We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Domanique Lawrence a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Domanique, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

The biggest risk i ever took was becoming a doula. Imagine this, you’re 21, just graduated from MTSU with your public health degree, and you feel like you aren’t sure what you should do next. You know what you want to do in life isn’t aligning with your degree and your current career. I found out about the world of birth work at 16, and it’s been eating at the back of my mind. In Spring of 2023, before I started Nursing school, I told myself “Let me do this one thing for me first”, and I did. After getting my certification in April, I was so happy, but then I hit a rough spot where I felt like I spent all this money doing something I liked, and it had yet to yield anything rewarding for me. Then by June, I got a break. I was able to finally sign on with my first agency, Music City Doulas in Nashville, TN, and I got my first client later on in 2023. The risk was not spending the money to become a doula and putting time and effort in, it was me taking a risk to do something that I loved and have that risk yield priceless results.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Domanique Lawrence, I’m 22 years old, and I’m a Birth Doula! I have always had a love for birth, when I was 16, I wanted to be a Nurse Midwife and Doula, but now the only thing that has changed is that now I am in nursing school to become a NICU nurse instead! As a doula, I work with Music City Doulas to aid people all around the Nashville area to give birth, whether it is Vaginal, C-Section, or VBAC (Vaginal birth after cesarean). Outside of Working with Music City Doulas, I work as a Nurse Intern, at a Hospital in the Murfreesboro Area, and I run an Instagram (@Domthedoulaa) that educates all who choose to listen about birth! As you can imagine, being a nursing student, a nurse intern, and handling potential clientele as a doula can be strenuous, but as I always say, ” It’s never real work if you love to do it all.” As a doula, it’s my purpose to serve my clients in a way that is sustainable for all of us, because I cannot fill from an empty cup. Working with my clients includes offering prenatal appointments to educate them about labor positions, listening to their concerns about birth, and coming up with ways that we can fix them. Through these appointments, we get comfortable with each other, and my favorite part is seeing someone who was once so scared of birth turn their fears into challenges that they know they can overcome, especially with me by their side every step of the way. During birth, we go back to those positions we practiced, and we use their birth plan to give them as the client the best experience of birth possible.
If the reader could walk away with one take away from this, its that this is my passion, and I’m so so glad I’m doing this.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A big lesson I had to unlearn before becoming a doula is that I’m not in charge of anything. As a young adult, my biggest goal was to be in control of my life and to be able to grab life by the horns and swing it my way! However, one thing I quickly learned is that birth work is the opposite of control, you have to relinquish yourself as the doula, and my client has to relinquish themselves as the birther, and it gets easier that way. The more you let yourself relax, the more memorable an experience is!

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I’ve read plenty of books to try and expand my knowledge of the birth world, and I can honestly say the best book I have read for my profession is “Fat Birth.” This book is an empowering book about women giving birth at all shapes and sizes. As a plus-sized woman, I resonated with this because I, like others, am often told that plus-sized women will have risky pregnancies and complicated pregnancies and that in some situations, it’s best to just not even have a baby. It can be very discouraging to go to the doctor for a wrist ache, and they tell you the best thing you can do to solve this issue is to lose weight. Reading this book was so empowering for me, and I always encourage people to read it, whether pregnancy or not. It teaches you how to talk to others who don’t have the same background as you, and that can be applied to alot of conversations!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.musiccitydoulas.com/ourteam/domanique-lawrence
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/domthedoulaa?igsh=MmVlMjlkMTBhMg==
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/domanique-lawrence-9399732aa

Image Credits
personal picture was from sofia lopez photography: https://www.instagram.com/sofialopezphotography_?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== additional pictures were taken by Tyra Akoto: https://www.instagram.com/tyraamichelle?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==