh Catts.
I come from a very large family: my father is the youngest of 9 and my husband’s mother is the oldest of 6 kids. Between our two joined families, we have upwards of 100 people in just our immediate family tree. I have been around a lot of babies. My brother was born when I was 4 and my sister born when I was 11, at prime babysitting age. I left northern Virginia to attend College of Charleston in South Carolina. I met my husband and we moved to his home on St. Simons Island, Georgia. When I found out we were pregnant, I was not prepared! I was 24 and having my own babies was far from my mind! But alas, life had something more in store for me than I had originally planned: the exact first lesson in parenthood. When I realized I was put in my greatest role yet, that I was a strong woman whose body had naturally done the most awesome thing it could do AND that I was going to have to get this baby out of me eventually, I decided the lowest interventions possible would be best. Upon reading What to Expect When You’re Expecting, I knew there was something, however intangible, that I wasn’t being told… What was a catheter?!? In stepped my beautiful best friend cousin who was just 6 weeks ahead of me in her first pregnancy and worked for a midwife in upstate NY. She doula-ed me. She educated me. She supported me. And from states away nonetheless. She taught me that birth is not to be feared so much as it is to be revered, respected. So my journey began and I advocated for myself, and much to my family’s and my husband’s family’s dismay, I chose to travel 100 miles to give birth with midwives at a Centering Birth Center in Savannah, GA. My years of working for attorneys as a paralegal came in handy as I became my own representation in the top decisions of mine and my baby’s life. My first birth did NOT go as planned, per the mysterious ways of birth: my waters broke without any labor started. I transferred to the hospital at 7 cms and received pitocin and an epidural. I labored down and got some much needed rest and truly believe modern medicine enabled me to birth my 9’6’’ eskimo baby vaginally. Had I stayed local, I know in my heart it would’ve ended with cesarean. I learned in that moment to let go of the plan and honor the education and support that I had acquired. I was validated in knowing choosing my birth team was the single most important decision I had made in a situation that unfolded no thanks to any of the expectations I had formed. It was then ten years ago that I looked into becoming a trained DONA doula. With the birth of my second boy in northern Virginia, I hired a doula whose life would become very closely connected to mine in our small little town. Together, we were co-administrators of Loudoun Birth Circle, with monthly meetings honoring the mothers of our community and hashing out all things #birth. We moved to Richmond in 2018 when I was 30 weeks pregnant with my third boy and was recommended by my doula’s best friend, also a doula and mother of 4, to have a homebirth with the legendary Nancy Giglio. As crazy as it had sounded 8 years before, I knew it was the right choice for me. As I gazed into his eyes coming out sunny side up, my experience has served to solidify my passion for the normal processes of birthing a human into this beautiful and hard world of ours. Finally, I very methodically became pregnant with my daughter in August 2022 and her birth has made my heart and my family complete. I have been a lover of birth and an advocate for over 13 years and now I offer my services to others: to serve YOU.
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