Don’t forget to look up

Mothering is exhausting and all encompassing! When I look back to the early years with my babies, my tummy flips with emotion between earth shattering heaven, an emotional roller coaster and an endurance race!

When I was in the thick of it, I was given this advice at the Doula UK Conference by Ina May Gaskin - “Change your expectation for gratitude and your life will change”. And it did.

There began my journey with gratitude and actively looking for it each day. As a Doula working across Hampshire and Surrey, week after week I am transported back to those early mothering moments as I support mothers and the wider family with their newborns.

A postnatal Doula can give you permission to feel your emotional roller coaster, to go back to bed whilst someone looks after your baby or for you to be nourished.

As a budy working postnatal Doula, I talk to the families I support about making time for gratitude, to find some magic in the every day. Especially if you have a reflux/colicky/koala baby - every ounce of your being is being tested as you navigate the feelings of being touched out and sleep deprivation.

It can just be for thirty seconds. Maybe five minutes. Something you can do whilst pushing, carrying or holding your baby.

Look up and allow your eyes to softly focus on something.

Grab your breath and do some long, slow, deep breaths.

Physiologically that reduces the adrenalin in your body and boosts the hormones which make you feel good, happy and calm. It can often bring clarity too.

Give it a go and let me know what you think.

You deserve it.