Hello! My name is Ginger Lea Armstrong and I am trained and certified to be birth doula through DONA International. I have been supporting families through pregnancy, labor and birth since 2016 through the Hearts and Hands Doula Program at UCSD. I am so excited to come alongside families in this exciting time in their life.
My journey to becoming a doula started when I had my second child in 1988 when I had a midwife and a home birth. I was surrounded by loving and supportive women who cared for me and my baby. What a impact these women made on me throughout this journey. I was able to have the unmedicated birth. I again had a wonderful homebirth and supportive team with my third child in 1995 and my fourth in 1998. After my last was born I signed up to take a doula class and paid the fees only to have it returned to me alone with a phone call from a very wise women informing me that she didn’t believe I should be a doula at that moment. I was 29 had four kids and a husband that was in the Navy and was never home. She said, “sweetheart I am sending you your check back because your kids will all be grown up before you know it and for now they need you- all of you. You can return to this dream of being a Doula when your baby is 18”. My young moms heart was prideful and felt a little bruised by this call but I took her advice to heart. Fast forward 18 years and my last child is a senior and all the other kids have left home. I have been teaching art and drama for a private school for 16 years at that point and started to look toward my future and dreams that I wanted to achieve. I saw a former student post about the volunteer doula program at UCSD and I knew that was what I was going to do. Now three years later I have helped with over 50 births and taken classes to become a private certified doula through Dona International. I have taken hynobirthing classes, CPR classes and Breastfeeding support training.
This is why I became a doula. To offer unwavering support to laboring women and their families during such an amazing yet vulnerable time. Birth can be amazing! And it is my hope that all of my clients feel at PEACE on their birth-day.
I am passionate about helping my clients have the birth they envision. Birth is a natural process of life. I believe in your ability to give birth and I will come along side you with my education and experience to help you have the birth you desire. I consider it an honor to be on this journey with you. I will educate you on your childbirth options, help with comfort measures, guide you through laboring and birthing positions, help with relaxation, natural pain management, and facilitate a safe and comfortable birth environment.
When I am not at births or meeting with clients, you can find me spending time with my amazing husband, creating artwork or spending time with our grandbaby and daughters. San Diego East county has been our home for the past 20 years.
I have been a high school teacher for 20 years and believe God is the great creator who knew us from the beginning. I believe birth is transformational. It is an experience families carry with them all of their lives. I love to listen to mothers as they share their hopes, fears, dreams and goals for birth. I’m an inspired witness of their journey from fear to confidence, doubt to trust, expectation to realization. I’m passionate about supporting women in childbirth, and I’m captivated by the miracle of new life. It changes all of us.
https://evidencebasedbirth.com/the-evidence-for-doulas/
Please note: I’m in a Doula partnership with Amy Love Osgood
You can find our website
gingerlydoulacare.com 