Those who know me or who have followed this blog over the last decade know that I was a birth doula for a while. In that capacity I've attended mothers for the births of 8 children; 3 as an apprentice doula and 5 as the primary doula. Because I have no children of my own, this is the extent of my experience with labor.
I've recently been thinking about world events in terms of labor pains. Scripture also alludes to the progress of world events toward God's appointed ends in terms of labor and childbirth:
After the events of this last week I feel unexpectedly traumatized. I don't use that term lightly. I read a great article "Ask a Counselor: how do we recognize and cope with trauma?" which spoke about the way we dismiss small trauma and the effect it has on us. As I read it, I became aware of how traumatic the last year has been, and how it's still impacting me now.
Today I find myself unable to get comfortable, as I was when I wrote the post No Place to Get Comfortable. I am restless and irritable and nothing is satisfying. Previously, I compared these feelings to that of my cat Poe in the last hours of his life. Today it makes me think more of a woman going from mere active labor into transition. All of the coping skills she had employed up to that point seem to stop working and everything feels like it is out of control.
Her body responds with nausea, defensiveness, irritability and hypersensitivity as if under attack. For some women this is the point where it seems to them that they cannot go on. Some despair, some cry, and some panic. A good doula may pull out the "take charge" routine here, and kindly but firmly tell the mother that she can go on, that they will go on together, that she is not abandoned nor alone and she is stronger than she realizes.
I need that right now, but I guess realizing it myself is sort of half the battle.
I've recently been thinking about world events in terms of labor pains. Scripture also alludes to the progress of world events toward God's appointed ends in terms of labor and childbirth:
After the events of this last week I feel unexpectedly traumatized. I don't use that term lightly. I read a great article "Ask a Counselor: how do we recognize and cope with trauma?" which spoke about the way we dismiss small trauma and the effect it has on us. As I read it, I became aware of how traumatic the last year has been, and how it's still impacting me now.
Today I find myself unable to get comfortable, as I was when I wrote the post No Place to Get Comfortable. I am restless and irritable and nothing is satisfying. Previously, I compared these feelings to that of my cat Poe in the last hours of his life. Today it makes me think more of a woman going from mere active labor into transition. All of the coping skills she had employed up to that point seem to stop working and everything feels like it is out of control.
Her body responds with nausea, defensiveness, irritability and hypersensitivity as if under attack. For some women this is the point where it seems to them that they cannot go on. Some despair, some cry, and some panic. A good doula may pull out the "take charge" routine here, and kindly but firmly tell the mother that she can go on, that they will go on together, that she is not abandoned nor alone and she is stronger than she realizes.
I need that right now, but I guess realizing it myself is sort of half the battle.
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