Nurturing

When my partner Dave found out that the theme for this issue (Winter 2006) was ‘nurturing the nurturer’, his immediate response, with raised questioning eyebrows was, ‘Well what will you write about?’

Nurture is defined officially as ‘nourish, rear, foster, train and educate’. Implicit in each of those actions is love and support, which to me is really what is at the core of nurturing

I admit that I am reluctant to accept help and to allow others to nurture me. However there have been two rare exceptions in the past three years where I have readily, voraciously and easily accepted the nurturing offered by others - though it’s taken until now to realise that it was a form of nurturing.This nurturing was the knowledge, infomation and wisdom offered to and shared with me by my midwife and by the women at the HMA Brisbane support group.

I know that not everyone places such a high value on infomation, knowledge and wisdom, but for me they are essential. I heard about practises and beliefs regarding birth and mothering, that I had never before been exposed to, at the HMA Brisbane support group (which I religiously attended throughout my pregnancy and into the early months of mothering). The openness and honesty of the women at each meeting allowed me to gain much needed confidence in the ability of my body to birth with the ease and grace which nature intended. It also reinforced to me time and time again - that choosing homebirth was the best decision that we could have made, to lovingly, peacefully and safely bring our child into the world.

The birth stories and insights into the birthing process that were shared over the five months, at support group, nourished me during my fast and furious labour. Without the wisdom that bubbled to the surface in the first hours of my labour - I probably would have been terrified that I could not cope, such was the intensity and speed with which my surges unfolded. I intuited, from birth stories that I had heard, that I was obviously going to have a fast birth and I was going to cope.

In addition to sharing her midwive’s/mother’s/woman’s wisdom and experience with me during my pregnancy, my midwife empowered me to believe in myself - perhaps the most profound and influential of all the nurturing that has been offered to me to date. It is a gift that I am truly grateful for. She fostered and nourished me through my transition from maidenhood and into motherhood very simply, by reassuring me that I had everything inside of me that I needed to birth and mother well. She validated and encouraged me to tap into my intuition. Combined with the trust I had in myself, this empowered me to tackle the challenges of mothering head on once I had birthed Dylan. I also knew that she was only a telephone call away should we not fare well as new parents.....

...On the following pages are articles that I hope provide food for thought, practical ideas or spark happy memories. Please share your magazine around to pregnant friends, family and neighbours, and in doing so spreading the important nurturing wisdom that we have collected here. I hope that the many other women, who like me, have resisted the gifts of nurturing offered by friends and family, will acknowledge the importance of saying ‘yes’ to nurturing. It is so important for us, as mothers and women, to acknowledge that we need to love and nurture ourselves, so we can love and nurture our families.

Have a nurturing and nourishing Winter … see you in Spring!

- July 2006

An extract from my editorial in the 'Nurturing the Nurturer' issue. Artwork is by DTB's resident artist, and my beautiful and inspiring friend Nickole Webb. It was the first illustrated cover DTB had had in many years. Winter 2006 is one of our best selling magazines ever!