A Letter of Gratitude: Emily’s Postpartum Experience
(TW: please only read if you are ready to read about Emily’s postpartum experience)
In Chinese culture, it is important for a woman to rest and avoid all types of labor after birth. For many in our country, that simply isn’t feasible, and for me, my first and second maternity leaves brought on business-work challenges that didn’t allow for much rest and recovery to happen.
Our JFA team has grown since then and we have worked really hard to establish routines and best practices for smooth day-to-day operations, but I was still cautiously optimistic about how this 3rd leave would go. Looking back, I feel so grateful that on this leave I wasn’t called in to fix something major for work, and thus I was truly able to recover from an arduous pregnancy and the normal ups and downs of having a newborn in addition to toddlers.
I owe a huge portion of that business success to my colleagues and our loyal patients. I owe a huge portion of that personal success to the care I received from my parents, my husband, our AuPair, our doula, my medical team, our friends, and my siblings. I am just truly so grateful for every ounce of support during this past challenging year.
As I head back into work more consistently, I am reflecting on this experience as a whole. The two things that I am most grateful for are:
1. How generous others are with their time, compliments, encouragement, & positivity.
Old & new friends, patients, neighbors and most of my community have been incredibly supportive of me and our family. A few fun comments:
“Looking good mama!” (One of the women from school EVERY TIME I SEE HER)
“100% you should do that” (a pain patient’s thoughts about me delaying return to work)
“We are making you dinner, is Thursday a good night to come by?” (New friends)
“You are raising such nice kids, I’m proud of you” (Every note from my mum)
2. Having a good team at home and at work.
At home we have our Au Pair & my parents who routinely help with childcare, but we also have my kids’ teachers and older friends who encourage us with our child rearing goals.
At work we have Michelle, who sees every new task as a good learning experience; and Claire, Jess, Courtney & Reese who continuously strive to help our patients and REALLY care about patients’ outcomes and overall wellbeing.
I feel heard, supported & respected by both my work and home teams and cannot imagine getting anything done without them. Our children are safe and loved at home when I’m at work and my JFA baby/patients are safe and cared for at work when I’m at home.
As I look back on 2024, the overwhelming emotion I feel is gratitude. I am so thankful to be over the hump of a challenging pregnancy, to have survived the 4th trimester beautifully, to be able to see clearly into all the excitement that the future can hold for our family, and to have been given the space to be able to do all those things while the JFA team kept things running smoothly in my absence. I am one lucky duck.
With gratitude,
Emily