One Year Later

A lot can happen in a year, huh?

This post came up on my memories this morning, reminding me of a very clear feeling from a year ago: a huge pit in my stomach about the future of birthing in NYC and around the world.

Since then, so many lows: all the closures, multitasking zoom school with work meetings for a 3-now-4-year old, lack of work, lack of hugs, and oh so much loss.

But also some highs: I pivoted hard with my work and ended up on the video team that helped win the presidential election, then led a smaller team for the Biden-Harris transition up until inauguration. Positive COVID cases are settling to lower rates and I’ve got the Moderna vaccine kicking up the antibodies so I can get back to safely supporting births in hospitals, homes and birth centers.

I’m also back to taking photos in studio and recording birth stories for our series. Last week I shot 2 video interviews with women who faced going into the hospital completely alone last April, with hospitals understaffed and without adequate PPE, to birth their babies.

Thankfully, both women ended up birthing mere days after the executive order that was passed in NY state that required entry for birth partners. But the stress of those weeks before that April birthday was still very tangible for them. Beyond that, they still spent time solo in postpartum recovery without their partners, one of which had a baby in NICU. These are just 2 of countless stores of devastating impacts on families during this past year of the pandemic.

May we look forward with renewed hope and a vision of a brighter future where families are supported, from pregnancy and beyond, and we find our footing once again.

❤️