For every wonderful birth and postpartum experience, there seems to be five more stories that illustrate a potentially scary, lonely or isolating one. But what if birth, and life after it, could be more joyous, more celebrated, and bolstered by a foundation of support? 

Emma Devin, owner of Bunky Bambino, a Vancouver-based “one-stop [service] for a holistic introduction to parenthood,” has made it her life’s work to find out. 

“The biggest thread for my whole life is connection and community and that’s definitely what brought me to birth work — it’s one of the important tenets of my life,” shares Devin. Those are the biggest pieces of me that carry through everything. I’m also a queer woman — another intersection of being.”

Devin is a water lover, a community-builder, a former-nanny, and, according to the pages of glowing testimonials on her website, one hell of a doula. 

Devin’s journey through the world of birth work started six years ago. After studying under her mentor, and then working together as “co-doulas,” Devin took over Bunky Bambino — which is currently undergoing a rebrand — in 2019. 

The support services offered by Devin and her impressive team of 13 are thoughtful, inclusive, and encapsulate almost everything a family could need during prenatal and postpartum chapters. The listed services include birth doulas, postpartum support (acknowledged as “compassionate and non judgmental care, for the whole family and can extend to up to six weeks of care), lactation consultation, chef at home, and placenta encapsulation.

“You don’t need a doula,” Devin adds. “But having one will make your experience more enjoyable. You’ll have access to more joy, it will bring your fear down, it will bring your anxiety down.”

There has been much discussion as of late about the inequities of childcare and the damning effects of emotional labour on women and birthing people, especially in the early postpartum weeks. But the care provided by Devin and her team is gracefully dedicated to helping reverse the patriarchal standards of parenting by focusing on the health, wellness, and independence of both the babies they help birth, and their family units — however they might look. 

“The queer community has taught me a lot about chosen family and circles of care. I’ve had to create those before I’ve had my own children but lots of people haven’t, so that’s something we help with. [We help] people figure out, ‘What are my needs and how do I ask for them? Who do I have who can show up for those things?’” she says. 

“I think that the biggest thing for me is I know I’ve done my job right if I’m not needed. I want to fade into the dark and then just dip out, because that means you have created your community of care and your circle of care, and your family foundation is laid down, and you know how to do that without having to be a dependent person.”

The scaffolding for Bunky’s rebrand, due to launch late 2021, is dedicated to accessibility, including a roll out of online programming, and family education that goes beyond the binary. 

“Getting to witness pregnant people and then birth and then their coming into postpartum, building their family… I think that witnessing birthing people go through all of that is just matriarchy in action,” Devin concludes. 

“[Matriarchy] is the creation of those families and that really raw intense power of someone going through those experiences and coming out a completely different person. Regardless of what the journey looked like, you’re different at the otherside of it.”

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