Good Days and Bad Days
Stacie Bingham
Chico CA USA
From: NEW BEGINNINGS, Vol. 21 No. 5, September-October 2004, p. 175
I recently had the privilege
of spending a few hours with a dear friend, Sharon, who was a La Leche
League Leader and a homebirth midwife for more than 20 years. Her husband
was a doctor who pioneered homebirths in the 1960s, and she began assisting
him. After he passed away, she continued attending homebirths as a lay
midwife for 19 years. To say she is a wealth of information and insight
is an understatement of huge proportion.
Sharon is the mother of
two girls, now grown with children of their own. Her LLL experience
began when she moved into a new house in 1972. Her neighbor noticed
she was pregnant and came over to chat.
"Have you ever thought of breastfeeding?" her neighbor inquired.
"Why yes," Sharon
told her, "I breastfed my first child for six months." Her
neighbor then invited her to an LLL Meeting. Sharon was quickly touched
by the organization and knew she found a place where she could make
a difference. She decided to become a Leader.
Sharon has countless rich
stories one cannot help but enjoy and learn from. After my first baby
was born, Sharon told me the following information about her daughter,
Amy.
Amy was a very high-need
baby. Many times, Sharon would have to sit and rock her through much
of the night. She would sit in her living room, so grateful there was
no window nearby, because if there had been, she felt as if she might
have tossed Amy out.
Knowing Sharon as I do,
it is easy for me to laugh at this story. She so kind, gentle, caring,
and sensitive. But I still appreciate the moral behind the story. She
told it to me to assure me that if I felt like that once in a while,
it did not mean I was a horrible person or a bad mother.
We all experience good days
and bad days as mothers. Having a negative thought should not bring
guilt. What comes after the thought is what is important. Can we laugh
with our children in the midst of a mess? Can we let go of our high
expectations and try to enjoy life moment to moment? Can we help another
mother when she is in a slump? Can we be honest enough to ask for help
when we feel pushed beyond our limits?
Sharon's parting words to
me that day were, "Tell all the mothers you know my Amy story.
Tell them all about me. And then tell them I made it."
Last updated Tuesday, October 24, 2006 by njb.
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:30:13 UTC 2007.
