Last night I huddled a few friends around for a gathering to support the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. My story was in a video they shared. You see, exactly 10 years ago after moving to MPLS from NYC with mere weeks left in my twins pregnancy I basically handed by birth plan over to a doctor I barely knew and braced myself for a planned c-section on a random day since I wasnt in labor at 39 weeks. I was anxious, Id never had major surgery and was about to become a first time mother of twins. By some miracle another mother called me days before my c-section and told me about the Penny George Institute (then known as the Center for Health and Healing). I was introduced to some of the staff who shared a list of FREE integrated health services that would help me prepare for my surgery at Abbott like reiki, acupuncture, guided meditation, massage. One woman in particular, Kathy Kerber met with me and told me she would be there for me going into surgery and during my recovery. Sure enough the morning of giving birth to Annabell and Luke, she did reiki first on my husband Mark who was also nervous and had something caught in his eye (turns out it was a giant thread!) and then on me where she guided her hands over me and said not to have fear, that it was time for the twins to be born. I took a deep breath. My surgery went smoothly and I felt very present to a birth that I was concerned would feel taken away from me. Afterwards, as I struggled to feel normal again but seemed to be failing at every motherhood task put in front of me she looked me in the eye with great compassion and said, Rebecca, you will blossom into motherhood. She said not to give up on myself, that it would all come if not in that moment, one day. Then she did reiki on my twins so that they would fall asleep for a bit (which they did!) and give me a chance to rest. It was a long journey to fully come into my own with motherhood that first year but she was right. When I was ready to have more children (and thankfully had a place like Blooma close by to help me prepare for a VBAC), again, Kathy showed up to support my recovery and help me get on with living. Im sharing my story because I think its so incredible that we have this resource in the MPLS community and to know they are there if you need them too!
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 18:43:51 +0000
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