The Importance of Community

I wonder if people think I have a different experience of being a mother because I’m a doctor. There are certainly things I know from my medical background that help. But mostly, as a first time mom, I learned along the way just life everyone else. In fact, I joined some mommy groups on Facebook and purposely never mentioned anything about my medical background because I wanted to be able to ask any question I had without for of someone thinking “hey, shouldn’t she know these things if she’s a doctor”! Yes, I know that sounds pretty silly, but it was how I felt about it. It was nice for me to have separation of doctor and mom, in fact, it was crucial, especially in the beginning. It was fun for me to allow myself to be a new mom and not have expectations that I should know everything. So I still posted and asked – ‘what were your babies first finger foods?’, ‘hey this just happened what does it mean?’, or ‘check out this rash what do you think it is?’

I wonder what moms did before the internet?!?! Well, I guess they met up face to face with mothers groups!! I know many still do. I personally have found Facebook to be a God-send since becoming a mom, partially to keep in touch with friends that I have less time now to visit with, but mostly to create that community of other moms to check in with. I’ve loved it.

I think in life it’s so crucial to be in community, no matter what the common bond or thread might be. I must say our naturopathic community in San Diego is not tight-knit, so I don’t have a large professional community. I have one or two close friends who are ND’s, so we get together one-on-one, but there’s not a lot of group cohesion. My Lyme doctor colleagues have an email list, and get together annually for conference. Mission Hills is a community unto itself, and I love this neighborhood. But by far my favorite community now is my mama tribe, and the love, support and knowledge that comes from it.

I’d love to hear from you and get to know you – what are your favorite parenting resources? If you could sit down with a naturopathic doctor, what questions would you ask? What would you like to read about on this blog? My primary motivation is to try to share knowledge from my medical background in a way that supports other people to live more healthfully and naturally (and have fun along the way)!