Pre-Papa Men's Circle

On September 9th we held the first Pre-Papa Men's circle at our house. The men of the pregnant women decided it was a good idea to get together to share ideas, fears, & feelings about becoming fathers. We began by having a drum circle and smudging each other with sage. We had a ritual of grounded ourselves to become present and aware in the moment. We went around and each person talked about what it felt like to be a soon to be papa, the joys, excitement, & questions. It was a time of honesty, acceptance, and release of judgement. Especially because we were all sharing with each other what choices we were planning on making in regards to birthing styles, midwives, vaccines, circumcission, and the roles we felt we had as fathers to our children. We were all very happy to have other men to talk about this with. We honored each other's choices and encouraged each other with confidence and faith. Then we watched videos of births on YouTube to educate and prepare us on the process of laboring and delivering a baby. I was very grateful for this experience and we all wanted to gather again soon.