Family & Cultural Influences on Birth Stories with Arlene Lammy
51m
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Babies in Common
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In this episode we're talking with birth and postpartum doula Arlene Lammy of New Wave Perinatal Services (https://www.newwavedoula.com).
Warning: this episode is full of beautiful stories and laughter! You'll quickly notice that Arlene is a master storyteller, and you'll be drawn in, as we were, to learn how her West Indian family and culture influenced how she experienced her nephew's birth and how her immigrant parents described the births of Arlene and her sisters. She also brings in how being raised in a predominantly white community north of Boston shaped her upbringing, as she shares experiences of getting her period for the first time and learning about how her body works.
Arlene shares the loss of her mother to breast cancer and how that inspired her to be there for her sister. She also describes the moment during her nephew’s birth which piqued her interest her to start working in the birth world and how her instinct to mother the mother in the birth room took over. She shares her fascination with placentas along with a funny story about her nephew’s placenta and her family culture of discussing the topic. Getting her period is also discussed because of how her West Indian culture influenced how her family approached that momentous event. She shares her mother’s birth experiences here in the US and how different those experiences were from her sister’s birth experience and why she felt to emboldened by that event. A discussion of induction comes up as well as prematurity and how her father was impacted by her nephew’s birth as a preemie. The thread of black maternal health starts to be seen as she talks about her sister’s prenatal care and the induction decision. We talk about how her background as an early childhood education teacher helped her prepare for helping her sister and becoming a doula. And she reflects on how helping her sister postpartum allowed her to look at her work as a daycare teacher differently and appreciate the parents of the babies and kids she was taking care of at work. She reflects on how her father being present for the early days of his grandson’s life was so important, especially because her mother wasn’t there but also because of how intergenerational Caribbean families so often are.
This episode ends on the topic of breaking rules for good reasons.
She's a joy to listen to, we know you'll enjoy this episode so much AND you'll want to continue to listen to her in Episode 64.
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