I was soaking in the best postpartum I have experienced. With baby #4. There were things I did to prepare for this time when I was still pregnant and it all paid off. The full support of my family, my husband, and my community also mattered! It was about 3 weeks after birth when I felt this fire in my belly wanting other moms to experience the same thing, because I knew it was possible.

A little backstory…

I had my first baby at 16. Yes, I was a teen mom, going back to high school just two weeks after I gave birth naturally at a hospital. I became pregnant 11 years later with my second baby and started to immerse myself in learning about all things natural birth. I desired a pain-free in-home birth and due to COVID-19 that turned out to look a little different. I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl 2 weeks and 3 days after my due date at the Birthing Center. Everything was bliss the first 5 days postpartum until I went unconscious in the bathroom the 6th day, bleeding out blood clots the size of my fist. I was rushed to the hospital to then be put under and undergo a D&C. I had no breastmilk at home for my baby as I was nursing on demand and called my close friend to head to my home and nurse her for me. While that was only a short fix, we worked it all out with my superhero husband and friend and received donor milk from another mom who had just given birth. If I only had a Postpartum Doula, how would life have looked?

Baby #3 was a surprise C-section at 36 weeks and 4 days. I found out that I had Placenta Previa at 32 weeks and said goodbye to my midwife and hello to the OB. There’s so much more to the story but as I try to keep it short I did get to experience a peaceful gentle cesarean that I am super thankful for only to find out immediately after that my baby needed to head to the NICU. (Man, does my heart go out to every Mama who experiences this.) For this Postpartum my mom came into town to stay with us for a week. That was cut short after my husband and she got into a fight and she said goodbye. Here I was, a freshly new cut open and put back together mom, having to leave the hospital without my baby, and travel back and forth each day to see him all while trying to heal up myself and tend to a toddler. Where was my Postpartum Doula then? The funny thing is…I never learned that she existed!

All to wrap this up with baby #4 where although I still did not receive my home birth due to my water breaking on a Thursday night and my body not going into active labor until Saturday morning, an infection called Chorioamnionitis was formed. Again, something I do not wish on any mom as it is not fun but we made it through and this was the first time I received an epidural at the hospital! This Postpartum was the most rewarding and relaxing experience I’ve encountered and where I realized, THIS IS WHAT OTHER WOMEN DESERVE TO FEEL! For a year I was trying to figure out what that would look like for me, and how I could help make this a reality for other women. For a whole year, God showed me the signs through different people and I kept missing it until this summer when I stood in the Walmart checkout line and my friend who I don’t speak to often texted me: