Dear friend,
The first thing I want you to know is that I honor you and your journey. I believe in you and in your ability to make good choices for you and for your baby.
It is such a privilege and an honor to share the sacred spaces of pregnancy and birth with families and I want you to know that we enter that space with reverence and love. As a doula, I try my best to surround you with support and encouragement, to figure out what you need moment to moment, hour to hour. It might be applying that counter pressure that feels just right, or encouraging your partner to slow dance with you during a surge, or applying a cool washcloth to the back of your neck as you work so hard to birth your baby.
I want you to know that I am constantly blown away by birthing folks.
Don’t be surprised if I cry at your birth, though you might not notice since you will be so focused on the work at hand. The beautiful tears come when I see that precious little one meeting this world, when I glance over and watch your partner’s face as they marvel at your strength, and when I am flooded by awe at your power and intense beauty. They come as I think about you in the days following your birth. They come because you are amazing and the process you are engaged in is infinitely miraculous.
Finally, I want you to know that this is your birth. It’s not my birth, it’s not your provider’s birth. It belongs to you, your partner, and your baby.
This means that if you want to birth in a hospital without pain medications, I will support you. If you want to birth at home in a birth pool, I will support you. If you decide that you want to birth with an epidural, I will support you. And if you decide that for your health and for baby’s health, a Cesarean birth is what you need, I will support you. You can count on me.
I send you my love and hope you can feel it, even across the reaches of the internet. You are capable and powerful and I honor you.
