2015 is looking like a veritable baby boom all over town. I’m feeling the good birthy vibes tingling down to my toes thinking about the wonderful families who have asked me to join them on this journey. I’ve eased back into this work after my maternity leave in 2014, taking only one family per month and easing my way up to two clients per month as the year stretches out into her middle stride. It’s feeling good and right and the pace is just enough to keep me on my toes but all the while feeling confident in my ability to be a solid resource for families. Not to mention being a solid support and resource for my own family!
As my family has grown, so has my practice and services. I have loved adding in breastfeeding, postpartum and education components to this work. Becoming a parent, especially for the first time, is a steep learning curve, y’all. My complete care package is based upon having some continuity of care for the family. It’s about having someone who can help you make a plan for this new life, having someone who knows the individual challenges you may be facing after your unique birth scenario. It’s about having someone care for you so you can care for your new baby. It’s about having someone to listen to your joys, fears and troubles and reminding you that those feelings are valid, that you have resources and support, and that you are strong enough to grow into this family even if you don’t know what that looks like yet. It’s about having someone by your side who can help you connect to resources so you don’t have to go digging them up when you’re already in the weeds.
2015 is also providing me with many new learning experiences with my birth work. I will be supporting some new birth scenarios with which I’ve not had previous experience and I’m very invested in learning from these opportunities. One such scenario being a twins birth (!!!) which has already unfolded as a truly wild & wonderful experience.
I also have my first scholarship birth coming up in a few months. This is work that is dear to my heart and I look forward to sharing more with you when the time is right.
So, my hopes for the year are to continue to grow and provide more complete and continuous care for families. My hopes are to learn as much as I can from these wonderful teachers – the powerful mamas, the supportive partners and their babies – and carry their lessons with me as I go. My dreams are to be able to provide scholarship births each year and help women that might otherwise go unserved.
My ultimate dream for this year is to be a calm + confident source of support for pregnant mamas. I see so much strength from birthing women and their families. Not only during their birthing times but during their pregnancies and postpartum, too. I want to be a mirror for that strength. To hold it up and say Look at what you have done. You have grown a human. You brought that baby into the world and now you continue to grow that person. That is no small feat. That requires a strength not like any other strength you have mustered in your life before. And I stand here inspired by you and your strength.
And my final dream is to hold that space for myself as well. I mentioned earlier that my own family has grown. I want my work to be a reminder of the strength I have as a mother, to support families in their birthing time and to support my family during our every day lives.
Thank you for thinking of me and Columbus Birth Arts and I set out to accomplish all I hope and dream for 2015.
Columbus Birth Doula 
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