Laurie Jurkiewicz

I have worked in the hospital for the past 30 years, as a nurse and a nurse midwife.  Midwives believe that pregnancy and childbirth is a normal event in a woman’s life.  How this transition is handled can have a lasting effect on how a woman sees herself as a woman and mother.   My work was to advocate for the woman to have the birth that she desired.  This has been the perfect training for working with people experiencing end of life, another normal transition.  

Apart from my medical knowledge and experience, my 10-year daily meditation practice has been an important part of my professional development as a caregiver.  It has deepened my listening skills and increased my awareness of my impact on an interaction.

Early on in my career, I worked with people at the end of their life in the hospital.  That experience made me see how important options and choice were to people at this stage.  Though it took 30 years, I have now circled back to this work and got trained as an end of life doula through INELDA.