The Taproot Doula Project

Content Warning: Homicide, harm of children, mental illness, suicide. Lindsay Clancy, an L&D Nurse from Duxbury, Massachusetts, is accused of killing her three children. She was receiving intensive outpatient treatment for postpartum depression, and the tragedy happened at her home after her husband left for 25 minutes. Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders are common, and lethal. We need to talk about them, and do everything we can so what happened to Lindsay Clancy and her children won't happen again. * Read the essay on medium: medium.com/@katenovot/we-need-…chosis-910c9ded20b1 Follow me on instagram: www.instagram.com/taprootdoula POSTPARTUM MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES For more info: visit Postpartum Support International - https://www.postpartum.net - where there are great resources for survivors of PPP and their loved ones. National Maternal Mental Health Hotline:
 1–833–943–5746 (1–833–9-HELP4MOMS) National Suicide Hotline: Dial 988

Learning to live safely in our bodies … how trauma awareness can become the threshold for our transformation.

Before we can heal our trauma as healthcare workers, we have to admit that it’s real. Read the article: https://medium.com/@katenovot/nurses-are-like-cops-8a73a1476711

WHY THE MARTYR MOTHERHOOD MYTH MUST DIE, and one small way we can kill it off today! I'm doing something I've been waiting to do for the past 8, 9, 10 years ... a small change that will make my life better. I challenge you to do the same ... come join me and learn how. Love, Kate

WE ARE ALL CONNECTED. Is white midwifery/birth community racist? HOW DOES IT AFFECT US? (A brief message addressing recent events in the local and national birth community ... Read more at https://taprootdoula.com/2017/04/24/wake-up-white-birth-community-black-women-and-babies-are-dying/) Black women and babies are dying at epidemic rates. What does it have to do with us? The same forces that hurt black moms and babies also hurt us, in more subtle ways. Our healing cannot happen individually ... it is dependent on the healing of EVERYONE in our community. Black women are the canaries in the coal mine ... we are all breathing in the poison, but they are the ones who stop singing first. BE BRAVE, GET UNCOMFORTABLE. LOVE YOUR COMMUNITY. HEAL YOURSELF.

CONTROL: We are obsessed with it. We are obsessed with controlling aspects of our life that can't be controlled. We are obsessed with controlling the actions of other people, and we make ourselves miserable when we can't. HOW DO WE COPE? The first step is to admit we have a problem. Next, we need to practice tuning into the one thing we DO have control over ... ourselves. How do we let the actions of others affect the way we feel, and how is that a lost cause?

RING THE BELLS THAT STILL CAN RING FORGET YOUR PERFECT OFFERING THERE IS A CRACK IN EVERYTHING THAT'S HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN (Leonard Cohen) For many of us, social media is a pervasive aspect of motherhood. This can be good AND bad .... the beauty of connection with other women can transcend the limits of our own neighborhoods and lives, and technology can connect us like never before. However, in a culture where anxiety, depression and insecurity about mothering is so pervasive, it is essential to learn how to CONSCIOUSLY consume social media ... to use it to connect us rather than push us apart.

WORDS CREATE WORLDS. This week's check-in we explore how we are beautifully and wonderfully made (anxiety, laundry piles and all), how jealousy is actually a deeper message from our inner selves, and how to rewrite the story of how we talk to ourselves. I share my favorite personal mantra and share a prayer of WISDOM and STRENGTH for any challenges you might face this week. Love, Kate

I FEEL IT ALL (cue #feist) Oh, sisters .... oh sisters. The lesson that took me 30 years to learn, condensed down into the length of an extended bathroom break. WHY ARE OUR FEELINGS SO SCARY? Why is it an insult to tell someone they're being "too emotional"? What could be the root cause of addiction, binge-eating, excessive online shopping, and jealousy/envy? Some serious truth medicine here about how to FEEL, and how feelings don't make you WEAK, but actually guide you toward your highest self. xo, Kate

How do you eat well as a mom when your family is a bunch of jerks that only like red meat and white carbs? What a brilliant question. Our series on SELF CARE FOR MAMAS continues with another episode on FOOD MEDICINE ... easy food prep and planning ahead so that you EAT YOUR GREENS regardless of your family's disturbing food choices. LINK TO HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE SAUERKRAUT: https://taprootdoula.com/2016/10/07/feel-good-friday-making-sauerkraut/

Welcome to Taproot Doula Episode 3 ... exploring FOOD as medicine! We are taking a journey into our bodies to explore how our bodies process food to either help or hurt us. AND we are exploring the deeper meaning of the expression, "TRUST YOUR GUT!"

MAKING OUR MINDS A SAFE PLACE FOR US. Hard times as mommas can look like a lot of different things: postpartum depression and anxiety, difficulties with our kids, problems within our marriages, single motherhood, divorce, and soul searching about our journeys of motherhood. Truth Medicine: your life is a reflection of who you were, not who you ARE. Today is a new day - and we're learning how to create a REVOLUTION in our worlds, our communities and our own minds, starting with our own minds.