We recently connected with Zoe Allocco Finn and have shared our conversation below.

Zoe, appreciate you joining us today. How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?

I was not sure where to begin once I received my certification. I was sitting at my computer trying to decide what to post to instagram and realized I needed help, local help because the program I completed was fully virtual and included people from all over the world. I found a facebook group of doulas in NYC and started scrolling through the posts. I was very interested in all the things people were sharing about birth stories and asking questions comparing different hospitals, but as I had not actually been to a birth before I realized this might not be the best place to begin. Right before I logged off I saw a post with a bunch of comments of experienced doulas offering to mentor new doulas. So I reached out to one of them. She was absolutely wonderful, we met up for coffee a few times and she shared a lot of valuable information including putting me in contact with a community program that was able to take on new doulas. Being a part of that program is where I matched with someone and attended my first birth as a doula. We are not meant to do the hard stuff alone – meeting new people, building community, asking for help – all those things that sound obvious but aren’t when you are in the beginning of your journey really matter.

Zoe, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Zoe (she/her). I am a full-spectrum doula. I witness and hold space for all events and all people on their journey with pregnancy, birth, postpartum, miscarriage, abortion, and more.

I encourage you to stay true to YOU during these times of great change – through education, advocacy, planning, honing your intuition, and most importantly letting it all go. I honor change and want to highlight the transitions, physically and emotionally. The world we live in moves fast and often we are not left the space to process our experience of it – I would like to break that norm and slow it all down.

I moved around growing up and each place played a special part in who I am. By experiencing new places and having to start over building community, I feel comfortable in spaces of transition. Adapting to unfamiliar surroundings and finding intimacy when others might feel unsure.
I have been a dancer my whole life, knowing that’s what I wanted to do from a young age. I have been actively making work and performing in NYC for the past 10 years. Being a movement artist allowed me to make friends in bodywork communities and taught me so many things – not only about my own body and self awareness but all human bodies.
As I embody the parts of myself drawn to healing, I have learned to hold space for my own transitions and to keep in practice with who I am, regardless of what I may be focusing on. I have always supported others whether or not I realized it, just as I will always be a dancer even if I am not actively performing.

I am here to be a companion to you in the spaces of change when we are most vulnerable, most raw, and most in need of community. To learn together and create a mutual respect. To help move through anxiety and normalize these moments relating so much to the body and spirit connection that we tend to throw aside in Western culture. I come without an agenda, you decide what happens with your body and your life, I am here to support the decisions you make and to help actualize them.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

Doulas/Birthworkers/Emotional support people have been around for centuries. Moments of transition in people’s lives were group based and included many people for support. A person in labor would have had multiple people in multiple generations there to help support the process, a doula was(is) your mom, your aunt, your sister, any relative or friend that was a comfort and knew a lot about birth. As the field is growing in popularity there are a lot of certifications popping up trying to build credibility on a singular scale. This work was not meant to be a singular practice, nor does it have a governing body, because we are not medical professionals. So it is more helpful to learn about yourself, your heritage and the practices they might have around the perinatal time. To get back to the roots of what care and support mean and look at what your community needs.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Unlearning impostor syndrome comes up a lot for me. Before deciding I wanted to get into birthwork I did one thing my entire life. I began ballet when I was 3 and ever since then it was the only career I ever seriously considered. I ended up going to college for modern dance then created and performed in NYC for about 10 years after graduating college. Dance and other performance work that involves auditioning is fraught with unexpected outcomes and discomfort, but I knew that world and felt that I had spent enough time in it to feel like I belonged there. When I finally decided to try something new I was very excited but couldn’t help the feeling that I would never know enough and would not be qualified even though I completed a course that prepared me very well and my natural state of being was always to be a healer and helper. I am still working on this but the lesson for me was to just keep going and do my best in every situation, to show up and know that by showing up I was already in the process of unlearning the hurtful habit of thinking I didn’t deserve to do this work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://zoeregina.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoeregina/