Elizabeth Benjamin (she/her)
When I attended my first birth, I had my camera in my hand. I was working as a photographer and had been looking for a path that would allow me to do meaningful work in the service of others. I was lucky to have a friend who wanted her baby’s birth documented, and she invited me to join her once labor began. In that birth space, witnessing and capturing this brilliant journey, I experienced the importance and sacredness of the support birthing people receive and the utter profundity of the moment when a baby joins the world. I knew that in birth, I had found my calling.
I enrolled in the Birthingway College of Midwifery to begin empowering myself to become a hands-on, heart-centered, knowledgeable source of labor and birth support: a doula. Becoming a doula has been about more than just providing continuous care, evidence-based information, and emotional support throughout pregnancy, labor, birth, and the postpartum period, though it is all those things, too -- it’s also about helping to build a world in which all babies are born into the loving arms of a well-supported community.
To give birth is powerful, intense work, and there are so many unknowns along the way. I believe every birthing person deserves a doula who can be a grounding presence, who knows birth and is able to remain an objective support throughout, someone who doesn’t come and go like nurses and doctors, who can help to navigate the unknowns, and whose warm hands know just where to push to help ease the pain. I bring a calming, warm, and non-judgmental presence to the birth space, and I work hard to support families in giving birth on their own terms.
Hiking, journaling, and candlelit baths are the cruxes of my self care
Mother of many houseplants, and one amazing toddler, too
Fan of: tropical sunsets, misty mountains, working for a view
Not a fan of: flying, crowds, caraway. In that order.
Elizabeth’s Qualifications
Serves as Treasurer of the Board of the Portland Doula Association
Childbirth Education Facilitator Training, Cornerstone Doula Trainings
Obstetric Violence: What it is and what to do about it, Birth Monopoly
“Elizabeth advocated for what my partner and I wanted/needed during the birth and brought a calming voice to the experience. I am forever grateful to have shared such a special moment in my life with her.”