Healing Postpartum Herbal Bath after Homebirth Transfer
Words from my client about their birth story….
“Each year our first child’s birthday marks a time of reflection and reminiscing on a labor and birth that I thought would be my only one. Not because I wanted it to be, I desperately wanted to be pregnant again and again, but for so many years it just didn’t seem possible.
I always felt so sad about the way their prenatal care, labor, and birth unfolded. I had been so deliberate in choosing midwives and a birth center that were highly regarded in the community, but living in Texas meant zero access to secular or queer affirming reproductive healthcare. The care I received by those highly regarded midwives in Texas was littered with heterosexist and transphobic commentary and beliefs, I was reminded frequently that my queerness was somehow an issue or a problem, and things were done to my body that I did not give consent to.
When I got pregnant with our baby now, J and I knew we needed to find queer midwives and queer affirming birth workers to support our family through this season. And then we met Savannah, our homebirth midwife! We knew in our first meeting that we struck queer gold . Savannah is everything we wanted in a provider: smart and critical, affirming in all the ways, honest, and centers consent.
The day after we met Savannah we met Anne, a University of Michigan midwife. Our first meeting with Anne was brief, but several months later, as we inched closer to my due date, we got to spend more time with her and knew that if she joined Savannah at our birth we would feel seen and held. Anne listened when I shared the details of my previous labor and birth, she held that trauma with/for me, she validated the worries we had about the potential for a hospital transfer as queer/trans people, she helped us create a plan, if needed. More queer gold!
In May we met Jenn Mason, birth photographer and doula extraordinaire. We spent some early morning hours with her in a dreamy woodscape where she saw and validated and captured our queer love story from behind her camera lens. She made us feel so good in our bodies and in our love for one another during this wildly special and miraculous time. We were so excited for her to join our labor and birth team.
I will forever have heart-eyes for Savannah, Anne, and Jenn for the space they helped us carve out and protect during Elowyn’s labor and birth, for the way they held up and validated our queer love and affection, for the labor and birth trauma they helped me heal…”
Thank you so much to my dear clients for sharing their story. It’s important, your feelings and thoughts are valid and your story will help others in a similar position. When we share the beauty and vulnerability about birth, it touches someone, you may not know it, but it does.
