Heartsfull Birth

01/31/2022

You aren’t meant to go it alone

It’s all fun and games
And sexy breathing exercises for birth
And romantic plans about how he’ll take the baby while you do yoga every day

Until you’re 10 days postpartum
Still bleeding and soaked in breastmilk
Riding a roller coaster of hormones and sleep deprivation
And your lovely partner forgets to pick up a smoothie on his way home from the grocery store

And you lose your sh✨t
Like sobbing into the bathroom sink
Like cursing his mother
Like wondering why you ever procreated with someone capable of such unimaginable selfishness

And then, when the storm has passed, and you’ve had a snack- you realize
Two shaky, raw, sleep deprived humans
Trying to be life rafts for one another
While sinking into the depths of exhaustion and stress
Keeping the tiniest, most fragile, precious being afloat
Is hard AF

We weren’t meant to do this alone
We were not meant to be sent out to sea on a tiny little life boat with no map
Even the most loving, stable partnership can sink under the weight of operating in survival mode while finding your footing as parents

So, if you’re out there, treading water
Buried in laundry and breastmilk
Surviving on freezer pizza and three hours of sleep
Thinking mildly unkind thoughts about the person you chose to parent with
Because he can’t seem to calm the baby or remember your smoothies or grasp the depths of the earth shaking transition you’re navigating
You’re not alone
And it will get easier
One sleepy, shaky day at a time

❤️ Image and words by:
・・・

10/16/2018

That time when you were hanging out in your grandma’s womb

This is so amazing..

Did you know that your grandmother carried part of you inside her womb?
But how?
Well, a female fetus is born with all the eggs she will ever have in her lifetime. So when your Grandmother was carrying your Mother in her womb, you were a tiny egg in your Mother’s ovaries. The three of you have been connected for a very long time. Women are amazing!

08/03/2018

I just love these beautiful illustrations

These illustrations help to understand the beauty of women bodies

03/11/2018

💗💗💗 Ina May Gaskin & her beautiful birth work

02/27/2018

Dr. Lown warned [of our industrialized medical system] that “healing is replaced with treating, caring is supplanted by managing, and the art of listening is taken over by technological procedures.”

He called for a return to the fundamentals of doctoring — listening to know the patient behind the symptoms; carefully touching the patient during the physical exam to communicate caring; using words that affirm the patient’s vitality; and attending to the stresses and situations of his life circumstances.

What I learned when a famous 96-year-old physician became my patient.

05/08/2017

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. Instead of "Push!" "Push!" "Push!" 💞

What if we stopped telling women to push when they’re in labor? That’s the philosophy behind a new program at a U.K. hospital, and the results are amazing.

02/04/2017

Celebrate Valentine's Day a fun new way: learning to massage each other https://t.co/lve8k4YEh2 https://t.co/ZjKfRAWmyd

Get the whole picture - and other photos from Angelique Devlin

12/31/2016

Let's follow Sweden's lead: