How have I created boundaries for myself in my birth work? And why?
- Getting burnt out. 3 times…burnout is no fun and no joke. Big lessons here.
- Very quickly learned to say no to doula jobs that did not align with being able to support birth physiology and where I felt complicit in obstetric violence and violation
- Doing good things for my body, stopping bad things for my body
- Taking my time in coming home after births – especially difficult births. I am blessed to live close to the ocean. Taking a moment to sit on the beach, put my feet in the water and listen to the roar of the ocean is cleansing for the soul before heading back home to family life.
- I need to feel safe when attending births
- Spending time in nature regularly
- Having a designated on-call phone
- Saying no to people who don’t feel right
- Having a good support network
- Prioritising balance in my birth work life and my personal life
- Sleeping
- Only travelling within a certain radius for births
Whilst making this list, I realised how interwoven boundaries and self care are and how a boundary becomes a way to take care of myself, and how establishing a way to take care of myself, becomes a boundary….
As I walk this path, my boundaries have shifted over the years as I have grown and required different things in place. As a birth attendant, I step into intimate relationships with families, and as with any relationship, we need to assess and establish our boundaries within them. How do we best meet the basic needs of those we serve whilst taking care of ourselves?
How have you created boundaries for yourself in your birth work?
Compromise & flexibility in birth work is crucial given that we will encounter many diverse families wanting to make use of our services with expectations that may or may not be within our comfort zones or personal philosophies.
- So how do we know what healthy boundaries are?
- How do we implement them?
- What are the pros and cons of having and enforcing those boundaries?
Join our upcoming study spiral as we dissect this topic together.
For more information and to book your place see true-midwifery1.teachable.com/p/true-midwifery-study-spirals
