Today we’d like to introduce you to Noor Lucero Abou Khatar .
Hi Noor Lucero , it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
The first time I saw a baby born, I was nineteen. My fascination with birth and pregnancy began much earlier—when I was thirteen and eagerly anticipating my brother’s arrival. I read every book I could find and prepared more than my mother did, but his birth ended in an emergency cesarean. Since then, I had been seeking a redemptive experience, which I finally found years later when I served as my friend’s very unofficial “doula.”
I was fascinated by birth and pregnancy since early childhood—I even had that pregnant Barbie, Midge (way before the Barbie movie brought her back into the spotlight). After witnessing my first birth, I knew it would not be the last time I would stand in that sacred space. Caring for my friend through her postpartum period deepened that calling. We are both Druze (a small, spiritual community with deep roots in the Levant), and everything I did—accompanying her through birth and into recovery—felt deeply ancestral.
That experience was my initiation into the work I do today, work that has continued to evolve and refine over the years. I now support families through all reproductive transitions, from menarche to menopause, and have learned so much about the power of these thresholds. Birth was my first teacher. After the birth of my own child, I chose to formally take on the role of midwife and start my business-<i>RadaLune. </i>I am now in my third year of midwifery school.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I immediately laugh when hearing this question. I think anything worth doing is difficult—and this work is no exception. It is a constant teacher; just when you think you know something, you’ll be proven wrong. It mirrors life perfectly, which makes sense, because what teaches you more about life than birth—and death?
Logistically speaking, this work can be both emotionally and physically exhausting. It takes time to build the kind of physical and spiritual boundaries that allow you to do this work well and sustain it for the long term. As someone who feels things deeply (I joke that I’m so empathetic I could pick up someone’s sciatica if I’m not careful… and yep, it’s happened), I’m learning to hone art of empathy- feeling others deeply while allowing their energy to rightfully remain their own.
In practice, this means wearing many hats: sometimes I am a marriage and family therapist, sometimes a sister, a friend, or a healer. Each role brings its own lessons, and each teaches me something new—not just about those I support, but about myself as well. So while the work is demanding, it is not without reward-I receive as much as I give.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a full spectrum doula, herbalist, and student midwife. A full spectrum doula supports people going through birth, pregnancy loss, and postpartum. I take it a bit further and do anything in between- all transitions in life because the principles are the same.
I would say most people know me for my postpartum care. I have a very special insight into the postpartum that I wish more people knew about—and it’s rooted in my Druze heritage. In our tradition, the postpartum is a golden opportunity for healing. I facilitate that healing and provide insight into its mechanisms. My hope is that we can bring this understanding to the world, especially to the West where it is so lacking, and see a return of the vitality that comes with this healing.
How do you think about happiness?
Remembering that the purpose of life is just to experience it. I think if we forget this, we lose joy—and that reminder is really the namesake of my business, RadaLune from “Rada,” which was my mother’s nickname meaning joy , and “Lune,” the moon. Together they reflect the idea that joy and rhythm coexist — that even life’s cycles and transitions hold light. My work makes me happy—seeing a new family snuggled in bed, surrounded by pure bliss. Ugh, few things are better. Good coffee also makes me happy (I’m becoming quite a snob), an ice-cold river in the summer, staring at the full moon with no other lights around, making people laugh… and the list goes on for a while. Life can be fun when its not brutal!
Pricing:
- Birth doula- $2222-3333
- Postpartum doula: $55-$111/hr
- Closing of the bones/transition/menarche ceremony: $555
Contact Info:
- Website: radalune.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/radalune/
- Other: https://linktr.ee/radalune
