01/22/2025
My end of year wrap up is coming at you a bit late, but I think it’s fun, even still! 2024 was such a wonderful year of birth attending. I took fewer clients this year than usual, to allow myself time for school. But by the end of the year, I had attended 45 births! Here’s how it breaks down.
-39 vaginal deliveries (in a variety of settings)
-29 without epidurals and 10 who enjoyed an epidural.
-6 surgical births (3 emergent, 2 planned for breech, 1 for twins)
-17 birth center births at BBC
-2 homebirth
-26 hospital birth, 3 were transfers from community birth settings
-4 triumphant VBAC births
-1 surrogate birth
-I attended 2 births as a back-up for other doulas.
-I hopped into 3 birth where the primary doula was there (and wasn’t me!), but extra doula hands and hearts were needed.
-I sent a back-up to my clients 2 times (thank you Rae!) Once for illness. Once because 2 labors had overlapped BUT the first family I was with birthed in time for me to run over and also get to support my second family! My back-up stayed until the end of that birth because they had gotten attached by the time I joined them. Doulas love their families hard, even when they are the back-up. So it was a two doula birth ❤️
-I tandem doulaed one birth with another doula (love you Madeline!) purely because we both loved the client and we both wanted to be there.
-I missed a birth when one of my families who lives out of town, realized as they drove that they weren’t going to make it. They pulled into a hospital that was half way between home and where they planned to birth, and had their baby only moments after arrival. What a whirlwind for them!
-I was privileged to catch my very first baby this year, and yes, it was on purpose! One on my families asked if I would be the person to catch their baby, and of course I said yes! To be clear, their medical provider was right there beside me ready to do all of the medical things if needed, but this baby just needed to be caught, nothing more. To be trusted to receive someone’s sweet baby that they worked so very hard to grow and to brith, was a profound and humbling honor.
-And finally, while we all know that birth brings profound joy, it sometimes brings deep sorrow. Some of the most precious, reverent, peaceful moments I spend are with the families of babies who left this world too soon. I want those families to know that their babies are beautiful, and to be one of the few people to meet them, hold them, and know their names takes my breath away with gratitude. To sit in spaces where birth and death hold hands is, of course, heavy with sadness. But you know what? It is also a space where joy lives, where we can celebrate, admire, and coo. And it is a space that overflows with love. This year I made castings of the hands and feet of two sweet babies who couldn’t stay, but whose names I will never forget.
And then 2024 wrapped up early! My final birth of the year happened in early December. Around that same time I wrapped up the 2 classes I had been taking over the fall semester, developmental psychology and microbiology (A’s in both!). And I settled into a deep hibernation for the rest of the month! It was so needed. On New Year’s Eve I was roused from my hibernation by the news that the first baby of 2025 was on their way. And on New Year’s Day after hours of hard work, a perfect fresh human was pushed into the world and placed into the waiting arms of his family. 2025 babies, I can’t wait to meet you all! Here we go again!
Edited to add a photo of my own beautiful family who love and support me on the home front!! 2024 clients, if you see this post, please feel so welcomed to drop a picture of your baby, or your labor, in the comments!! Love you all!
