Coral Slavin’s Labor of Love
By Lucky Tomaszek
Coral Slavin lovingly rubs the laboring woman’s back and says, “Remember, when it’s this hard, it’s because it’s almost over. This is the hardest part.” The woman’s contraction ends and her eyes close as she drifts into a doze that will last approximately 45 seconds before the next contraction comes. It’s 2 a.m. and Coral has been with this family all night. She is understandably tired, but obviously content to be right where she is.
Her path began to shift 16 years ago with the birth of her first child, Robert. During her pregnancy, she read a lot of books about natural childbirth and became dedicated to giving birth without pain medication. But she was alone and unsupported during her labor and ended up asking for an epidural. She had a healthy baby, but always felt like her labor and delivery experience could have been different. Later she realized that the tools she used to help others with their pain could have helped her. When she got pregnant again eight years later, she took Bradley® childbirth education classes, which emphasize natural childbirth and teamwork between the mom and dad. This started her down a new career path.
NEW LIFE SPURS NEWDIRECTION.
After her second baby was born, Coral began training as a Bradley® childbirth educator and was soon attending births as an assistant for her students. She knew that she become a better teacher if she witnessed at least a few births. What she didn’t expect was how quickly this experience would become a part of who she was. “Once you’ve assisted at your first birth and you feel like you had some impact on improving the outcome, it becomes a passion” says Coral. “There are so many ways you can help a family when they’re expecting a baby, especially a first baby.”
This belief led her to expand her services a little at a time. Her next step was to start and facilitate parenting groups, and that’s when the real questions began to form in her mind. “We (childbirth educators) do all of this work helping families get ready for the baby and give birth, but then we pat them on the head and send them home from the hospital with a wave and a ‘good luck!’”
Coral believes early parenting is an important and fragile period in parents’ lives. Several years ago, a newly postpartum client of hers struggled with depression and committed suicide when her baby was just three months old. Coral was already a dedicated and passionate educator and doula, but the death made her see just how important post-partum support is for new families.
CORAL’S WELL-ROUNDEDDREAM COME TRUE.
Like most visionaries, Coral has a dream, and it’s about to come true. After working for several years to realize her own vision of a birth mecca in the Milwaukee area, Coral recently celebrated her 50th birthday with an open house at her newly rented space in Menomonee Falls, which will be called The Well-Rounded Center for Maternity Care. It consists of two good-sized rooms, a bathroom and a kitchenette. She’s already teaching classes at the Center and has made it available to area midwives for prenatal appointments as well. But the Center’s heart and soul will be its designation as a place for families who would like to give birth outside of the hospital but aren’t comfortable having their babies at home for privacy or space reasons. Coral hopes to make the Center available to families and area midwives starting in November.
Centering one’s life around taking care of other people can be draining. Birth workers, though some of the most dedicated people one is likely to meet, often joke about the unpredictable (and sometimes grueling) hours, low pay and hard physical work of their chosen profession. When Coral starts to run out of steam, she recalls her client who took her own life.
“When I think about her and her situation, it gives me the strength to continue working with families to lower rate of women suffering from postpartum depression” reflects Coral. “This can be done with education and support. That’s what drives me.” VS
