Our busy weekend #1 - DONA
Way back before we had kids (6+ years ago) we often used to take the Lunapads show on the road, attending trade shows and festivals on a fairly regular basis. From local New Age/Women’s/Eco/Wellness shows to major US natural products trade shows, you could find our smiling faces expounding the virtues of natural menstrual products to anyone patient enough to listen - it was hard work, but often lit up with wonderful connections with customers and colleagues.
This year we have made a commitment to be a little more “out there” in our community and as a result ended up attending 2 major events this weekend - the annual Doulas of North America (DONA) conference, and the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. I’ll share a bit about DONA, and Suzanne will tell you about Folk Fest (as it’s known locally) in a subsequent post.
Having both been attended by Doulas in our births, Suzanne and I were only too happy to meet several hundred of them! For those of you who may not know, Doulas are highly skilled and compassionate professionals who attend Mothers through their pregnancy, labour, birth and postpartum stages. You can learn more about their role and services here.
Not surprisingly, several of our Doula friends were also in attendance, and it was a great opportunity to reconnect. I’m sure this is true of many places, but in the past few years, Vancouver has seen the emergence of a wonderful community of Midwives, Doulas, La Leche League leaders and other breastfeeding and attachment/natural parenting advocates etc. and their devoted clients and supporters. Here’s a nice photo of me and Nikiah Seeds of Mama Goddess Birth Shop in front of the Mama Goddess and Lunapads displays. Other treasured colleagues at the conference included Sarah Juliusson of Mama Renew and Dancing Star birth), Sarah’s business partner Jennifer Lee Koble, Bridgitte Alomes of Natural Pod natural toys, Paula Violi of Baby Buddha slings, Amanda Spakowski of Luna Birth, Aimee Sturley of Adar Birth Services and Wendy Armbruster of Pump-ease breast pump supports.
Love you gals - keep up the great work!
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:42 pm
and a big huge thanks to Sarah, Jennifer, Bridgitte, Amanda and Aimee for their time helping at our table and sharing their love of lunapads!
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:57 pm
It was a real pleasure to be there. I must admit, when you asked if I’d like to take a shift at the table I was both thrilled to have the chance to support Lunapads and a bit concerned that I wouldn’t be very good at knowing what to say to passers by.
Well, I’m surprised that the conference organisers didn’t come round to hold me back! I found that I am a more passionate advocate of reusable pads than I realised! I was sharing my experiences, enthusing about the comfort, economy and convenience of the pads as well as the peace of mind that I get from not having to throw away all those pads and tampons anymore.
And women were more than happy to share right back, either with their own positive experiences or with their desire to leave throw-aways behind. All-in-all it was a great experience. Near the end of my shift I turned to Nikiah to ask the time and was dismayed to find that it was almost time to go home. Ah well, there’s always next time.
August 5th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Thanks for the mention Madeleine and for all the support (pun most definitely intended) with PumpEase. It was great to see you again - I know our paths will cross again very soon!
Wendy