It seems 2018 is a year of firsts for me.
I’ve never blogged before. Never lived in Australia before. Never had my own business before. Yet now, in my early 40’s I find myself making some significant changes in the way I’m choosing to live. Undergoing some huge upheaval at a time I really feel like I just want to be settled. Why am I telling you this? Well, if I think about it, one of the big drivers behind the changes was my postpartum period. I’m here, right now, in direct response to my postpartum period.
I imagine, in fact, I know, I’m not the only Postpartum professional doing what they do because their postpartum period was less than ideal (understatement of the decade). But the long and the short of it is that, however hard those days and months were after the birth of my eldest, and then two and a half years later, after the birth of my youngest (for the record ‘we are done’), it has pushed us to our limits as a family and to my limits as an individual. As a result, it gave me the impetus needed to make some changes for the better. Changes that in the short term seem pretty scary, but at the same time, ABSOLUTELY necessary.
Having such a tough postpartum period (appreciating it’s not a competition, everyone’s ‘tough’ is different and that’s ok) led to me knowing that my future work HAD to ease the path into motherhood for other women. To help them create their Village, sometimes maybe to BE their village, or at least part of it. To share with them the information they require to plan for their postpartum with the same level of thought and awareness that is already given to pregnancy, birth and subsequently to parenting. The phenomenon of ‘Becoming a Mother’ is largely forgotten, with all eyes on the baby. The transition that occurs for the Mother is largely ignored. Ignored, that is, by all but the new Mother herself, who is desperately trying to navigate her new role, and perhaps, also mourning the loss of her ‘old’ self.
So here I am. Here to smooth the way, in whatever way I can, for new Mothers, whether this be their first adventure in to Motherhood or whether they are becoming a Mother once again. The journey is never the same. We, are never the same.