Columbus Birth Support

Happy World Doula Week!

I’m still serving a small number of families this year as a doula. This family allowed me to share some of their cesarean birth story.

I’ll be sharing more but what I know from my own experiences, at the risk of sounding pompous and self inflated, is that doula presence in the OR takes an often scary procedural birth and transmutes is back to the sacred. Doulas are helpful in the OR because we restore normal.

*I know not everyone is scared of cesarean birth but many are, I have served them. I try to advocate for my presence in as many OR births as possible to help steady the process.*

I brought peace. I was a known and available person for dad to ask questions. I was the only person invested in them having skin to skin in the OR - dad and I rotated supporting that. Dad was able to be with baby at pediatric table without worry bc I stayed with mama. I rubbed her forehead that entire time. I comforted her that it was ok if her eyes felt too heavy to keep open. It had been a long couple of days and she was safe.

And I know it was sacred bc I can still feel it in my hand and in my thumb.

Your births get stored in our bodies too.

If you see a doula this week, know she’s a walking safety deposit vault for other women’s stories. Keep it sacred, keep it safe.

Thankful for the many care teams over the years that have helped me provide sacred and normal to families.

And to the care teams that didn’t allow it when you absolutely could have bc safety, space and time were not a concern…you can all kick rocks. 🪨 (Aries issues)

❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Black Friday protest hike by me and Little Baby.
No shop-til-we drop for us now or ever. I have never been able to do the sharp pivot from a day of pause, reflection, gathering & gratefulness to heading straight into capitalistic mania. This year I asked for our protest hike and it was met enthusiastically, not begrudgingly by little baby and that to me is the big door prize, honey.

This holiday season I’ll be focusing on gifting services, classes & experiences {which is admittedly easier to get away with once your kids have grown} bc I always feel that supports the local economy most effectively. And then we add in physical items from small, local stores.

I’m going to try my darndest to avoid the capital A word as a source. We’ll see how proactive I can be…

Best of luck & love to you these next few weeks. Try not to forget the true reason for the season. The big guy upstairs doesn’t want us to have stuff, he wants us to have each other.

💖💖💖💖