Written by Lindsay Neal
Strength is defined in the dictionary as “the quality or state of being physically strong”. Oftentimes we equate strength with the ability to withstand or exhort physical force, but it’s been my experience that real strength is often so quiet that it easily goes by unnoticed.
It is hearing that tiny heartbeat in the midst of life’s noise and embracing that your life is about to radically change.
Strength is in the mountains of research you do, in between trips to the bathroom in the quiet hours of night, as you seek to make the right decisions for you and your baby.
It is the courage to walk away from a provider when you feel in your gut that they won’t support those decisions.
It is seeing the magical date on the calendar come and go without a single sign that this baby is ever going to leave your body, and resolving to give her the time she needs to be ready to meet you.
Strength is leaning into each contraction, despite the intensity of a force you’ve never in your life experienced, as you work with your body to bring a human being into this world.
It is surrendering yourself to a power inside you that you didn’t know exists, and allowing it to transform you into the mother you were created to be.
Strength is in offering another raw nipple to a screaming babe that just finished nursing 20 minutes ago, because you know that you are not only her source of nourishment, but of security.
It is in the humble fumbling to pick up a phone, in suffocating solitude and wearing 3-day old, milk-soaked shirt to call in back-up, because you can’t figure out how to soothe this tiny human you’ve created, and your thoughts have gone someplace dark.
Strength is owning the research-backed decisions you’ve made on behalf of your child, despite the extreme pressure to conform to what is popular at the time.
It is listening to the still, small voice inside you and admitting you were wrong, knowing that it’s time to take a different path.
Strength doesn’t often roar. More often than not it’s barely noticeable except in hindsight. It’s raw and painful. Resolute and enduring. Steadfast and fierce. Long suffering and awe-inspiring. We don’t often realize we possess it until it’s pointed out to us. So, let me be the one to proclaim this truth, in hopes that you lean into it, own it, and be transformed and empowered by it.
YOU, my friend, are STRONG as a mother!
#doulasupport #pregnancy #positivity #strength #encouragingwords