Sunday, April 4, 2010

Hello, my name is Irene and I'm a barefoot, baby wearing, natural childbirth granola girl. Nice to meet you.

L&D Part One...

Well, I guess that's a slight exaggeration. I really do love baby wearing, but I haven't exactly mastered the art, and Ever is so darn squiggly that she doesn't last in carriers nearly as long as I would like. BUT, I have jokingly referred to myself as some version of "granola girl," "urban hippie," etc since I was in high school. I just kinda go through phases and come back round circle to who I guess I really am at my core. And the funny thing is, it's not really how I was raised. A little bit is, a bit is just in my blood, but other things just started to resonate with me and have started to form my identity.

I think I experienced the strongest moment of this while I was pregnant. I always knew I wanted to at least TRY natural childbirth. I HATE the idea of a needle in my back, and I wanted to be mobile. And ever since I was about.... 13 or 14, I wanted to experience a water birth. Seriously. I was watching A Baby Story one day and this lady was in labor, gave birth in her hot tub (or a birthing tub, I really don't remember), gave birth to her baby SIX minutes later, and a little later, got up and gave him a back massage!!!!! I mean, this woman was crazy cool in my book and I wanted to be just like her.

My quest for natural childbirth didn't really take wing, however, until I discovered that a friend of mine from college had become a Labor and Birth Doula. I started chatting with her on Facebook and she pointed me to her website, Beautiful Childbirth. Reader, let me tell you. I started reading about the benefits of natural childbirth, and the reality of a medicated birth, and I was done. I will never have an epidural and no one can make me.... unless I'm going to actually die otherwise. The info I read that really changed my mind about everything can be found here, in the bottom section. Let me tell you, my dear Brooke changed my life that day. In more ways than she could have even realized at that moment.

Less than 48 hours later, I'm sitting in the living room of my friend Kristy, probably about 30 weeks pregnant, and I'm telling her about all this incredible information. Now granted, she's a woman who had epidurals with both of her kids and no one could have PAID her to do it differently. BUT, she is also one of the best friends I've ever had in my life, and would let go of her love and support for anything. I'm reading her the information from the website, with so much excitement and passion, and she looks up at me and says, "Oh my gosh, Irene. You should do this. You should be a Doula."

Have you ever had one of those moments when life just hits you square between the eyeballs and suddenly everything you've ever done in your life has led you up to this very moment and everything makes sense? That was my moment. So, now I'm just (im)patiently waiting to save up my spare change so that I can start my certification. This is definitely a part of my life that I can't wait to get started. To be able to see out my vision to transform women's lives in such a powerful way is more incredible than anything else I could have imagined. I guess that's what happens when God's will for your life suddenly becomes so clear.

2 comments:

Heidi said...

I'm commenting so you won't get a complex about your blog not being interesting. ;) I've found that about 95% of blog readers don't comment. Not sure why...

Anyway, I think this doula thing is fantastic! I think birth is such an incredible and beautiful thing. I've been at three births so far, all so beautiful and amazing! Definitely looking forward to experiencing it myself. (No, we're not pregnant :-P)

Visione Bella said...

Hahaha! Thanks for the confidence boost, babe. :-D Praying that you get your chance at the perfect time. ;-)

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