An informative event on midwives, doulas and birthing took place at Sweetsie Treatz on Wednesday afternoon.

The event was part of a series being held weekly by the Carter County Drug Prevention Coalition.

“We hold weekly events here for the community to give resources and knowledge,” said Dolly Reaves, coordinator of the program. “Our mission is to create healthier communities. So helping people plug jobs and training is a very important aspect of that. We know moms have specific needs and meeting birth professionals like midwives and doulas helps actually increase positive parenting and prevent adverse childhood experiences.”

Those speaking at the event were Lisa Vance, a certified nurse midwife and owner of Grow Together Community and Boutique, and Allison Rollans, a doula and co-owner of High Country Doulas.

Both women expressed an interest in their respective fields from a desire to share information with those around them going through birth. Vance wanted to help women in labor through educating them and Rollans wanted to assist in better birthing experiences.

The goal for the event was to educate the public on what it takes to become a midwife or doula and share what they do.

According to Rollans, there is a difference between a midwife and a doula, one being medical.

“As being a doula, we are nonmedical,” she said. “We know about the medical aspects, but we do it mostly to help support the families we work with understand while a midwife takes care of the medical aspects and takes care of the mom.”

While both have shared information into their careers with the public through training groups and meetups, this is the first event like this Rollans and Vance have participated in, and they both said they would again.

Rollans said that the event is good not only for people who want to pursue the careers or women who are having children, but also for people in general as at some time someone will have a person close to them expecting a child.

Additionally, Vance noted that midwives aid women who are not only expecting, but also with education on bodies in general, such as teenage girls once they reach child bearing ages.

The event was recorded for those who could not attend.

For more information on midwives, you can contact Lisa Vance at lisa@growtogetherjc.com. For more information on doulas, you can contact  Allison Rollans at www.highcountrydoulas.com. To follow future events on the Carter County Drug Prevention Coalition, go to www.cartercountydrugprevention.org, check out their Facebook page or call 423-342-8008.

“Making these connections just creates this huge wrap around,” said Reaves, “so people have the resources in the back of their mind they could possibly use in the future.”