Episode 67: Shannay Rocker on Berlin Birth Work and Building Doula Community

Episode Summary

Shannay Rocker spent her early career in fashion before life took her from Australia to New York and finally to Berlin, where motherhood eventually pulled her into doula work. She brings the long view of somebody who has worked across very different cultures and industries to the way she approaches birth.

We talk about what it is really like to support births at home and in hospital across the Berlin maternity system, how her own becoming-a-mother shaped her doula practice, and the work of building doula community in a city where the role is still relatively new. Shannay is clear about the contrast between cultural expectations and clinical realities.

Useful for doulas working across cultures, for anyone supporting families in countries where the doula role is still being established, and for birth workers who came to this from a very different first career.

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Mentioned in This Episode

Shannay Rocker, Berlin-based doula

Building doula community in Berlin