Meet Your Doula/Educator
Who I am
Hello!
My name is Nichole Cutlip. I am a certified birth doula and childbirth educator with a passion for supporting and educating expecting parents in and around the Northern, Mid-Ohio region.
While birth work is certainly where my passion lies, I am also passionately raising four, not so tiny any more humans, that are without question, the most wonderful part of my everyday. Their names are Gracelynn, Adalynn, Irelynn, and Josslynn. They have stolen both my heart and my sanity, and I am so grateful to get to be their mother.
Beyond my work in the birth field and as a mother, I also operate a few businesses in downtown Loudonville, Ohio and can often be found behind the scenes creating, organizing, problem-solving, and managing. It’s usually a little chaotic and a lot of multi-tasking, but I love being a part of growing and sustaining our downtown!
While my life is almost always busy, we still find time to have fun as a family and enjoy an eclectic mix of hobbies. Our weekends usually involve hiking, family hula hoop sessions, art projects, cooking, library trips, and/or some form of outdoor activity.
How I Got Here
My journey as a birth worker began when I was pregnant with my third daughter. I had, had two not so great childbirth experiences, with little knowledge and little support. By the time baby number three came to fruition, I realized that the childbirth education classes I had taken through the hospital, while somewhat informative on the general process and common interventions, just hadn’t given me enough information to fully understand the labor and delivery process, and absolutely no information on finding support, or how my husband could support me during the process. Desperate for a better experience when I became pregnant again, I began trying to educate myself (no easy task when pregnancy brain is overtaking your already tired mom brain). Despite my limited brain function, I (finally) learned what a doula was. I knew immediately that I wanted to hire one! Unfortunately, my excitement soon turned to disappointment when I couldn’t find any doulas in the area. There also weren’t any childbirth education classes that weren’t hospital based. I did end up having a better birth with the knowledge I had gained during my pregnancy, but it was still not ideal, and I still desperately wanted the support I had been unable to find. Within a month of giving birth, I had decided that I would become a doula myself. I wanted others in our area to have the opportunity to have professional support, as childbirth is no easy task, and the impacts of an unsupported birth, can have lasting effects on the birthing person in the postpartum stage.
In an effort to solidify my decision, I attended my sisters-in-law’s birth, when my third daughter was just four months old. I had already begun studying to become a doula, but I wanted to be completely certain that I was headed down the right path. I left her birth with absolute confidence in my decision to begin this career. I continued to study and began the process of getting certified as a birth doula.
After becoming certified, and welcoming my fourth daughter, I continued to support families through my role as a doula. The more I supported families, the more I realized that there was still a very pronounced need for comprehensive, evidence based childbirth education in our area, so I made the decision to change that. I’m now a certified childbirth educator, and so excited to be able to share the knowledge and information I’ve gained with you!
Whether you chose to find support through childbirth education classes, birth doula services, or both, I look forward to helping you discover the confidence and empowerment that knowledge brings, and the peace of mind that unbiased, professional support offers to the birthing person and their partner throughout the pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum time periods.
