Tammy Tate has always had a desire to help people.

After being a stay-at-home mom for the first years of her children’s lives, she started work as a substitute teacher for Surry County Schools. The flexible hours and the schedule allowed her to substitute during the day and get off at the same time as her kids. She started work in the school system in 1998 with every desire to work towards becoming a teaching assistant.

“I loved working with the kids,” she said.

Then, in the summer of 2003, she took on a job as a night nanny for a 2-week-old girl, planning to do that until school started back again. She was still hoping for an opening as a teaching assistant. As is so often the case, her plan did now work out exactly as she expected.

“After I did that, I was hooked,” she said of being a nanny. “I just love it. I’ve been doing it ever since.”

She now works as a full-time nanny for a family in Mount Airy whom she has been with for two years. However, it was while working as a nanny for a family in California that she discovered a new profession which she is trying to break into in this area.

“I was working with a family in San Francisco in 2006 and we had a doula from England,” she said “I thought that was really neat but I didn’t think there would really be a need. Then again, I didn’t think I could make a career of being a nanny.”

The idea of being a doula, particularly a postpartum doula, has been in the back of her mind since then. A doula is a birth attendant who works with and helps the mother during and after a birth. A few months ago, Tate found a training session for doulas in Durham and decided it was time to give it a try. During the training, she realized there are not many doulas in the area with a few in Winston-Salem and a few in Greensboro. Tate believes that this is something more people would take advantage of if they really knew what it is.

“My goal is to help people, make them feel less tense and more relaxed, give them more confidence,” she said. “I do want to do a good job. I love what I do and I want to be good at it.”

She feels that she can bring something to new mothers that they may not know about themselves. She says she plans to continue learning and going through training sessions so that she can learn the newest and best techniques to take to new mothers.

“If I knew what I know now when I had my children — you always learn. Even through this training I learned a lot I didn’t know,” she said. “Hopefully this will catch on.”

Postpartum doulas offer a unique skill set to newborns and to mothers. While many people tend to focus solely on the newborn once it arrives home, the doula spends just as much time focused on the mother or even on other children making sure that all of their needs are met as well.

“Mostly it is caring for the mom. It’s making sure the mom takes care of what she needs,” said Tate. “Whatever the need for that day is, is what I take care of and we decide that on a day-by-day basis.”

She helps the mothers get comfortable with having a new baby around and figuring out what the baby needs from reading his cries to figuring out a good position to use while breast feeding.

“All babies are going to cry. But you can figure out what they need. I believe newborns can’t be spoiled. Crying is their only means of communication.”

Tate can also do light housekeeping and light meals and snacks.

“Mothers have been through a lot. It takes a little bit of time to heal. Someone needs to make sure they eat,” she said.

She also can take care of the newborn sometimes so the parents can spend time with each other or with their other children. In addition to that, she can care for older siblings while the parents are caring for the baby.

“This is for new mothers with other children, too. They may need more help than those just with a newborn,” she said. “Being a nanny has helped me with that.”

Parents can have her come in for two days when the baby first comes home and then call her again six weeks later for more help. She said that because babies change and grow quickly, issues can arise at certain stages with which she can help.

“It’s not like if you call me I’m there forever. Maybe he gets colic. That creeps up at two or three weeks and peaks at six weeks. That may be when a family needs help with uncontrollable crying,” she said.

Tate also said that she is not there to take charge of household. She just wants to provide assistance when she is needed.

“I’m not there to take over, I’m just there to help them. I want to be a help instead of a hindrance,” she said. “I’m not judging anybody. Whatever a mom chooses, unless she’s causing harm to the baby or to herself, I’m there to support her decisions. I’m there to give her confidence.”

Tate also provides resources to new parents. She gives them folders with child-proofing checklists, information on when it is appropriate to wake a sleeping baby and even a timeline to track a baby’s habits in order to get into a schedule.

She plans to continue working as a nanny while working part-time as a doula. She also plans to continue taking classes and going through training sessions to learn any new skills or techniques that may come about.

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.