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Mixed race mother nursing newborn baby

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A Black mother from Arkansas, is being heavily criticized following a TikTok video that detailed her postpartum doula’s daily routine.

28-year-old Brittany Bright, who goes by the name of @itsbrittanybright on TikTok, said she hired a doula to help her watch her newborn baby boy at night. Bright gave her followers a first look at her nighttime doula’s typical routine in a short TikTok video.

“First I get the baby ready for bed by getting him clean, getting his essential oils on, and burning and prepping bottles for the doula to give him overnight,” the mother of two details in the brief clip. “She arrives at 8 p.m,” Bright continues. “At that point, I retreat to my bedroom where 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. is my time, free of all children.”

Towards the end of the flick, Bright says after a good night’s sleep, she typically relives her doula from her duties around 6 a.m.  The clip has since gone viral, racking up over 743k views on TikTok and nearly 53K on Twitter, but some women are calling out Bright on social media claiming that she should be supporting her young infant during the most crucial stage of his life.

One naysayer on social media wrote: “Nope! No. The days fly by and these middle-of-the-night feeds are so special in the early days.”

Another person rudely commented: “This shit sound good til that baby want to be soothed by their “Momma” and they won’t stop crying cause their “Doula” ain’t there.”

A third user replied: “She’s doing your job and having experiences that belong to a mother!”

On the other hand, a large amount of social media users quickly defended the young mother, applauding her for hiring the extra help.

“This should be normalised!” one user wrote. “I don’t have any kids yet but God knows I’ll be getting every single help I need to keep me sane and create a safe space for my baby and home.”

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While another person commented: “I wish I had something like this when my girls were babies.”

Bright, who is a self-employed social media and marketing enthusiast, told Fox News that she saved a whopping $5,700 to pay for the extended doula services. The busy entrepreneur claimed that it was crucial after she experienced a number of challenges during her pregnancy in 2016. At the time, her doctors discovered a fibroid tumor growing on her uterus, as she was carrying her first son, Jaxon. According to the social media influencer, her doctors never addressed her concerns about the condition. Consequently, Bright was rushed into early labor at around 38 weeks and was forced to undergo an emergency c-section.  After Jaxon’s “traumatic” delivery, Bright also suffered from depression, hallucinations, and even blackouts.

“All of that, that I experienced with my first pregnancy and postpartum experience is what led me to hire a doula for this pregnancy in 2021,” Bright told the outlet about the birth of her second son, Maddox. “I knew I didn’t want to go through all of the same things again.”

Additionally, Bright decided to hire extra help with baby Maddox because of her and her husband’s busy work schedules. With both of their family’s far apart, Bright said it was difficult to ask for help with tending to their kids, but her doula, thankfully, lives nearby.

“She was able to come in and provide that support for us, that familiarity that we needed,” Bright added.

While saving for doula costs may be expensive for some mothers, Bright noted that expecting moms may be able to cover postpartum care through their health insurance or grants. 

Following the backlash, the busy mom took to Twitter to address some of the concerns, captioning the video “Motherhood is not rooted in struggle.” 

Listen to what she had to say down below.

 

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