In order to strengthen our communities against abortion, we must encourage and support a culture of life across the board. Communities that model healthy families and support those families will be less inclined to terminate life.
Whether or not this is doula Amanda Poteet-Woolen’s motivation, she is working to build this type of support structure in her Bowling Green, Kentucky, community, and is the subject of this week’s Feel-Good Friday.
Poteet-Woolen sat down with WNKY News 40 in Kentucky to discuss the formation of Birth and Baby Community Meetings:
On July 30, I am hosting our first Birth and Baby Community Meeting. Our topic is going to be anxiety in parenting, and I feel like it’s going to be a great turnout, and a great space for parents to build some camaraderie and community.
What would parents have to be anxious about? Well, you have a Department of Justice which is targeting concerned parents and labeling them terrorists, and groomers trying to convince children there are 27 genders and they are the wrong one. Or is it the constant push to have your children activated or woke? Toxic masculinity? What is a woman?
Did I fail to mention government bypassing parental consent on puberty blockers, abortions, and toxic vaccines?
Yeah, makes you wonder why parents might be stressed.
However, parents who know they are not alone in their battles, and have community support and resources to plug into, is part of Poteet-Woolen’s goal.
After serving Kentucky for so long, and being in so many homes, one thing I see a lot is that parenting, mothering is very isolating.
Just community is lacking, so I decided, let’s have these community meetings again where people from all walks of parenthood can come together and share their experiences and their struggles, and just have that support again.
By all walks of parenthood, she means not just diversity of skin, but diversity of experience. Older parents, parents of teenagers, parents of adults. Poteet-Woolen recognizes there are no “one size fits all” answers, and parents at different stages of their journey can offer a different perspective that a new parent might need.
The pandemic helped to transform many things. One of them is how Americans view family and community. In the shifts and moves made across the country, some of those who chose to move desired a more supportive and likeminded community in order to raise their children. Others moved back home to be closer to their family.
Americans have come to understand that in desperate times, community support is crucial.
And we are living in desperate times.
Poteet-Woolen wants the group to be that type of support, as well as a safe place to unpack their parenting experiences, good or bad.
We never go beyond a need for community and support with each other. It’s a safe space to say, “Hey, I really struggled this month, how are you doing?”
Poteet-Woolen’s full WNKY interview is here:
If you’re in the Bowling Green area, the first meeting will be held on July 30. While Poteet-Woolen is off call from birthing babies and supporting mothers, she plans to keep these meetings going. To learn more about the meetings or her doula services, visit her Grateful Moms Birth & Baby page on Facebook.
Whether you’re raising children or supporting your own children as they raise their own, how can you be a resource to others in your community? What can you do to encourage life and health for the families you encounter?
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