Yesterday I made a last visit to my first doula client family, who had had a perfectly healthy, four-kilo-baby boy born in as unexpected a spot as the corridor of their house's second floor on as exceptional a date as Christmas day, during a labour that lasted not much longer than four hours... I had - of course - been present at his birth (can't imagine a more beautiful Christmas gift!) and a few weeks after, I spent some hours at the family home, giving them postpartum support, preparing the mother lots of nurturing food, being by her side as she tenderly navigated through the challenges of recovering from birth and taking care of a newborn baby and a toddler during corona lock-down. I am so proud of her. This mother had had a very medicalized first birth, about which she felt it had kind of just happened to her. When we tentatively set out preparing for her second, she went from relative indifference towards and maybe even disconnection from her pregnancy and birth, to really starting to own, taking charge, and eventually planning for her (home) birth with tools she herself felt could help her have that. I feel that as a doula I went from the driver's seat, ("where would you like me to take you?") to the front (and sometimes back) passenger seat ("ah, so this is where we are going! Shall I rub your back in the meantime?"), which I think is great... Creating some post partum bliss after our road trip was at least as nurturing to me, as I hope it was for her. There is so much wisdom in preparing food with love. There is so much receiving in the giving. We had a lovely, thick and slightly spicy, Mexican recipe hot chocolate yesterday. Her having a refill also filled my cup. From bottom to top.
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