About Anne Kathryn Rice

Ever since I was a young child I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. Not because I have some special knowledge that I want to impart, but because I am a good listener. Children talk and I listen, and somehow, learning happens. When children feel empowered, special, and capable, their innate knowledge pours forward. They learn as scientists learn, hypothesizing, trying, making mistakes, and trying again.

My teaching career has taken me from Memphis, Tennessee, USA (my home town), to Madrid, Spain, to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and finally, where I am now, Genoa, Italy. I worked at the International School in Genoa for many years. I speak English, Spanish, and Italian, and I considered myself a pretty smart person until I became a mother.

The year my daughter was born (2012) was the year that I slowly realized that I actually don't know that much about anything.

For me, motherhood felt like starting over again. I was new. I was a baby. I felt that I had so much to learn.

Along with the feelings of bliss when I looked at my child came also uncertainty, doubt, and weird sort of loneliness. Trying to figure out my new role as mother in a foreign country on very little sleep was hard, to put it gently.

When my son was born 18 months later, I had a sort of awakening.

Mothers are not meant to do this alone.

I decided that this was a message that the world should know. And that it would be my honor, my pleasure, and my passion to spread the message by simply being there for other mothers. Letting them know, one by one, that they don't have to be alone in this journey. Asking for help does not equate weakness. In fact, quite the contrary. Asking for help is what strong mothers do. 

So who is it that supports women in their parenting journey? Doulas. So I decided that I wanted to be one.

My doula training was nothing short of amazing. I learned to listen, to mirror, and to hold sacred space for mothers in pregnancy, birth and during the first postpartum years, all the while feeling this special support from a circle of compassionate women.

I know now that I have always been a doula. My work with children has always been this sort of job. Empowering them to listen to their inner voices, believe in their abilities, and recognize their own unique needs.

As a doula my hope is to inspire new mothers to do exactly this. Listen to their inner voices, believe in their abilities, and recognize their own unique needs in parenting. 

I have a bachelor's degree in Spanish literature from Rhodes College, and master's degree in Language and Literacy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. I am a certified birth and postpartum doula through Mondo Doula. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, USA, I now live in Genoa, Italy where I am a proud mother, wife, teacher, and doula.