Highlights
-
In January Jacquelin became a co-owner of DCH!
-
We used 2021 to focus on our “ABCs.”
-
We’ve highlighted all the other amazing services we offer like our personal chef services that make great new parent gifts!
-
We have worked with the challenges of the pandemic and hospital policies to ensure that our clients are still fully supported and cared for through virtual doula support.
-
We reflected during World Doula Week on how much our agency has changed and adapted over the past year and how we have grown through the struggles.
-
We continue to host monthly town halls in an effort to grow our business toward accountability, inclusion, and the fight against systemic racism.
-
We celebrated Black Breastfeeding/Body Feeding Week with a beautiful photo shoot and learned and watched as we encouraged our Black coworkers and clients to embrace The Big Pause.
-
We continued to partner Nested for group classes through both in-person and virtual options.
-
We love hearing every single kind word our clients have to say about their experiences working with our amazing team members and we can’t wait to see what the next year brings!
To take a nap! That’s right. Our goal for 2022 is to REST.
Get some rest, you say? But you are on such a roll! Don’t you want to keep the momentum going? Won’t everything go awry if you take a break? Nope. No, they won’t.
In fact, it is because we are so focused on Boundaries in 2021 that we recognize our need to practice healthy boundaries for self-care and rest. You see, we want and need to model these things for our clients, so they know from the start of parenting that finding the sweet spot between activity and rest is so important. If we are running the marathon race as a caregiver and parent, we need to pace ourselves.
We also want and need sustainability in our careers as birth professionals, and to do that requires trusting our own intuition when life whispers (or even shouts) for us to change course.
Put in your mind the image of a person giving birth. Contractions are coming, labor is strong. The body does amazing things inside and out. All systems are engaged. That person needs to find both trust in their own intuition to balance activity and rest. Taking breaks, or even “therapeutic rest” (ie, pain medication) if desired. It’s normal to feel worried or afraid that resting might cause everything to slow down, and if that happens, chances are, the contractions will return in frequency and intensity later. Our role as birth doulas is to reassure the birthing person and their partner that a balance of activity and rest is what gives them the stamina for the marathon of birth.
The same is true for the new parent welcoming their newborn. Making plans to get a good night’s sleep, naps, and having time for self and partner bonding is a key to successful parenting in the first year of a baby’s life. That’s where our postpartum doulas, our newborn care specialists, and our breastfeeding and infant feeding experts play a vital role in supporting parents to have a positive experience for this chapter of the journey.
Check out our blog to read more about our Four Pillars for REST in 2022, Remember and Release, Recover and Reclaim, Reset and Recharge, Activity and Rest.
You can also read on our blog about how the work we’ve done over the past 22 months with our Inclusion and Antiracism Town Hall talks is work we can’t stop. You’ll get a glimpse ahead of our 2022 calendar for Town Hall topics and training we’re bringing to our team, a sneak peak at some new services added to our concierge menu (like virtual sleep training! ), and our planned stops for wellness, self-care, and rest.
Learn more about how we plan to relax!
Best wishes for a healthy, happy, and peaceful new year!
Emily, Jacquelin, and all of us at DCH
