#121 – Renee Adair on End of Life Doula Services

Better Thinking

In this episode of Better Thinking, Nesh Nikolic speaks with Renee Adair about End of Life Doulas and how their services provide support, options, and education assisting the needs of those who are facing death.

Renee Adair is the founder and director of the Australian Doula College, the Groundwork Program and the ADC’s charity-arm Doula Heart Network. She first began working with women and babies in 1994 as a massage and Aromatherapist and Reiki Practitioner and in 1998 after the home births of her two biological children she began studying and working as a Doula and Childbirth and Early Parenting Educator.

Renee then worked for the Australian Red Cross at a young women’s health program/refuge in Sydney’s East, setting up both the outreach and childbirth and early parenting education programs for that service.

Working In collaboration, Renee helped produce the first research on Doulas in Australia which was published in the Journal of Perinatal Education in 2013. She has spoken on a variety of radio programmes, at conferences and seminars and is a regular contributor for a range of publications, websites and podcasts.

Renee has worked to change the way we think about Doula support launching an End of Life Doula Training for the College in 2021 with a view for the wider community to see Doula support though a broader lens, supporting all major life transitions, not just in the birthing space.

In 2019 Renee proudly partnered with Charles Darwin University to co facilitate Accredited Doula training for Indigenous women in the remote First Nations community of Galiwin’ku. She now sits on the official Galiwin’ku steering committee to restore Birthing on Country. Renee has sat on the Consumer Advisory Board of the Australian College of Midwives, trained thousands of Doulas and supported hundreds of women, their partners and families through pregnancy, birth, early parenting and end of life over the course of her career.

A fierce advocate for human rights, the proud mother of three adult children and three grandkids, blends her life’s work, spending downtime with her family, friends and fur babies.

Episode link at https://neshnikolic.com/podcast/renee-adair

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