Cara Genisio, BIRTH DOULA

I have been a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator (LCCE) since 2008, and I have been a birth doula since 2009. Over the course of the past decade, I have provided educational and doula support to birthing people throughout southeast Michigan. I've attended the births of nearly 100 babies over that time. I am a co-founder of the Michigan Prison Doula Initiative, established in 2018, a nonprofit that provides doula care and childbirth education courses to women giving birth while they are incarcerated at the state's only women's prison.

I am committed to blending evidence-based and non-judgmental support with a deep respect for the emotional side of childbirth. I believe in the importance of the doula's unique role in the team of professionals supporting a birthing person. I am profoundly honored by the trust that birthing people place in me when they include me in their labor support team, and I am always excited by the opportunity to meet new expectant parents and learn from them how I can best adapt my doula skill set to their personalities, wishes and needs.

I live in Ann Arbor and I'm raising two kids here, ages 10 and 13. Ann Arbor has been my home--with brief periods of living elsewhere--since I began college at the University of Michigan in 1995. I have a bachelor's degree in English, a State of Michigan elementary teaching certificate, and a deep and lifelong passion for reading, teaching, and learning. A new passion I've developed over the pandemic year: gardening! My little garden by our driveway has been a tremendous learning opportunity for me in 2020.