Easter this year was filled with excitement. Becoming a Doula has opened up a pathway to healing. A healing that can only be conceptualized through community. The community of those who are experiencing, will experience, and hope to experience child birth first hand. I am learning about the scars and traumas and I am learning about the overwhelming and sometimes breathtaking love that is ours for our children. This vast untouched well that sits in wait. Our love for our children alive or in heaven is my driving force. I wanted to understand how we birth.
Yet for a moment I must pause. I have read the books… I understand what they mean to say, to convey to me but in practice I still felt awkward as a new Doula. It was as if I was a foal meant to walk just after birth but hardly able all the same.
Putting
One
Foot
After
The
Other
Like many, the thought of reaching out to new people makes me a bit squirmy but I know my heart is home as a Doula. So, with a bit of angst and all of my heart I began to reach out. You see my goal was not to gain clients, it was to engage with my local community. In a few groups that I am in I asked if women would like to have their bellies painted and so many responded! I was pretty excited because as if fate were involved my sister's friend who is also a photographer offered to take pictures of my belly paintings.
The date was set to be the day before Easter but another mom who was extremely close to her due date had reached out as well. She was local to me and I thought why not just make a park day out of it! She agreed to meet me at the local park and our kids played while I painted her belly and we talked all things birth.
Plans continued into motion and two other women who had reached out to me agreed to help with the photoshoot. I was inspired by them and just thankful because they helped make a picnic in a park into a fun and beautiful day filled with candid stories and genuine connection.
These priceless interactions taught me about the community I am a part of. As I continue to learn and grow, I want to be sure to pause and remember to honor the women and men who allow me to be a part of their lives. With stories that span the deepest sorrows and likewise the most profound abundance for love, and through these shared moments my hope is to help heal a fractured community riddled with fear and anxiety about birth.
