Goodbye From Mommyish’s Resident Doula

I am sad to say this is my last post for Mommyish. I’ve only been writing here a few months, but it’s a community that’s truly become one of my favorite places on the internet. Mommyish readers are smart, hilarious, informed and have one of the best comment cultures around. And in our current online comment culture, that’s saying a lot!

While I will still be doing some writing, I’m going to be focusing more on my work as a doula. While it’s certainly a lot harder to support a family through pregnancy, labor, birth and the postpartum period than it is to sit at home and have opinions about how pregnant women are treated on public transportation, I am excited about really delving into my work, learning, growing, and getting better at it. [EDIT: The previous sentence is not meant to impugn the work I’ve done for Mommyish or that any other work-at-home blogger does, including the awesome writers that continue to write for this site. I merely meant that taking on more doula work, which includes 24/7 call time and long hours during labor, will likely be more taxing for me, both physically and emotionally].

I’ve also taken a position that will allow me to become more involved with mother/baby advocacy in my local community. And, just to add more craziness to my life, I am hoping to become certified as a childbirth educator and as a lactation educator (not a lactation consultant, although maybe becoming an IBCLC is in the cards for me somewhere down the road), in 2014. So please wish me luck on my continuing journey of supporting pregnant people, families and babies!

I’ll be back with feature posts from time to time, hopefully about birth and breastfeeding- related topics. And look for me in the comments, defending women’s rights to have complicated feelings about birth and parenting. I am happy to help anyone with questions about finding a doula (or becoming a doula) on Twitter or via email.

Thanks so much to Eve, Maria, Bethany, Julia, Jenni and Meghan for making Mommyish a great place to work and a great website to read. Long live cilantro, criticism of Barbie in Sports Illustrated, and TGIF open threads!

Photo: Carrie Murphy