Joanne Flaherty | birthinggently

Birth Doula Profile - Joanne Flaherty

Joanne Flaherty completed her birth doula training through Doulas of North American International (DONA). She offered her time as a birth doula with a local volunteer program for underserved populations before joining Birthing Gently.

Joanne is passionate about helping her clients feel safe and empowered, both prenatally and during labor and birth. She brings maturity, experience, and calming guidance to pregnancy, labor, and birth. She is collaborative in nature and works seamlessly with the entire care team, including all family members and medical staff. Joanne strives to provide an environment in which her clients feel safe, loved, and empowered. Joanne is comfortable supporting all types of births, natural births (unmedicated), medicated births, and VBACs (vaginal births after cesarean). Joanne has attended a Spinning Babies® Workshop and is a Spinning Babies enthusiast.

Joanne lives in Georgetown with her husband, John. She has two daughters, Meaghan (1991) and Erin (1993), who were born in the hospital, without any medical intervention. Her two positive birth experiences led her to doula work. Her joy of working with birthing people, and their loved ones, has kept her on this journey and she wants to convey that same positive experience with other families. Before her calling as a birth doula, Joanne earned her Master’s Degree in the Arts and Humanities and has worked for the past twenty years in a historic preservation organization.

Joanne believes the skills she has learned in her over 10 year practice of yoga and meditation, such as breathing, clearing the mind, and focusing, can be useful to birthing people. After her children grew up and moved out of the house, Joanne thought it would be fun to learn to how to figure skate and is currently working on her Adult silver compulsories and bronze free skate.

Joanne is looking forward to hearing from you and will be honored to guide you in the birthing process.