Where’s My Village?
As long as babies have been born, communities have come together to welcome two new people into the circle: a baby and a mother. Anthropological evidence shows that a tradition of attended births is almost universal across cultures. As the baby's arrival draws near, a mother's family, friends, and care team may gather in her home, often with their children. They keep her comfortable while the baby grows more quickly than ever and handle last-minute preparations so she can rest. Once labor begins, the more experienced of the group may step forward to guide through the pain and exhaustion of contractions. When baby finally arrives, they're handed to the mother. Her support team goes about making them comfortable while they get to know each other.
As I'm sure you realized reading through that, this is no longer a typical experience. These traditions of caretaking were often "women's work ." They went largely unrecorded, making them difficult to preserve through colonization and a general shift to a "pregnancy as sickness" medical model. You're probably familiar with baby showers and meal trains, echoes of their much more communal and, I daresay, more meaningful roots.
As with everything, even these traditions have become complicated more recently. Family and friends are often spread across the country or the globe and unable to come on a baby's schedule. It is common for fathers to feel "terrified" and uncomfortable asking for help (not a great combination). As young people move further from their families for careers (or adventure!) in far-off places, the trusting and caring relationships that used to support the postpartum period are hard to come by.
It would appear that this distance from the ongoing postpartum support built into many cultures has had one fortunate outcome: its importance is finally being recognized. A growing body of research (summarized here) supports a postpartum care plan as vital to the well-being of the entire family following birth, but knowing and doing are two different things! Access to resources needed to make and execute a plan still needs to be improved.
This is where a postpartum doula can help. As a trained professional, a doula provides the care and experience traditionally brought from surrounding homes and villages. This support is bolstered by a commitment to lifelong learning, which means bringing the most up-to-date research into every interaction. In-home visits are structured to meet the unique practical, physical, emotional, and spiritual needs that come with recovery from birth and the changes a new baby brings.
If you think you could benefit from working with a postpartum doula, please reach out to me here. I am so passionate about reviving traditional standards of support for new parents in the most modern ways, and I would love the opportunity to do that with you and your family.