Happy, proud and excited to present the new logo for BiA Doula training!
BiA is an acronym for Being in Action. This is one of the core principals we teach in our training. The foundation skill of a doula is to be present, in her own body, in the space, with the woman and her partner, with the process unfolding, without judgement or expectation of a specific result. When our doulas come into action, when it is required or asked for, it is from this place of being present. One comes with the other. There is a parallel with the Taoist concept of ‘wei wu wei’: ‘action without action’ or ‘effortless doing’ – in a doula context, it can be translated as, “to do without expecting a certain result”.
Furthermore, Bia is a Greek goddess, daughter of Styx and titan Pallas (the river Styx was the boundary between the realm of Earth and the Underworld). Bia is the personification of vital force, raw energy, power, might, bodily strength and compulsion. We even find violence as one of her attributes, which can be interpreted as a power that is in action and doesn’t stop, perhaps like birth can sometimes be.
In Crow (a Siouan language), bía means ‘be’, ’rely on’, ‘have confidence in’ and ‘woman’. In Kunuma (African language) bia means water. In Irish bia means ‘food’ and in old-Irish, it means ‘I am’. In Norwegian, bia is a feminim form of ‘bien’, which means bee. The bee symbolozizes community, brightness and personal power. The ancient Druids saw the bee as symobolising the sun, the Goddess, celebration, and community.
And finally, BIA also stands for our core values:
B e with
I integrity and
A wareness