I'll let you in on a little secret. A lot of our job as doulas is not to teach — it's to help you remember. And to imagine what things can be like.

 

Most of us think we need money or access to a dozen different professionals to have a good birth and postpartum. But my mother — postpartum doula extraordinaire Magedda— was a single mom. We were poor growing up. I'm talking poor in a third world country.

 

And when she talks about her own postpartum, it sounds like the most idyllic place in her memories. A place I want to visit.

 

She had hands. And a community of people who knew how to show up. When someone asked to hold the baby, it was to let her take a bath. There were more people trying to shove food down her throat, making sure she rested. I always thought that coming from a single mom household made us dysfunctional. But I think we were rich.

 

What we teach — from pregnancy to postpartum — isn't just another thing to add to your to-do list. It's about knowing how to ask for things. Remembering how to receive. Activating the community that's already around you.

 

That's what it means when people say it takes a village. It really does.

 

It's not enough to tell a new parent to "make time for yourself." We need to make it possible. And that takes all of us — grandparents, aunties, cousins, best friends, neighbors. Every single one.

 

That's why we host these events.

Come as you are.

Bring your people.