You or Someone You Love- the book
Hannah Matthews is a writer and an abortion care worker, funder, and doula based in Portland, Maine. Her work has been published in or is forthcoming from The New York Times, ELLE, Esquire, TIME, Jezebel, McSweeney’s, Teen Vogue, and other publications.
Learn more from Hannah at: https://www.hannahmatthews.me/
Show Notes:
You or Someone You Love, Reflections from an Abortion Doula
Atria Books- Simon & Schuester, order at https://www.printbookstore.com/
Texas Equal Access Fund
Blue Ridge Abortion Fund
Indigenous Women Rising
“That’s so different right, what something looks like and what something feels like”
“When someone says ‘I had an abortion’ you don’t know what that means”
“The person who has sheparded me through (repro experiences) … is here to bring me to the other side of this experience”
“When we figure out how to get everyone the abortion care they need, we need to get everyone the abortion care the dream of”
“You really are postpartum in this way…” without a name for it
“We are rushing people through this process”
David Bedrick “What was that like for you?”
Exhale text support
“Can you tell me a little bit about what’s going on for you?”
The Four Agreements- don Miguel Ruiz
“An artist is someone who desperately wants to hide and be seen at the same time” Donald Woods Winnicott
“I hope it finds its way into the hands of people who are curious, or who just need to see themselves reflected back”
“You are okay”
“Joyful connection to another human”
This book matches the complexity of the experience
Joy-grief binary “we’re all moving through the world all the time feeling both”
What’s an Abortion Anyway?
Talk to lots of people about abortion!
“Whoever is having the abortion is an expert in that abortion”
Values exploration/clarifications
“How do we untangle?” someone else’s experience from our values
We’re humans here together. How can we be loving and supportive.
“Oh honey, I got you, what do you need? Let’s get you what you need.”
“It’s wasn’t just my future that they we collaborating with me to make happen”
“Look at someone and not insert myself”
“It’s seems like you are in need of someone to help you protect your joy and protect your body; seems like you are trying to get through something and I can help you walk through it as much as you want or as far as you want”
“There are very low cost way you can walk with someone through something”
This person is having an emotional experience. (I don’t have to understand it. I know the value of being seen and helped.)
“Make mistakes. Keep going.”
“Beyond self-forgiveness”
“Show up and lose”
“The fatigue of what we’re going through can’t be underrated”
“Talk to people you know about abortion; say the word abortion”
Print Bookstore- Portland Maine
@hannahsaysyes
