We would like to just say a quick “Merry Christmas” and thank all of you for joining Birthtalk this year, as we share the truth about traumatic birth.
Since this is the season of ‘giving’, we wanted to share with you that there can be many wonderful gifts that come about as a result of taking the healing journey. They may not seem apparent at first, but gradually can be revealed as you move further through processing your experience. To enable the healing process to begin often requires initial validation of your experience by others (whether that’s in real life, or via reading articles and women’s stories that resonate with your own), and developing an understanding of the nature of birth trauma. It then takes courage, strength, and a lot of support to take further steps to heal, but the gifts to you, and to your family, can be huge.
We wanted to end this brief post with an email we received one year, as Christmas approached. It really demonstrates the possibilities that taking the healing journey can offer, and we offer the below email as a message of hope. This woman attended our “Healing From Birth” support group, and, with much courage and strength, faced her traumatic first birth. She has since gone on, with Deb as her doula, to have a challenging, yet empowering second birth. We feel greatly privileged to have been a part of her journey.
Dear Deb and Melissa
I am so grateful to the two of you for the amazing support you have provided me. Over the past six months, since first coming to Birthtalk, I have slowly but surely fallen in love with my beautiful son.
Last Christmas I was so looking forward to going on holiday so that I could hand my little boy over to the grandparents and my husband to look after, and I could get some space from him.
This Christmas I am so looking forward to playing with my darling boy on the beach and spending time as a family.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I cannot put into words just how highly I value the two of you. I hope that you have a very wonderful, Happy Christmas with your families.
Best wishes
Angela
We encourage all of you to keep going, keep asking questions, keep nurturing yourself and keep valuing the importance of your experience of birth in relation to everything that comes after it.
We look forward to seeing you all in the New Year.
Season’s Greetings from Melissa and Deb at Birthtalk.org 
©Birthtalk.org 2011
