No matter where I go, people want to process their birth story with me. I welcome it and hold it in deep reverence. Just this week I was watching my 13-year-old son play soccer, and the mother of one of his teammates told me all three of her birth stories in the 60 mins of play. We would cheer for our kids as they made saves and steals, and then go right back to the details of the stories. This is part of being a birth doula. You LISTEN. You hold securely, intimate 
details that folks freely give. Right there on the sidelines, in the grocery lines and even at the DMV.
I think it all comes spilling out in these public places because our birthphobic culture has made us hungry to be seen, heard and understood as birth-givers. I love this intimate part of my job and over the course of the 500+ births I have attended, I have developed a system for family processing, understanding, integrating and making MEANING of how our births impact us.
Your birth story is one one of the most important stories you will ever tell yourself, about yourself. I was… courageous. I was… complacent. I was… cared for. I was…. ignored. The trope “we have a healthy parent [mom], healthy baby and that’s all that matters” is one of the biggest lies of the American medical culture. How you FEEL about your birth matters. I’d argue it matters even more than how it actually went.
If you need someone to help you make sense of what happened at your birth, how you felt and how you were treated, please reach out to me for a birth-story processing session. We can do some make-meaning or mending by looking back at your medical records together. I will listen to your (and even a partner’s) recollection of the event. Get some clarity. Most of all, let’s celebrate your valor, because I already know that’s part of the story. If your story has been waiting for space to be heard, I’m here. Schedule here to begin your birth story processing.
In courage,
Sarah