Moving Toward Maturity

We are at that point in the year when spring transitions into summer. Two nights ago, just a week and a half into June, I saw my first firefly, a sure sign of summer. The trees are fully leafed out and we’ve had our first official heat wave. This period of transition is also the time of maturity and abundance as our gardens bloom and fresh, local produce becomes available. Work in the garden or around the home alternates with the pure pleasure of enjoying the outdoors and going on vacation.

INELDA started its third year of existence in February. It feels to me like we are just entering a transition similar to the one I see outside my windows: early development and growth into maturity and abundance. One sign of that is our new website that we launched at the beginning of the month. While I believe the old website had its charm, and served us well in the beginning, our new website reflects the maturity of our organization as it articulates our mission and vision, offers a more in-depth description of our offerings, presents articles and blogs written by INELDA staff, and brings together all of the press coverage on our work. Please visit us soon; you will see a whole new face to INELDA at inelda.org.

We will certainly continue to tweak and change some of what you will initially see in the months ahead, but we are very excited by our new look. Weeks after the face of INELDA changes, we will make some behind the scenes changes to the website. You might not see those changes as clearly as the ones that come with our new look, but they will make our website more efficient and allow us to engage with you and support you much more easily.

The changes to the look and feel of the website will be followed by other changes that bring members more benefits, and the casual visitor more information and a deeper understanding of this emerging field. One of the new items we will offer soon is a doula directory that will allow people to find doulas trained by INELDA who wish to offer their services directly to the public. If you have trained with INELDA and maintain a current membership, the directory will help you to reach potential clients. When the directory is available, or we make any other substantial changes to our website, we will announce them on the website and through this newsletter.

The article in this month’s newsletter, “The Chinese Approach to Death and Dying,” is the second in a series that will cover cultural sensitivity in doula work. The first article, “The Relevance of Culture to Doula Care,” was published in December of 2016 and can be found in the Media area of our new website, on one of the pages devoted to INELDA Articles. I hope you find the information on Chinese customs helpful. I think it would be valuable to go back and read the December article, because it is an overview on how to deal with culture in general.

Please enjoy this month’s newsletter!

Warmly,
Henry Fersko-Weiss
Executive Director