SPRINGFIELD, Vt. – In May of 2019, news began to spread about the closing of Springfield Hospital’s birthing center. Another resource for families in the area was gone. The community in Springfield is strong and resources aren’t completely gone, but there is no denying they are lacking. We have parent child centers that provide support to families and many qualified daycare teachers supporting families going back to work, but something that can be noticed in any town in America is that the “village” style of support is fading away.
Vermont attracts many transplants, with Dartmouth College being just 38 miles north of Springfield and DHMC not much further. Not everyone has their parents just a few miles down the road to call up when they are newly postpartum and need a chance to rest or eat something. Every parent knows the struggle of noticing it is 1 p.m. and you still haven’t fed yourself because you have been feeding your tiny human all day. Postpartum is an amazing, sacred, extremely special, and intimate time, but the challenges it brings should not be kept a secret because when they are the limited resources we do have don’t seem as needed and are taken away without anyone putting up a fight.
Doulas provide emotional, educational, and physical support throughout the entire fertility, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum period. Jess Kimball of Sunflower Postpartum Care is a local doula providing overnight postpartum support and sleep coaching services to local families to ensure new families are well rested and supported.
Imagine having someone to talk to about your birth and concerns as a parent, someone to tidy up, hold baby so you can shower or rest, make you a warm meal, sterilize bottles, bathe baby, teach you how to babywear, support you in your feeding choices, the list of what a doula does goes on and on.
We keep saying, “It takes a village,” but we send families home with a new baby and no clue where this “village” is. They usually have to build it themselves, who has the time for that with a baby to care for?
As the town of Springfield continues to be called home by many families still having children the need for stronger support networks becomes more and more evident. Everyone deserves a doula. Everyone deserves to feel supported as a parent.
For more information, contact Jess Kimball of Sunflower Postpartum Care at 803-431-4852 or sunflowerpostpartumcare@gmail.com.