Milia Simielli makes special dolls to help children understand childbirth – complete with poppers to show breastfeeding and a zip where the baby can come out.
Milia, 35, is originally from Brazil, where she worked as a family and community health nurse, but she retrained as a doula in 2014, helping and supporting women through pregnancy and birth.
When her chemical engineer husband got offered a job in Australia in 2015, the couple moved across the world and Milia found herself feeling quite isolated.
To help herself cope, she turned to sewing – a skill she had learned while she was caring for her mother back in Brazil.
As she developed her stitching skills, she was also doing more research into the practices of doulas and she decided she could combine her two passions.
She tells Metro.co.uk: ‘Moving to another country, so far away from home, with no formal job, no friends or family around, is really lonely.
‘I used my time to do what I love, while I was deepening my knowledge into the doula world and I learned more about Michel Odent and he says that “To change the world, we must first change the way babies are born.
‘I had the idea to use my nursing/doula knowledge and my sewing skills to design my version of a birthing doll to use during childbirth education especially and to prepare siblings for the arrival of the new baby.’
Milia says that there are similar birthing dolls available but she wanted to make one that resembled a real pregnancy.
She adds: ‘I wanted to make a doll with a big belly, dark nipples, a puffed belly button, swollen toes, a placenta with an umbilical cord that detaches from the belly button and with a baby actually coming from inside of the doll.
‘I also wanted was a doll that could breastfeed (attaching the baby to the breast) to normalize breastfeeding on our society, because the dolls that I had as a child always came with bottles.’
After several days of trial and error, she created a doll that she felt really explained pregnancy and childbirth in a way that is accessible for children.
She explains: ‘I shared it in a Facebook group called Birth workers, and in the next couple of hours I started receiving orders. I was thrilled because that meant that I was in the right direction.’
Since then she has slowly built the business and in 2018, she got help from a social enterprise called Sisterworks that supports migrant women to become financial independently through handmade work in Australia.
They have helped to introduce her to other organisations that have provided business training and mentorship.
Developing a business has been a steep learning curve for Milia but she says it has been an incredible experience. She now sells her dolls through Etsy, Instagram, Facebook and her own website.
She adds: ‘It’s been a long road since then, especially because like most of the small business I’m the CEO, business manager, finance officer, social media manager, designer and maker and
‘Everything is time-consuming and I usually take almost three days working in one doll. I double-check everything to make it to perfection. People that buy handmade items have no idea how much time it takes to create a single piece.
‘I have created many dolls, but even though their main characteristics are the same, each one of them is unique and special with so much love involved.’
Now she makes dolls that are completely customisable for each family’s situation.
She explains: ‘The first dolls that I made were always showing a vaginal birth and then I had a suggestion to make it also for caesarean, so I added the VBAC option (VBAC stands for vaginal birth after caesarean birth), and in this option, you can show both (vaginal and cesarean).
‘They can choose hair, clothes, skin colours and type of birth (Vaginal or VBAC – vaginal after cesarean that you can show both births).
‘I’ve been asked to add other options as another baby (twins), to add a bigger sister, lotus bag, a special hair colour, to add a tattoo on mum or spare clothes. I always do my best to accommodate the requests.’
Although each one takes a lot of work, Milia says seeing them being used is very rewarding.
She adds: ‘The first reaction that I get from mothers is to get a bit emotional remembering the unique moment of their children’s births.
‘The reaction from the kids are the cutest possible. At first, they seem impressed, then their eyes sparkle with joy and they keep asking to do it again and they want to help the baby to be born and help with breastfeeding. It really makes my heart warm just to talk about it!
‘Childbirth can be the most beautiful, gentle and passionate moment in life, it’s a true transformation and moment of deep love to be shared. And that’s what I want, people to really educate themselves to be able to have the most positive experience in the arrival of a new soul in this world.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/12/doula-creates-childbirth-dolls-teach-siblings-realities-birth-12226465/
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