Raising a Child in the Village

“It takes a village to raise a child.”  This might be a clichéd and tired saying, but it is also a very truthful one for our current situation.  Dave and I have been moved by how much the people of Northern Ireland and Belfast in particular like to take care of those who live here.  It is very difficult for someone to fall through the cracks.  Our church knows that we don’t have any family nearby except for a lengthy plane ride across a very wide ocean, and so they are doing everything they can to lift us up and know that there will be at least a loving church family to help us after the baby is born.  We have had grannies volunteer free babysitting, mothers offer to lend baby supplies, and one couple volunteer a ride to and from the hospital when the big day arrives.  Another area of feeling raised up and protected has been our antenatal (North Irish for “prenatal”) care and education courses.  Our antenatal care has been top rate care.  We are first timers to a viable pregnancy and at the start were still mentally and physically exhausted from all the work it took to have a viable pregnancy.  Thus, it was a relief to come into a prescribed system where we didn’t have to think and were told exactly how many scans (their word for “ultrasound”) we would need and when we would need to go to our doctor’s office to get checked up by her or our midwife.  It has been reassuring to be reminded that a woman who is pregnant is not a woman who is ill.  Rather, it is a woman who needs health checks but other than that can continue on with her regular healthy lifestyle.  The antenatal classes at the hospital left us with lots of information and a feeling that the midwives and doctors here won’t let us fail.  The “village” of Belfast will be helping us after the baby is born in the form of a house-visiting midwife.  Post birth, we will have daily visits for at least ten days and up to a month at our home from our midwife to answer any and all questions we might have.  She will also give me advice on breastfeeding, give me a pat on the back when I have the baby latched on correctly, and reassure these two first time parents that we are doing great.  It all makes it feel a little less intimidating to have a baby in a foreign land.  We are thankful to be a part of this village, to be a part of a country that is holding our hands as we bring our baby into the global community.