Re-Blog: My Hopes

I want to re-blog part of a post from Public Health Doula that says a lot that I would like to express here!

"What I DO care about:

- I care that you know enough about birth, and your choices (and RIGHTS) in birth, to make educated decisions and know what your priorities and values are. This is the biggie. I hope you never think "I wish I had known..." or "If only someone had told me..." If I am ever pushy with information, it is with this goal in mind.

- I care that with what you learn about pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding, you resist the misinformation out there, and refuse to spread it yourself. If one of my friends says, "Once a child's old enough to ask for it, he's too old to breastfeed" ...well, let's just say we'll have to talk.

I also have some hopes - things I cross my fingers that my blog posts are teaching you more about:

- I hope you know that you have many options and variations in terms of maternity care. How one individual care provider practices is not necessarily the gold standard that you cannot question.

- I hope for you not to be frightened of birth, and I want to balance out the voices that might be feeding you fear.

- I hope for you to feel supported in whatever choices you need to make for your health (mental and physical) and your baby's health (mental and physical).

- I hope for you to feel happy and at peace with whatever happens at your birth, and if you don't I am there if you want to process your feelings or want help finding more information. But I never want you to feel like I am playing the "If Only" game with your birth unless you have specifically asked me how I think things could have been different.

So again: no matter what happens during your pregnancy, birth, and parenting - I want you to NEVER EVER feel judged by me for any of the choices you make and if you do, call me on it."