Dear Marlies,
You were the ultimate guide for our birthing journey. I can only say this because I have always valued guidance and teaming up with people who know their stuff. We are super proud of our decision to include you in the preparations and the planning and the home birth. You helped make our approach to every aspect of the complex process concrete and eventually within our reach. We were seeking a “natural” process. One informed by the latest of informations from a variety of lived experiences accumulated by conscientious women who believe in owning every potentiality that comes with pregnancy, and every risk that comes with birth. All contingencies were addressed and affirmed in a way that remained between us, the first time couple.
Through you, I learned that as partner, I could still participate as essential support and treatments for mommy and baby, hands on, on a daily basis leading up to and including the birth with obvious benefits: We were blessed with a painless dilation until 6cm over 2 days and a 3 hour birth in comfort of our own home. Somehow the full potential of the role that a partner can play in the health and wellbeing of the pregnant mother is never quite accurately addressed in contemporary western culture: this astounds me. You were our access to another perspective on what is natural child birth.
You were our trusted voice of reason and you are blessed with the embodied spirit of a true wholistic guide. We were empowered to face the known challenges with knowledge and realism and with dignity and confidence. We are forever grateful for how you helped shape and document our birth story, what will obviously remain as one of the most essential stories of our lives."
~Jack.