By Doula Jen

As we were sending out reminders and invites for our First Annual WBC Family Picnic, I took a moment to look over our complete client list and I counted up just how many of those mamas I’ve worked with.  At the time of that particular mailing, I counted 25, though I’ve since added two more. That’s just in my time at Welcome Baby Care. Before finding my home with this beautiful company, I’d helped about a dozen families.

Sometimes my interaction with a family is brief…one four hour shift. Sometimes I spend significant time in a home over the better part of a year. Often it is an intense, all-consuming three weeks in which the mother literally TRANSFORMS—grey to glowing. Sometimes, eventually, the caregiver-client relationship evolves into a friendship. Once or twice, I was just not the right fit for a particular family.

What a funny, chaotic, peaceful, and interesting job.

As I looked back over the list I want you to know that whether I spent 4 hours with your family or 4 months, I remember.

I remember that your baby needs to be held for a good, long while before being put down to sleep. I remember your cat’s funny meow. The way the light falls through your kitchen window in the morning. Your nickname for your husband. The problems and worries that you expressed to me—the ones that we all have, the ones that we should all be brave enough to verbalize.

Thank you for indulging us with your presence at our little picnic. You may just see yourself as one of the many families we’ve served—another mom, another baby—but I assure you, it’s more than that. You are our memories, our resume, our reminder that the overnights are worth it! Seeing your family—once fragile, frazzled, and new—strong and healthy and happy…it’s everything.