Postpartum for Professionals
Postpartum for Professionals is our third “core” class in our training series for doulas. It can be taken by anyone, just like the Childbirth for Professionals class.
This is an online, self-paced class that will be available in December 2021.
Since I don’t have a class ready for you yet, I’ll tell you a story instead!
“One of the funny things about designing this course is that I’ve had to confront all of my postpartum years again,” says Amy Gilliland. “The year after my first child was born was definitely the worst year of my life. I had postpartum depression and my infant child had autism spectrum disorder. I was a thousand miles away from my family with only a phone line to connect us. This was way before email, before fax machines, any of that stuff. I was five months married. Four months before I was a graduate student, thriving in my intellectual life. I had no idea what I was doing as a mother. I had to give up breastfeeding because I had no milk supply. Luckily, the women at La Leche League saw my distress and told me, “LLL is about a lot more than breastfeeding. Come to our meetings anyway.” They really did welcome me and I grew into motherhood through their example. I had been poorly parented, especially in infancy, so I had all of that stuff coming up to be resolved too. I’d put on sixty pounds. I was twenty-three and my life was nothing like I thought it would be. I didn’t really have the life skills yet to deal with everything.
I’ve never forgotten those feelings of those early years. It has made me so compassionate for just being twenty three, and being postpartum, and how it’s just everywhere. There’s no part of your life that isn’t affected: it’s physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, it changes your identity, how you think about life, how you see others. It rips you open in a way because you aren’t sure how you’re going to come back together. Plus most people feel guilty for some reason; we’re just pre-programmed to feel guilty about not being “better”.
—Thanks for your interest in the course and in my story!
