Arnetta Ford, BIRTH & POSTPARTUM DOULA
Ann Arbor Doulas | info@annarbordoulas.com | (734) 800-1854
Let’s talk about ways I can support you!
“A doula is like a trail guide, familiar with the path, she keeps you hiking through the hard parts, knowing the view at the end is incredible.”
-Unknown
Arnetta is a certified birth and postpartum doula. Her path to “doula-hood” began long before she knew what a doula even was, when she supported a friend’s daughter through her labor and birth on March 2, 1984. She had supported many friends and family members informally until 1996, when she learned about doulas.
Arnetta has since developed her doula skills by attending two DONA Birth Trainings (1996 and 2011), Hypnobirthing (2013), Spinning Babies (2017), ProDoula Birth Training (2017), and ProDoula Postpartum and Infant Care Training (2018.) She is a newly trained Survivor Mom's Companion tutor. SMC is an evidence-based psychoeducational program designed to meet the needs of women who have a history of childhood maltreatment and who are affected by PTSD during the childbearing year.
Arnetta has supported a very eclectic mix of families prenatally and through their labor and birth since February 16, 1997. Her postpartum services were added in July 2018. She is on the Michigan Prison Doula Initiative team and supports women in prison. Arnetta believes that you cannot consistently deliver programming and not grow yourself. Her years of facilitating evidenced-based programs in prison have provided her invaluable experiences that have only enhanced her effective communication skills as well as her ability to attune with laboring women, partners, family members, midwives, doctors, nurses and other hospital staff members on a different level.
Arnetta completed the Secretarial Course at Detroit Business Institute, and got her diploma in July 1973, thus embarking on her secretarial career. After working various jobs, she applied with the State of Michigan, where she worked for 32 years, seven at the Northville Regional Psychiatric Hospital and 25 with Department of Corrections at Western Wayne Correctional Facility and Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility until retiring in October 2017. She was a secretary and facilitated two evidenced-based programs: Parenting Inside Out (starting in 2011) and Moving On (starting in 2016.) Arnetta has been a volunteer Parenting Inside Out coach at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility since January 2018.
Arnetta is a lifelong Michigan resident. She has one daughter and three grandsons. Arnetta enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling, coloring, walking, reading, dancing, singing (hopefully you won’t have to experience that) and personal growth “stuff,” among other things!