"When I had my children, my husband took me to the hospital, left me there and went to work to pick up his weekly paycheck. It was one of the loneliest days of my life. A nurse would come in every once and a while, but no one sat with me, held my hand nor comforted me in any way. I felt like I was on an island, surrounding by nothing but hospital equipment and empty space. For many years afterward, I tried to find a way to do for other woman, what I so sorely lacked, female support. I asked friends if I could be at their births, and looked in at babies in nurseries every time I went to a hospital to visit someone. I first heard the word doula, about ten years ago, and immediately set out on my course to become one. Finally I saw a way that I could do for another, what had not been done for me, nor millions of women at that unenlightened time of childbirth."