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Our Charis Family
Bethany Stricker
Charis midwifery student
Dear Charis Family,
A lot has happened in the past year that I would
love to tell you about. I have been very
blessed by the Lord to continue serving families as
a doula and I have continued my Charis midwifery
academics studies. In addition, I began
apprenticing with a local midwife in solo practice
and learned a lot by observing her at prenatals,
births, and postpartum visits. About the
beginning of last year, I realized I wanted to build
my skills to become a midwife in ways I could not as
a midwife's assistant here in Virginia. I
prayed and applied to the apprenticeship program at
Family Birth Services (FBS) in Grand Prairie,
Texas. A friend of mine and midwife trained
there and I knew she absolutely loved it. I
also called 8 other graduates of the program at FBS
and all had positive praises of their experiences.
For the first time, I heard nothing negative about
apprenticeship! I noticed this right away and
knew the Lord was giving me peace to move forward.
One of the things that confirmed
Family Birth Services for me was the fact that I
could continue my midwifery academics through Charis
while apprenticing there. FBS only offers
clinical work and preceptors by NARM's definition
and they need students to have an outside academic
program. Very wisely, they have an apprentice
director who encourages students in their academic
work along with making sure they are learning,
clinically, what they need for NARM paperwork.
Birth centers are great for getting numbers and
'learning birth' but with multiple midwives and
students, individual students can be overlooked, not
taught properly, not taught at all or simply have
holes in their learning that does not allow them to
move to the next level of skills or practice
midwifery autonomously. They are in full
support of my Charis academics which validates my
working with them - the ability to continue having
Susan Oshel, my Charis coach/mentor while having
someone in person who insures I am getting the hands
on teaching I need. I find it comforting that
FBS has been doing what they have been doing for
over 30 years and their graduates are respected all
over Texas and Oklahoma. I am very excited to
be learning at FBS along with Charis!
I sent in my application and received word that they
would like me to visit for one week sometime in the
summer. It would be like a week long interview
and I sure was nervous! I ended up going in
the middle of June and it was wonderful. They
wanted to get to know me as much as they wanted me
to know them and that eased my nervousness greatly.
I learned that there were three other women that
were having week long interviews for the spot in
January 2015. I went home being blessed by my
time at FBS and very inspired by their successful
apprenticeship system (helping over 80 women become
midwives since 1981!) but I was convinced that I
would not get the slot that I really wanted.
I went home in July joyful but sobered. I
talked to a midwife in solo practice in Grapevine,
Texas (about 20 minutes from FBS) and she was very
interested in having me as an apprentice. I
really liked her also so I knew that if I did not
get the slot at FBS, I had another opportunity.
Roxanne, the apprenticeship director at FBS, let me
know that they would update me on their decision by
the middle of July. I went about my usual
routine when I arrived home from Texas working on my
Charis studies and enjoying my time off call.
Unexpectedly, Roxanne called me and left a message
on my phone a week earlier than I thought she would.
This ended up being a real blessing from the Lord
because it wasn't on my radar that she would be
calling anytime soon- I didn't have time to become
anxious! I called Roxanne back and also had to
leave a message. The anticipation was killing
me! I went to Whole Foods to get some kombucha
and she called me back in the parking lot. I
took a few deep breaths, and prepared myself that
she was going to tell me bad news. She asked
how I was and I asked how she was and then she got
right down to it- everyone at FBS had talked and
they felt like I was a good fit and wanted me to
come! I was thrilled and shocked and surprised
all at once! All I could respond was, "really?
wow...wow...really? wow...." Roxanne laughed and I
was finally able to blurt out that I was thrilled
and really looking forward to my time at FBS.
She asked if I could do my trial month in August,
knowing that it was a little last minute. I
let her know that I would get back to her with a
definite but that I did not have any travel or
doula-ing commitments as of then in August.
So, needless to say, I spent my August in Texas at
FBS being fully blessed by a group of ladies that
LOVE the Lord and each of the families they serve!
It was truly a wonderful month full of HOPE! I
attended 9 births while I was there with 3 being at
the birth center and the rest home births in suburbs
of Dallas. There were no transports in the
month of August, a huge blessing and breath of fresh
air for me.
After my month at FBS in August, I had no
reservations about going through their
apprenticeship program and neither did the staff at
FBS. Lord willing, I will move to Grand
Prairie in early January of next year and take the
NARM exam sometime in 2016. I have kept a
journal since the very first birth I attended and I
thought you all might like to read a few snippets as
I reflected on my month at FBS in August.
August 31st, 2014
So much has happened that I am not sure what to
write or where to begin. It is all so
overwhelming. I’ve realized I have not been
writing since my last entry in April because a lot I
want to block out..... but a lot I also don’t want
to forget. A lot of beauty that I don’t want
to forget. I'm going to try and fill in the
gaps and journal more to not forget all the beauty.
September 1st, 2014
I woke up this morning and heard footsteps and
thought, “oh, Jeanne is awake! She hasn’t left
yet and I get to talk to her today!” Then, I
opened my eyes and realized I wasn’t in the loft at
FBS. Not sad, I just miss FBS.
September 4th, 2014
August feels like a surreal dream. It was such
a whirlwind of blood, sweat, tears, ….amniotic
fluid, herb baths, manacide, chlorox, essential
oils, and coffee. I have never cleaned so much
in my whole life. To think I turned my nose up
at manacide and now I can’t imagine cleaning without
it. Nor have I ever had so much caffeine in a day.
My new record is 4 cups of peppermint latte and 4
cups of iced tea. Time (and experience)
changes people….changes me.
When you are woken up for the third night straight
and only get about 1-2 hours of sleep, you wonder
what in the world you are doing. If you could
feel insanity, I think insanity would feel like
this: exhaustion, slight hysteria, and passion.
The world goes on in its predictable ebbs and
flows...schedule. I wonder what that’s like,
and is this crazy life worth it? But how could
I not be in birth work? That seems more
insane. In the haze of exhaustion, there is a
fine line between duty and passion, birth and death.
I just keep putting one foot in front of the
other….finding love and grace in the haze.
Coming off of August I realize I miss the insanity
and the exhaustion that goes with it. That
feeling of your body about to break and yet it keeps
going. Sort of like after a really great
workout...except worse. That need for water
and food and yet you wait just a little bit
longer...only to hear a grunt and then a growl...and
then see head...and know no food is coming for
another few hours till mom and baby are settled into
clean sheets. The adrenaline and oxytocin in
me...in them...the room. The excitement that
comes with the haze between life and death...this
world and the next. The things we understand
and the miracle we see in the wee hours. The
cars drive by, going on with their day and night.
How can this miracle of sacrifice be missed?
That feeling of being stretched until you think you
can’t be pulled any further...and still….you open
more...to love and life...pain….so much pain….and
then there is your precious reward. A baby for
the mother’s hard work and that beckoning, addictive
adrenaline and fulfilling reassurance that there is
actually beauty….innocence in this world. Once
I saw it, I yearn for it. There is no going
back. Do you ever feel your soul is captured?
Wrapped up in a package of joy that can only be
explained to be a gift from the Divine?
Apparently, few find birth and death….sacrifice…..
so breathtaking…...how can love not be breathtaking?
There is this pull between where I have been and
where I want to be. A longing for comfort and
yet a drawing toward the light at the end of the
tunnel….the same light that’s a refining fire
perfecting this piece of metal. It’s hard and
yet, in the hurt, is the joy. That feeling of
jumping off a cliff and finding the most incredible
things about life. Why live in the mediocre
when you could have the divine? Why gray when
life can actually blast by in full color?
How often do I wish I was farther along in school?
Every blasted day. Contentment is not my
middle name. Nor is patience. Actually,
my middle name is overwhelmed. Starting
Anatomy and Physiology and thinking about the long
list of people I know who are younger than me and
already did this. Why didn’t I do it years
ago? Hindsight is 20/20. Why do I have
to be reminded of my shortcomings. Oh yea.
Cause I actually am human. I forgot…..for a sec….God
does his sovereign job and I do my measly paper.
It is good this way. After the pain, comes
joy...there I find that glimpse of heaven.
(I’m trying to let my thoughts flow out….gets rid of
the writers block. This calls for celebration.
Lately, I celebrate with sleep.)
The road behind the birth center with
an evening sunset.
I felt like I saw this view or the night sky much
more than the day light!
Babies seem to come at night and we were often quite
busy with appointments during the day!
The most green and lush area I ever
saw while I was in Texas!
Here in Virginia, this is my daily view, sometimes
even in the winter!
Texas was very brown to me and I loved seeing this
landscape at church.
The prenatal room where we do the
hands on component of prenatal appointments.
The prenatal room where we sit and
chat with clients.
Appointments are about 30 minutes to one hour long
and we spend 3/4 of the appointment in this room.
This is the living room area where
clients come in from the main road.
We do childbirth classes and parts of tours here.
This is one of the birth rooms.
It is the most recently decorated and has the most
births, lately!
All of the birth center births I attended while I
was at the center in August were in here.
This is another birth room called the
Paris room.
There is another birth room also, a total of three,
but I was unable to get a picture of it.
This is the kitchen where I spent a
lot of my time! In between appointments, I had
my computer and textbooks out to work on Charis
homework. Often, another student was doing the
same. The midwives and students help to make
potluck style dinners 1-2 nights a week. It
seemed like the rest of the time, we were on the go
at births together! It is a real family
atmosphere and I just love it!
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'Behold, I will
bring them from the north country, And gather them from the ends of
the earth,
Among them the blind and the lame,
The woman with child and The one who labors with child, together,
A
great throng shall return there...And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the LORD.'
Jeremiah 31:8, 14
~~~
©2014 Charis Childbirth
Services, All Rights Reserved
Feel free to forward this newsletter to friends in its entirety,
leaving all attribution intact.
October 2014 |
