New paths?

So, the thing is, ever since experiencing preparing for a natural birth, having a natural birth, and doing a fair amount of "natural" parenting (exclusive breastfeeding, cloth diapering, co-sleeping, baby-wearing, homemade baby food (soon enough)), I can't stop thinking about starting a new career... that is, something that I can do part time mostly from home while I still stay home with the kids until they are all in school. Needless to say, the things that I keep thinking of are.... selling cloth diapers, becoming a lactation consultant (no idea how hard that is or what it requires), even becoming certified to teach natural childbirth education classes- all jobs that would inspire and empower other mothers and fathers for experiences that they would hopefully find as awesome as I did. The thought of becoming a doula has even occurred to me. I don't know if I'm cut out for any of them- well, I'm pretty sure I could handle the cloth diaper selling no problems. In fact, my diaper lady even said she'd be super happy to help me set up, if I really wanted to!

I feel very passionately about all of these things. Natural child birth was empowering, transformative, and amazing. It was my body at its best. I don't know many other times when I am able to get out of my own body's way enough for it to be that amazing. I would LOVE to help other women have such experiences.

Ha ha...wanna hear something funny? So, one of my friends, here in Luanda, is pregnant. She happens to be British. So, we were talking about insurance the other day, because our school switched insurance providers from last year to this year, and even though we were told over and over again that our coverage would be the same or better in all areas, of course it is not. My friend was kind of worried about this, but not really, as she plans on birthing in the UK which means that she doesn't have to pay a cent for anything, because they have national health care. So anyway, we were talking about it, and she was saying that the new insurance doesn't cover midwives- she was really exasperated, because she was like, "How ridiculous is that? I mean, who else would do all my prenatal and post partum care?" I laughed. Our new insurance provider happens to be an American company. Of course midwives aren't covered. Ok, that isn't really fair, because our last insurance company was an American company as well, and they did cover certified nurse midwives (CNMs). Anyway, I had to explain to her how in America most women see OBs for their WHOLE pregnancy, from day 1 through the 6 week post partum check. The difference between the American maternity and birth systems and lots of other places was never so stark as in that conversation! She literally couldn't imagine who would take care of her if not a midwife. Because that is what midwives do.

So anyway... I don't know what it takes to get certified to teach NCB classes either. I should look into these things. But then, I also don't know how much good career paths like these would be in the kind of places we might choose to live in the next few years. I just know that I feel very pulled to do something with all of this passion. It's a passion that I haven't felt for my (old) job in a couple of years, unfortunately (there are a multitude of reasons for that). I mentioned it to Joel and first he asked if I would now admit that my masters was a waste of money (no, I won't- how is an education ever a waste of money?), and then said that if I really feel so strongly about it, then certainly I should pursue new paths. So we'll see. Maybe one of these days I'll be sharing about my new path...