North Texas Daily

Words of encouragement echo in a small room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.

“You got this. Keep breathing. Don’t forget to relax.”

After a 48 hour labor, Maggie Wells, doula and founder of Bluebonnet Birth Services, kept showing her relentless support as her client and Carrollton resident Bridget Nicholson gave birth to a baby girl. 

“I can’t imagine having had birth without [Wells],” Nicholson said. 

Wells has been working as a doula for five years through Bluebonnet Birth Services, a Denton-based pregnancy and birth service business she founded. As a doula, she offers emotional and physical support, words of affirmations and hands-on comfort measures that don’t require medications to ease the pain and stress of labor.

“A common misconception about doulas is that [people] think I can deliver your baby,” Wells said. “I can’t. However, I can actually go to the hospital, talk you through labor and help you advocate for [yourself] when you are the most vulnerable.”

Wells started her journey in nursing school when she had to decide which specific field to study.

“I asked myself, ‘If [the] sky was the limit and money wasn’t an issue, what would I want to be when I grow up?’ and the answer was a midwife,” Wells said. 

As Wells was researching midwives, she came across the term “doula.” After further reading, she realized she had found her career path, so she dropped out of nursing school and came back to Denton to create Bluebonnet Birth Services in 2016. 

When the pandemic hit, hospitals and doctors tightened their regulations on visitors during births, so it was difficult to provide in-person support for clients, Wells said. However, this led her to start virtual support via text, FaceTime and YouTube, and as the year progressed, her schedule got full again.

Nicholson was pregnant with her first baby during quarantine. She did not have previous experience with doulas, so she got a list from her birth center and began calling all of them until she found Wells.

“[Wells] was the first one to respond and the only one [who] followed up with me when I reached out, and it’s that extra level of service that put her above the others doulas,” Nicholson said.

Nicholson’s labor lasted two and a half days, and Wells remained along her side.

“I wasn’t progressing, so they transferred me from the birth center to the hospital,” Nicholson said. “[Wells] stayed the whole time and even got me and my husband food after it was all over.” 

Wells works alongside midwives to provide mothers with the medical knowledge and mental training needed to bring a baby into the world. Valerie Vaughn, a midwife who worked closely with Wells, said as a midwife she expects her clients to be coached and prepared before the big day.

“It truly was a beautiful dynamic to behold,” Vaughn said. “[Wells] did a great job supporting the soon-to-be mom as well as her husband. They never had to ask for anything because Maggie knew what they needed before they did. All while allowing them to maintain control of their labor and their birth.”

Wells sets herself apart from other doulas with her placenta encapsulation and placenta art. When making placenta encapsulations, she takes the mother’s placenta from the doctor, dehydrates it and grinds it into capsule form to help with postpartum mood, energy levels and milk production. 

“That’s something I’m really passionate about and I really believe in, because I see how much it helps people,” said Wells. “I also make a tincture of the placenta that lasts a lifetime. They can use it to help with menopause and if they have a daughter she can use it for her first menstrual cramps.”

For placenta art, Wells puts food coloring on a placenta and presses a piece of paper onto it, making abstract art for her clients to have a token from the birth.

“Placenta Art” Courtesy by Bluebonnet Birth Services website

“Some people think it is very beautiful and they want to keep it,” Wells said. “For other people, it creeps them out.”

In the future, Wells wants to turn Bluebonnet Birth Services into a collective of doulas and birth workers in Denton. However, she said the branding would not change because she feels her different style makes her stand out as a doula. 

“My social media is all tattoo-themed and cactuses cause I want my clients to hire me and my personality,” Wells said.

Wells said in every pregnancy she is involved, including Nicholson’s, the most rewarding part is to feel like her job made a difference in someone’s life.

“The best feeling is after they’ve had their baby and they have that look of ‘Oh my god, I did it,’ on their face,” Wells said. “It’s good to know that I had a small part in that.”

Featured Image: Maggie Wells, doula and Bluebonnet Birth Services founder, poses at Zera Coffee Shop on Feb. 2, 2021. Image by Gurleen Kaur