A Mourning Doula provides support to those who have lost a loved one, especially if no pre-existing plan exists.   The Mourning Doula will provide information, physical, and emotional support, helping you assess a wide range of options, as well as introducing you to ways to mitigate expenses while still creating a highly personalized ceremony to allow you to celebrate the life that was lived, while saying goodbye.

Mourning Doulas certified by Momdoulary, LLC, the premier doula training institute, are prepared to assist with all of the following:

• Advocating to help ensure you receive full disclosure of all options, and are not swayed from your budget during a time of grief and overwhelm
• Supporting you through planning, and any viewing, cremation, or burial.  This could include tasks such as making phone calls and sending emails on your behalf, assisting you in the coordination of tasks, running errands such as delivering articles of clothing to a funeral home, helping locate available accommodations for out-of-town attendees, distributing your roses graveside, confirming services, directing attendees to the guest book, and more.
• Providing informational, physical, and emotional support as you create any number of memorial efforts, such as a Memory Bowl, Collage, on-line memorial and guestbook, and any number of other options they can introduce you to.
• Introducing you to a wide range of options, including but not limited to:
• 1. Traditional burial
  2. Direct burial
  3. Cremation
  4. Direct Cremation
  5. Natural burial
  6. Home burial
  7. Alkaline Hydrolysis
  8. Space burial
  9. Eternal Reef
  10. And even Cryonics, Mummification, Plastination
  11. Please note:  Not all options are available in all locations, but your doula will assist you in discovering what options are available to you

If you are interested in training to become a mourning doula, click this link to learn more about our 6-in-1 comprehensive death doula, end-of-life doula, mourning doula, and death midwife training and certification program!

DEATH MIDWIVES

  A Death Midwife is a non-medical specialist who provides emotional & informational, and sometimes ceremonial support during home funerals. Oftentimes we see people retaining an individual as first a Death Doula, then as a Death Midwife.  Too, the role of Death Midwife and Mourning Doula can overlap, when they involve providing support as a family navigates the many decisions at end-of-life and beyond.  

Keep in mind that a home funeral is actually the true traditional funeral.  It was only during the Civil War that our ‘modern’ funeral practices of embalming bodies for preservation came into popularity, in order to offset decomposition until a soldier’s body could arrive home to their family.  Increasingly we see a trend toward home funerals in the US, and many who have taken this approach find it to be a more connected and meaningful way to send off their loved ones.  However, as most have not grown up with this experience, it can seem foreign, and a bit frightening at first.  A Death Midwife is your trained resource, there to provide support as you navigate a home funeral.   She’s there to support you emotionally and informationally, through the whole process, as you:

• Determine what paperwork and signatures may be legally necessary
• Prepare the body for burial including bathing, dressing, and more
• Assess methods for preserving the body through the viewing period
• Assess information on caskets, green, and natural burials
• Develop a ceremony or ritual befitting your loved one
• And address myriad other aspects of home funeral support

Knowing you have your Death Midwife by your side, you will be able to enter the home funeral process more confidently, with less stress.  At the time of your grief, the last thing you need to worry about are organizational details – having a Death Midwife by your side to answer your questions and share information, while providing physical and emotional support can dramatically improve the experience.

If you want to learn about our comprehensive training program that prepares you as a Death Midwife, please click here!

“What Next?” Post-Loss Coaching Support & Professional Organizing Artifact Management Support

Moving forward following a loss can be difficult.   So many elements of your life can change, and navigating those changes while moving through grief can be complicated, to say the least.  One may need to address income issues, living and lifestyle logistics, possibly need to move, find or change jobs, arrange different childcare solutions, and so much more.   Managing all of this can be overwhelming.  On top of it all, eventually one must also address the issue of the material artifacts that remain after any willed objects are distributed.

Our graduates are trained to both provide post-loss support coaching, and as professional organizers, to help provide you unique and crucial support in the year following a loss.   Coaches don’t tell you what to do, nor do they serve as therapists.  Rather, they support you as you navigate the information avalanche that accompanies much decision making we face today, while providing informational, inspirational, emotional, physical, and administrative assistance, creating the space for you to navigate this period more confidently.