"spiritual but not religious"

wait, what?

as someone with one foot in the collective experience of health and healing through my professional work as a midwife and the other planted in the personal experience of continued (often messy and confusing) self-actualization through enquiry and exploration, the ideas of holistic care and tending are always in the forefront of my mind. culturally, it's something we do quite poorly, and that's both wild given its importance and completely predictable in a world of privatized and profit-driven healthcare.

as a personal example, in the time that i underwent ivf treatment (which spanned from a consult in april to a heartbeat viability ultrasound in september), i'm pretty sure one single solitary provider (a stellar nurse on the call line) asked me how i was doing--not as in conversationally, but genuinely. how are you, really? ivf was so incredibly hard on my body, heart, and mind, and like many patients, while i was encouraged to reach out with any concerning physical symptoms, almost no one outside of my own loved ones inquired about my mental, emotional, or spiritual well-being. no suggestion from my care team to recruit a therapist. no chaplains provided.

and this wasn't because i had a bad practice--this is incredibly common and totally normal. there was a doula practice that partnered with the clinic, but i didn't need rah-rah cheerleading, help with