Disclaimer: The views expressed by our interviewees are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of GradSimple. We only edit these responses for clarity. All opinions remain those of the interviewee.
- Name: Gianna A.
- Year Of Graduation: 2021
- College/University: Rowan College at Burlington County
- Major: Psychology
What do you do for a living? Can you share what a typical day at work looks like?
As a postpartum doula, I do a lot of newborn care, but I also do other child care. I do short and long-term nanny contracts for families. So, I’m a professional nanny and then intertwine a lot of birth work and postpartum doula work with newborns. The nanny work is contracted work that I do a few days a week, and then if I ever want additional work I have the flexibility to choose families that I want to support in postpartum or birth work.
Why did you choose your undergraduate major? Do you feel your time spent in college was valuable? Why or why not?
I always thought I wanted to be a therapist, and then I went to college and fell in love with more like philosophy and literature, but I still thought I would go on and get my master’s in psychology and become a therapist. At the end of the day, though, I realized how expensive college was. Because of that, I really wanted to make sure that I loved whatever career I was pursuing. I didn’t really feel that for anything, even today, I’m still open to what might come my way as far as careers go. I just want to make sure the investment is worth it.
So, yeah, I went to school for therapy, thinking I might be a therapist one day, but I have always done child care, first growing up as a babysitter and then in college as a nanny. Then from there, I became more of a postpartum doula.
Can you tell me about your experience finding a job after graduation? Are you happy with where your journey has led you thus far?
I really wasn’t stressed about finding a job because nobody was working at that time, during COVID. I had not been a birth doula before. I didn’t have an interest in birth until somebody that I knew gave birth. She was able to Zoom people during her birth, which sounds funny, but being someone who’s close to her, she allowed me to share that space with her. And I was really inspired by the labor and delivery nurses. I never considered nursing as a career for myself or a career path, but seeing the way that they kept calm and were really motivating to my friend while she was giving birth was really cool. And then also when you witness a birth, there’s a natural flow of oxytocin. So I had that natural release of oxytocin, that feel-good hormone, and I was like, “This is something that I am interested in learning more about.”
The second I started talking about it, a training started coming across my social media, which is so funny because I don’t know if they no longer do a lot of marketing, but I don’t see them often on social media now. They’re called Indie Birth. They’re a great program. They have a doula program and also a midwifery program. I did it since all my classes were online, so I had the capacity to continue my education in that way.
During college, I worked for a family who I’d known for a while and I babysat for them occasionally. She found out she was pregnant with twins, so she would have four kids and she knew that she was going to need some support. I started working for them as soon as her babies came home from the hospital. I was there the day that they brought home their first from the NICU and then the second ended up coming home a couple of days later. So without knowing what I was doing at the time, I agreed to do it and kind of gain some hands-on experience working with them. I just called myself a nanny, but what I was doing was actually postpartum doula work, attending to the family’s needs and stuff.
Now I’ve been using Facebook as a way of networking and just putting my name out there. When I finished my doula training and realized that what I was doing was postpartum doula work, I think I just put it out there on Facebook or joined some Facebook groups and an agency reached out to me. Somebody was like, “There’s someone local who’s looking for a postpartum doula. Would you be interested?” And then ever since that time, I’ve been lucky enough to not need that work because I have the contracted nanny work. Child care is always going to be a necessity, so I’ve never had an issue finding nanny gigs.
If I asked you three years ago, what goals would you hope you’ve achieved, in life or career?
If you asked me three years ago, I feel like part of me imagined myself working a more traditional job. I don’t really know what that could have looked like. I’ve never had an end goal. I feel like my goals are always changing. So, I’m trying to put myself in my college self’s shoes. Part of me feels like I probably would have pursued a continuing education route and maybe would have gotten my master’s and PhD in something, but nothing really spoke to me. That’s a tough question because I feel like during COVID too, it really altered that state of career focus since everybody was home, and it put a lot of things into perspective.
How important is it to have a purpose-driven life? Why or why not? Do you think you’re on a path to do that? If not, what needs to change?
This is something I’ve been asking myself every single day for the past couple of years and I always have to remind myself that the work that I do is some of the most important work in the world. I help raise the next generation of humans who are going to be the ones who change the world for the better or for the worse. It’s hard to remember that sometimes because it’s not a traditional job and it’s easy to forget the purpose or the mission of what I am doing. I’m providing these newborns with a sense of peace. It’s the ripple effect of what I do even if I’m just doing a short-term contract and spending a short amount of time with a family. Knowing that when I’m in the household I can take weight off the mother’s shoulders, it’s nice. It just kind of becomes so clear when you think of it like that, to be raised in a household where your mom is at peace and is able to create joy for your family. Anybody who’s raised in a household like that has a better chance of success and changing the world for the better.
When I think of it like that, that is a strong purpose, but I also feel kind of unlimited in what I can do, which is a good thing and a bad thing. In a good sense, if I feel driven to do something, I’ll do it. But in the negative sense, I’m always looking for what’s next, and that can feel kind of challenging.
What’s your biggest struggle right now? What led to it? How are you moving forward?
I feel like it is that conversation of purpose and feeling like I’m fulfilling my purpose. I’m always looking for ways to pursue something that is setting my soul on fire. One great thing about this work is that it gives me the flexibility to choose how much work I want to take on.
I have time to pursue hobbies. My fiance, for instance, is an arborist and owns his own business and he works 70 hours a week. He works all the time and even when he’s home he’s working since it’s his own business, he doesn’t have the time right now to pursue hobbies. There’s me on the other hand, and I can do whatever I want whenever I want.
It is exciting in so many ways, but then again, I’m always trying to focus on one thing. I really do want to go back to school, but I don’t want to go back to school for something that is not something I’m 100% certain about. I want to I love what I do.
What interests/hobbies bring you the most happiness?
I love jiu-jitsu. I just got my purple belt, which is exciting. I’ve been training for about eight years or so. I also love reading. I’m always reading a new book. I’m constantly inspired by what I could be based on what I’m reading. I’m like, “Maybe I could do this.”
I have two pups who take up a lot of my time as well, and I’ve considered becoming a dog trainer because I’ve spent so much time training my dogs. They’ve become quite well-rounded pups. I would say that sums up a lot of things. Oh, I also love to cook nourishing foods, and that’s a big part of what I do as a postpartum doula. I cook a lot of meals for families and I love to cook for people I love.
What do you want to spend more time working on? What is stopping you?
I want to invest in some type of continuing education. I would like to narrow down and find even just a short online course on something that could benefit me as a postpartum doula, whether that be something about breastfeeding or a certification about sleep, anything for newborn sleep cycles, or something. It would be cool to get back into the student mindset and have a class here or there that I can tune into. That would be fun.
I think the one thing I wish there was more of in this job was collaboration with other people. This itself it’s a pretty independent field. Some people have partners and I have made a couple of friends in the field who do similar work but we don’t meet up regularly for any type of collaboration or conference about the work that we do. I would love to see that in some capacity. Maybe that’s something that I will look into hosting.
If we traveled three years into the future of your life, what do you want to achieve? What would you hope has changed?
I would like to see more collaboration. That would be good. I’ve had a couple of conversations with people who do similar work to see how we could kind of expand our offerings. However, being on call makes things tough. We never want to leave any person feeling like they are not getting the attention that they need or the services that they were requesting. It’s tough because we like the consistent income that we’re getting from our childcare gigs, but the birth work kind of feels almost spiritual. It’s beautiful.
But anyway, yeah, since we have that scheduled work on our calendars, it’s not easy to take on birth work as frequently because it’s on call. But if we work together that might be a possibility. So I think partnership and collaboration in some way could come to fruition in the next 3 years.
What piece of advice would you like to share?
If something’s bringing you happiness, pursue it. One way or another there’ll be some type of exchange from it. You can find a job doing anything in this world, and as long as it brings you joy, then that’s enough.
Connect With Gianna:
- Instagram: @Giannaaltieri
- Website: lunardoulawellness.com
P.S. Wanna see more graduate interviews? Subscribe to GradSimple and get the good stuff delivered straight to your inbox, once a week!
