Five years later, when I became pregnant, again, the ruptured brain aneurysm I suffered just two months after the birth of my first child, cemented that I would be laboring in a hospital setting for the second time in my life. Still traumatized by that experience, I breathed a sigh of relief when my friend, and co-mama, Marqui, became my Doula within the first trimester of my uncertain pregnancy.

 

Warned years earlier against pregnancy within 5 years, to assure my brain clipping would remain steady, to assure that no new aneurysm would surface around it, to assure my body could bear the stress, I was officially a year past the danger zone, but still skeptical if I should risk going through with my pregnancy.

 

Yet, Marqui was my Doula, whether I kept my child or not.