I am Grateful…

 

Yesterday the Indian Express Eye carried an article on doulas. As I opened the page at first flush I was delighted to see my picture and a good one too… I am grateful to Praveen from IE for making me look normal… usually that’s a challenge. And the writer Nupur for bringing doulas to the forefront.

Then I was even happier to see my friends in it .. Lina, I am grateful for you and how I can just call you in a second and share birth joys and sorrows… something no one else would understand.

Then I read what the mamas had said about me and I am grateful to have a family that loves me … i am an only child and this is the goddess’s way to give me a large family.

Somewhere in passing maybe I should be grateful to facebook and more so a crazy guy who convinced me last year to be on it…People who think I am a quack or don’t understand any of this thing I do but are proud of me and accept me anyways. So I am grateful for unconditional love.

And most of all I am grateful for the sentiments that are in the hearts of all the lovely women who I have the honour to be with in birth and real life experiences that are precious.

I am also grateful for all those wonderful people who drop out of no where and walk with me just when I need them…Janet Chawla calls them ‘birth friends’, I am grateful for my birth friends and mentors and guides. Wise women = Janet Chawla .. and some men…

Especially ones who have heard me talk endlessly about birth stuff, patiently, not rolled their eyes (maybe inwardly) and agreed to keep on meeting and hearing.

While reading words like angel and magic… I think its only right to share the recipe that makes it magic and me an angel.

Many years ago, I read a paper on the dais. A line from that paper has always stayed with me and has been the philosophy of my work.

“Its the work of God … the hands are mine”

Birth in itself is magic… what else would define bring a new life on earth. To experience the full force of this magic we need the following ingredients

Enthusiasm – not just the parents or family but all of us. A new life reinforces our potential to be there for ever and do more

Mindfulness – not just to the growth of the baby in tangible terms… weeks, hands, size of the stomach but to the flowering of his being, and there by triggering the growth of a mother, a father, a brother or sister and many new relations.

Faith – is probably the most precious of the gifts that we can give our selves and the baby. Faith in ourselves, in our child, in the people around us, in the love that surrounds us, in the care we get, in the intent of those who are with us, our abilities, our relationships and our own intent of bringing this new life.

Please feel free to add any ingredients that you feel, flavour the birth work we do… Comment section is right below