So why a doula, you may ask? To put it plainly, a doula can help assure that a vulnerable new mother is not alone in the world. Which is to say, any new mother.
OMG this article. I needed to read this, and especially at this point in my life. At seven months postpartum, I’m at the point that I’m starting to feel like myself again, but then I get overwhelmed with this panic that I am doing terrible at being a mom and fear that I’ll never figure it out fully. This article reminded me that I’m not alone in feeling like this. I mean, of course I have heard all about postpartum depression and the fact that moms are always overwhelmed but this article said it all so genuinely and just reassured me.
I’m lucky to have had my mom, dad and sister help the Ginger and I care for Jack quite a bit. The Ginger’s dad brought us groceries when we got home from the hospital and filled the fridge with prepared meals, my mom brought dinners over for about a month and my dad cleaned the house for a few months. I always said, and still say, I don’t know what I would do without family.Now I realize there is an answer to that…a postpartum doula. So cool! Even with the help of family it would have been amazing to have someone help out a few hours a week. At the beginning of Jack’s life feeding him was such an ordeal…I would try to breast feed and then we’d both get frustrated, then he’d have a bottle and then I’d pump. Sometimes we did this 8-9 times a day. It took so much out of me and on the days where I was alone while the Ginger was at work and my family wasn’t visiting I would just cry. Luckily, my pumping schedule has become much easier and we’ve made it work, but I think about how helpful a doula would have been during those tough times. And I wonder if I had done something like this for five months, like the author of the article did, maybe I wouldn’t have felt the need to start taking a low dose of anti-anxiety medication.
The cost is so justified. The perspective that the article points out about cost blew my mind…the average wedding costs $30,000 but many people think this kind of postpartum help is too expensive!
Oh this article. I am seriously so happy I read it! Today I just felt particularly crappy thinking back on the wreck I was after giving birth…wondering why some people seem like they are totally normal after giving birth and why I was a mess. This line was particularly comforting, “new mothers can benefit from emotional and social support for more than a few days in the hospital, for more than a few weeks postpartum, and for more than the first six months of parenthood”.
