🔊 Hear The Story

Main Street’s own Shay Alaya was featured in the October issue of Showcase Magazine. She is the founder of Solflower LLC.  Shay, through Solflower, provides doula services and training, breastfeeding support and advocacy, and natal card preparation and tarot card reading upon request.

For many, a doula, pronounced “doo-luh,” is confused with a midwife. A doula’s role during birth is not to deliver a child but to provide coaching for a mother and her partner pre, present, and post-birth. It wasn’t until Ayala realized a family-friend, I’man Boykin, owner of Sacred Beginnings, was a holistic doula that she felt confident to fulfill her calling to become a doula as well. The birthing process is sacred to Shay Ayala.

Ayala’s formal training concluded in May of this year. Since then, she has provided doula services through Solflower during a virtual birth. Recently, she connected with her first in-person client during a home visit. As a doula, Ayala intercedes as encourager and caretaker for the mother. This includes making sure the mother is feeding her body, taking her pre-natal vitamins, and preparing her and her partner for birth. Ayala works to coach mothers and their partners to strengthen their relationship prior to birth.

Ayala recently began working with the Virginia Department of Health as an outreach worker and breastfeeding peer counselor. However, this role carries over to Solflower, as Ayala hopes to help mothers get back to their roots by rediscovering the sacredness of breastfeeding.

Read the whole story in Showcase Magazine, available for free in many locations and, when their website rebuild is completed, online.

The Gazette thanks Showcase Magazine for permission to republish portions of their story.