Let’s talk about the slow path to birth work.
My call to birth work came as a byproduct of a beautiful, empowered birth experience with my first child in 2020. An intense fire to serve women was ignited within me. But I found it to be incredibly difficult to do birth work while raising a baby (and later another baby).
More and more women are reclaiming God’s original and beautiful design for birth, redeeming generations of traumatic experiences, and birthing a new story for future generations.
Many of these women also find themselves called to birth work, but soon become discouraged with the difficulties that come with raising small children that make birth work impossible to do.
It is difficult to apprentice, be on call at all hours, dedicate many hours to study, find safe babysitters… all while raising small children and everything that comes with that.
n the past, many midwives were older women who had already raised their children and having so much wisdom, knowledge and experience from their mothering years, they now helped support young women as they became mothers. And this cycle would continue.
I don’t think the Lord wants us to sacrifice these precious and extremely important years of early motherhood on the altar of attending births.
Motherhood is a very important calling. You are raising the next generation of worshippers. And let me let you in on a secret: these few years of raising your littles is one of the best schools for birth work. The experience and knowledge that you are gaining right now will serve you tremendously when the time comes for you to step into active birth work. Do not discount these years and constantly pine for when you’ll be able to start doing birth work, because you could end up missing the beautiful and valuable experience it is to raise your precious little children.
I’ve heard many stories from birth workers sharing their regrets of taking the fast route to birth work and feeling like they missed their children’s childhoods, with no redo’s available.
For some women, especially those with a huge support system or with trusted babysitters, they are able to step into birth work. But I want to encourage those who don’t have this and feel like birth work will only become possible when their children are older.
You are doing sacred work right now. Everything you do right now to raise your small children will serve you when you step into birth work. You are learning skills right now as you mother because one day, you will also walk alongside a new mother and you’ll be able to offer to her valuable, firsthand knowledge and experience. What you learn right now isn’t found in books and can’t be taught by courses. You are learning to listen to the Holy Spirit and are allowing Him to help you be the best mother to your children. You are learning to listen to your intuition. You are learning valuable communication skills. You are learning how to nourish and support and heal bodies. You are learning about healthy relationships and boundaries. You are learning about physiology and herbalism and homeopathy and anatomy and all sorts of hands on skills. You have no choice but to grow proficient in these skills because that’s what motherhood entails. Embrace each day and give God thanks for the best birth work training.
So how can you satiate the hunger that you have for birth work while you raise your littles and wait for the green light from the Lord?
Right now is a good time for you to study and learn. Read books and take courses (or just course. Take Hearthmother Journey!). Many schools cram in unhealthy magnitudes of information and busywork. You have the opportunity to unschool. Read at your own pace. Read what interests you. Go down rabbit holes and learn more. Dive deep into topics that interest you. Take time to soak in information so you’ll truly understand it and remember it. Enjoy the learning process. It has literally become self care for me.
Grow in your relationship with the Lord during this time because that is foundational in birth work… there’s no other way. You can’t skip this step.
If you can’t be on call 24/7, think about offering prenatal support and postpartum support to your community, where you can schedule hours during the day (if you have trusted caretakers for your children AND if your children are ready for to be without you IMO).
Build your community. If you build your community now, your community will be ready for you when you step into active birth work. And it’s so easy to. Host play dates and mom meet ups. Host sister circles and village prenatals and Bible studies.
Share the wisdom and knowledge that you learn from mothering and studying with other women. You can walk with women in this way without physically being with them. You can do this through the community gathering ideas I mentioned previously or on social media and blogs (make sure you have a healthy relationship with social media first because it does drain time and energy).
Hold your babies tight. Rock them to sleep. Play with them. Teach them. Nourish them. Love them and enjoy them. Give them all of you.
Don’t allow yourself to feel fear of missing out on birth work. It will always be there. Your little children will not.
I love this podcast episode from Holy Wild Birth on this topic.
