Birth Work
Moving from the States to the UK for our family life was the right decision. Leaving my job and starting a new career in a new health care system has been a hard adjustment. I miss birth work. I miss being allowed into that quiet sacred space of supporting someone through the hard parts and watching them emerge triumphant with a babe in their arms. If you have never been in a room for that moment, it is hard to describe. Everyone can be exhausted, the laboring patient and the support team, but in that sweet moment when all comes out well and you have a new parent and a new baby crying and the room quiets down there is no other way I know to think of it other than a holy space to be in. I think it is the church I was born to worship in. One of my favourite midwives Margaret used to call this the birth high. It is how you can labor with a person all night, care for them, tuck them in, send them home, clean a birth sweet, and leave at 2am still filled up with adrenaline and the oxytocin of the moment. It has been a long 18 month adjustment here in the UK, I think I need to take myself to church.
The role of a labor nurse does not really exist here, it is something I have been grappling with as I sort out the what I want to do with my life in the UK part of this adventure. Midwifery is a different practice in the UK than it is in the States and I think the sort of midwifery and birth work I want to do is not really done here. So if anyone would like to come build either a lovely little birth center or a sweet little home-birth practice here in England with me, meet me in Cambridge! I am still unsure about starting the midwifery program here, but I am certain I want to start working with new parents and babies again. If I have learned anything about myself over the years, it is to lean in to the spots of deep knowing when I find them. So here is to new ventures and trusting that this will lead me back to holy spaces.
