Hello 2022 Newsletter
2021 is over and we couldn’t be more exhausted, eh, excited for a long winters nap!
To say we did a lot in 2021 is an understatement.
In 2021 Doulas of Capitol Hill turned 5 years old and we spent the year focusing on our ABC’s, that is, Accountability, Boundaries, and Connection. Take a look at what our amazing team of birth professionals have accomplished this year Supporting Families, Building our Community, and Growing as Professionals…
Image description: Pie graph showing the number of services provided in 2021 to Doulas of Capitol Hill clients. Reading clockwise from the top: Other (16 car seats, 12 rentals, 7 aspiring doula mentoring calls, 6 sibling doulas, 4 photography packages, 1 personal chef package), 60 lactation visits,203 births supported, 78 five star mentors, 9,210 postpartum support hours, 40 in-home massages, 29 placentas encapsulated.
Image description: Pie graph showing the ways in which DCH and our sister company, DPG, practiced Accountability, Boundaries, and Connection in 2021 as a part of our third Guiding Principle, “Grow the Profession.” Reading clockwise from the top:
1 LGBTQIA+ & Gender Affirming training- ACCOUNTABILITY
11Town Halls on antiracism and inclusion- ACCOUNTABILITY
6 Resources provided for access to mental health providers- BOUNDARIES
30 Individual Development Plan calls to review individual and org. growth- ACCOUNTABILITY
20 + 45, #ThankfulThursday and #WinningWednesday posts in private chat- CONNECTION
50 Weekly Lunch & Learn Zooms- CONNECTION
Building Community Connections
Our goal of Connection was, in part, for our professionals, because we knew that to support confident and empowered families, we need to offer that same support to our team members. However, the Community Connections for our DCH clients also grew in 2021.. Take a look at our new affiliate and community partnerships we built…
ANJA HEALTH CORD BLOOD BANKING
MOSS THE DOULA - TRAININGS IN GENDER AFFIRMING CARE
NEVER AVERAGE- DCH APPAREL AND ACCESSORIES
PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR MOTHERHOOD- MANAGING MOTHERHOOD
Our IG Top 9 in 2021
Highlights
In January Jacquelin became co-owner of DCH!
We used 2021 to focus on our “ABCs.”
We highlighted all the other amazing services we offer like our personal chef services which make wonderful new parent gifts!
We worked with the challenges of the pandemic and hospital policies to make sure that our clients were still fully supported and cared for through virtual doula support.
We reflected during World Doula Week about how much our agency has changed and adapted over the past year and how we grew through the struggles.
We continued to host monthly town halls in an effort to grow our business towards accountability, inclusion, and the fight against systemic racism.
We celebrated Black Breastfeeding/Body Feeding Week with a beautiful photo shoot and learned and watched while we encouraged our Black coworkers and clients to embrace The Big Pause.
We continued to partner with Nested for group classes through both in-person and virtual options.
We loved hearing every single kind word our clients had to say about their experiences working with our amazing team members and we can’t wait to see what next year brings!
Now that we’ve accomplished so much, what’s next?
To take a nap! That’s right. Our goal of 2022 is REST.
Rest, you say? But you’re on such a roll! Don’t you want to keep the momentum? Won’t things all fall apart if you take a day off? Nope. No, they will not.
In fact, it’s because we focused so hard on Boundaries in 2021 that we recognized our need to practice healthy boundaries for self-care and rest. You see, we want and need to model these things for our clients, so that they can know from the beginning of parenthood that finding that sweet spot between activity and rest is so important. If we are running the marathon race of being a caregiver and parent, we have to pace ourselves.
We also want and need to have sustainability in our careers as birth professionals, and to do that it requires the trust in our own intuition when life whispers (or even shouts) for us to change gears.
Bring into your mind the image of a person giving birth. The contractions are coming, the labor is powerful. The body is doing amazing things both internally and externally. All the systems are engaged. That person needs to find that same trust in their own intuition to balance activity and rest. Taking breaks, or even “therapeutic rest” (ie, pain medicine) if desired. It’s normal to feel worried or afraid that taking a rest might cause everything to slow down, and if that happens, chances are, the contractions will pick back up in frequency and intensity later. Our role as birth doulas is to reassure the birthing person and their partner that this balance of activity and rest is what gives them the endurance for the marathon of birth.
The same is true for the new parent welcoming their newborn. Making plans to get solid stretches of sleep at nighttime, taking naps, and having time for connecting with oneself and partner is a key to a successful parents first year of baby’s life. That’s where our postpartum doulas, our newborn care specialists, and our lactation and infant feeding experts all play a pivotal role in supporting parents to have a positive experience for this chapter of the journey.
Check out our blog to read more about our Four Pillars for REST in 2022, Remember and Release, Recover and Reclaim, Reset and Recharge, Activity and Rest.
You will also be able to read on our blog about how the work we’ve done the last 22 months in our Inclusion and Antiracism Town Hall conversations is work from which we cannot cease. You will see a glimpse ahead at our 2022 calendar for Town Hall topics and trainings we are bringing to our team, a sneak peak at some new services added to our concierge menu (like virtual sleep training!), and our planned pauses for wellness, self-care, and rest.
Learn more about how we plan to rest!
Best wishes for a healthy, happy, and restful new year!
Emily, Jacquelin, and all of us at DCH
Psst… one more thing…
Our website got a “glow up” and we are so in love! 😍
Huge shout out to Selena and Anna at Hauoli-Socially Inspired. We appreciate you and hope you enjoy that mai tai on the beach!