What is support? Support is defined as bearing all or part of the weight of something. Examples include: holding up, carrying, keeping up, maintaining, bracing, helping, giving aid to, or assisting. One thing to be mindful of is what support looks like to you may be totally different to someone else.
I once attended a birth where the laboring mom only wanted me to hold her hand during each contraction. I felt it was odd, thinking to myself "Does she not know the level of support I can offer her right now? The double hip squeeze? The counter-pressure? The pelvic rocks?" Nevertheless, I offered my hand to her as I coached her in deep controlled breathing while she squeezed my hand so intensely. After about an hour of her laboring, her beautiful baby was born. She looked over at me with great joy and said "Thank you so much, I could not have done this without you!" At that point it hit me, my definition of support was waaaaay off of what she needed as support🤯.
At times there is no sure way of knowing exactly what someone's needs are, that's where just doing comes into play. Last week we discussed the importance of support to new parents, and how that support shapes their outlook on parenting. This week we'll continue to focus of how to support new parents by zoning in on the needs of the parent and not your personal definition of how that looks. When you take self out of the picture and really just offer yourself to serve them, your support will be felt where it is needed most.
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