We recently connected with Marica Daniels and have shared our conversation below.

Marica, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

I was about 25, a single mom with 2 children, working as a Labor and Delivery Nurse and High Risk Hospital in Miami. My childrens father had passed away in a fatal accident 2 years prior and At the time I was trying to be both a mom and a dad to them. I tried to spend so much time with them in an effort to “make up” for their dad not being here that I lost myself in the process. After their father died I didn’t know how to cope and I fell into the deepest depression on my life. What’s even worse is that I didn’t even know I was in it. It didn’t fit the description that people usually see when it comes to depression. I wasn’t sitting in my room, shut out from the world. Instead I was functioning. I went to work, came home, cared for my kids on my days off, nothing more, nothing less. I handled everything I was “supposed” to handle. Everything except myself.

I followed my schedule to a tee. Yes schedules are good to have, but they also give us a false sense of control. The second something outside of our “scheduled” events happen, it’s like the world is ending. At least that’s how I felt. That’s when my anxiety would flare up. So as a defense mechanism to the pain I was feeling inside, my mind and body went into autopilot. Learning to release control and go with the flow of life has definitely been one of my most freeing lessons.

As I’ve healed and worked on being a present person, I see how far I’ve come and I’m grateful. I advocate for my own mental health, those around me and for my clients in my work as a doula.

Marica, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I graduated from the university of Miami in 2017 at 22 while I was 8 months pregnant. I then spent the next year caring for my son during his first year of life. What I didn’t know was that the holistic birth experience I chose for my pregnancy and caring for him was giving me the experience I needed to guide me through my career.

My first job as a nurse was on a Mother baby Unit (postpartum)This is where I Learned how to care for moms in the postpartum period and how to navigate different breastfeeding issues. I was fortunate enough to have an amazing preceptor. I would also follow the lactation specialist around.

My next job as nurse is when I stepped into knowing my worth and found my “thick” skin as an experienced nurse. I accepted a position as a High Risk Labor and Delivery nurse, where I worked for 2 years. I would consider this the meat of my training, with yet another amazing preceptor who had 30+ years of experience. I was always the type to trust my intuition and ask why, which is how I started moving up the ranks of experience and soon other nurses started coming to me for advice on caring for their Moms. It was always more than a job for me. If a mom was being treated poorly by the medical system it really hurt my soul.

I attempted to work on the issues I was seeing in the hospital setting. I even sat with my director and helped to create a committee dedicated to enforce more natural labor practices. That fed my hunger for more intentional care but I soon saw my voice was still capped. I came to the realization that my purpose no longer aligned with what I was doing in the hospital setting and that’s when I decided to quit and choose myself.

I launched my business as a fulltime medically trained doula and I haven’t looked back. What sets me a part from traditional doulas is that I am medically trained in labor and delivery and postpartum care. Doulas are traditionally only emotional, mental and physical support and don’t always know exactly what is occurring in the medical sense of things. I Also wrote an ebook that basically guides a mom from the beginning of her pregnancy to transitioning to life with baby. I haven’t gotten really great reviews on it from all of my clients and it is also available on Amazon.

Given my own struggles with mental health, I make sure to make that a huge part of my teachings as a doula. Pregnancy is just as much mental as it is physical.

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

Intuition. There is only so much a textbook can teach you. This is where a lot of medical professionals lose themselves and begin being guided by fear, they become immersed in a textbook and their training that they forget they have a guiding light within themselves.

I didn’t mention this before but prior to working as a nurse I was supposed to go to medical school. I was premed all throughout college and I even sat for the MCAT. I came to terms with myself and my purpose ( trusting my intuition). I realized I didn’t care to learn about any topic other than maternity. Even throughout my career as an nurse, I always trusted my intuition so when something didn’t seem right with a patient or the care she was receiving, I spoke up. I got a lot of backlash, for that but I don’t regret it one bit. I now use those same experiences to guide my clients.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Whew, where do I begin? There are several chapters in my story that show my resilience. I honestly have been over coming obstacles my entire life. My family is originally from Guyana but when I was an infant my mother sent me back to America to live with my grandmother. As a child we grew up up on government assistance and what I would now consider below the poverty line. Although, my grandmother did best with what she had, I always knew there was more to life for me.

I worked 2 jobs in highschool to help support my grandmother and myself so that she didn’t have to worry. In the midst of that I still managed to graduate Valedictorian of my class, which gave me the opportunity to be accepted into the University of Miami with a presidents scholarship and enough financial aid to get me though my bachelors degree.

After I graduated college, I was so full of joy. I had my degree, I had just had my first child and my boyfriend at the time had just gotten a place together and I thought everything was set. When my son was about a year and half, his father died in a fatal car accident which sent my world into a functional downward spiral. I was in autopilot for a while but I still worked and cared for my children.

It wasn’t until I almost had mental breakdown that I decided to go to therapy. In the midst of therapy, I found out my grandmother had Alzheimer’s so I began caring for her fulltime along with my 2 children and working a fulltime job. I must admit it wore on my mental health even more. Nevertheless, I continued therapy and being intentional with changing my life. I haven’t looked back since and my life has been so peaceful, if I had to use any words to describe it.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.douladaniels.com
• Instagram: VintageCatalyst