My Motivation:
      Hello, my name is Lara Carlos and I believe everyone has a calling.  Looking back into my childhood, I realize my calling was trying to reach me in many different ways.  I remember making my younger cousin, Audra, pretend to give birth, with me catching the baby in my bedroom.  I was always the pregnant mommy when my friends and I played house. By the time I entered college, my curiosity about birth led me to major in anthropology where I became enchanted by the way women in other cultures gave birth.  Before I had a child of my own, I gave a presentation about water birth for a class on Life Cycle Rituals.  After my presentation, many women shared their birth stories with me and it was then a realization grew, that most women were not experiencing birth the way they should. 
        It was during my third pregnancy that something powerful happened inside of me!  My calling came to me: I was meant to be with women and their babies. I stared reading wonderful books and remember thinking, “Every woman needs to know this stuff before she has a baby.”  I decided to start looking into becoming a midwife.  My midwife, Karen Baker, was there with answers and told me her story of providing childbirth education classes while her children were small and how she eventually became a midwife.  I really liked the idea of bringing awareness about natural childbirth and this right of passage most women were missing out on.  I realized that I could make a difference through educating women and their partners. My workshops will help change the way women are giving birth. 
My mission as a childbirth instructor, is to empower couples with confidence and knowledge throughout their pregnancy and birth journeys. I want women to feel empowered, just as I felt empowered. 
I have always had a natural connection with pregnant women, and birth has always fascinated me.
        I have three beautiful children, and the memories from their births are forever fresh in my memory.  I think it was destiny for me to have three very different births, so I am able to express empathy for women that I will be working with in the future.   I decided to become a childbirth educator because I want all mothers to have the chance to experience giving birth and to
fall in love with her baby the way she was meant to. 
        I am an ALACE trained Childbirth Educator. The ALACE Childbirth Educator training program was developed by midwives and is recognized for its holistic, women-centered approach. ALACE childbirth classes provide evidence based information about the birth process and provide the tools to empower women and their partners to make informed choices throughout pregnancy and birth. I would like to give couples insight from my own experiences and learn from theirs.   I hope couples leave my workshop feeling grateful for this life transforming right of passage they are about to experience.  I want them to trust in the woman’s body and her ability to give birth and feel empowered upon entering the unknown. I am honored that this is my calling. 

I would love to share my birth stories with you,
check them out on the Birth Stories Page!
 

My babies! Julianna, Ivan and Vincent!