At some point recently, I allowed ceremony to imbue my life in a way I had always hoped it would but never really allowed it to.
It’s obvious that when the safety of ‘home' finally captured me and these foundational roots pulled me into stillness, I felt safe enough to allow the sacred to permeate the space I inhabit.
Steeped in the light that pours in through my West windows each day, I’m reminded again and again that this life is a ceremony.
It currently expresses itself through the art of cooking and writing.
A ceremony in itself each time I weigh, mix, bake. Each time I hear words drop like slow rain onto the page.
And I know it will consume me in more ways soon enough, and I’ll let it.
Letting life be a ceremony.
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#sourdough #sourdoughbread #ceremony #ritual #writing #poetry #poem #sacred #god #light #doula #birthdoula #postpartum #journal #morningpages #theartistsway #bakinglove
It would be an incredible shame...
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My heart lies in family-centred, Mother-led birth.
I offer in-home doula care in Melbourne for women and their families wishing to birth at home.
If you’re birthing in the next 6 months and want whole-hearted care during pregnancy, birth and/or postpartum, send me a message to chat further.
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#doula #birthdoula #postpartum #postpartumdoula #postpartumfood #postpartumbody #birthkeeper #doulamelbourne #homebirth #freebirth #birth
I’m not going to post anything here on Sunday because it’s my birthday and my first Mother’s Day and, frankly, I’m going to stay in bed with a cup of tea and my baby. Bliss.
Sharing my birthday with Mother’s Day this year feels especially poignant. I was also born on Mother’s Day, and today it truly feels like I was born to be a mother.
I waited so long for this, and I’ve never felt more myself.
Motherhood really beckons you to your knees. It asks all of you. And the other night, while singing my baby back to sleep, I realised that you can never escape being a mother. I don’t think you can fully understand that until you are bone deep in the identity. Thankfully, it’s the only place I want to be.
Since becoming a mother, I feel like my life makes sense in a way it never did before. I know who I am in the world. And I still have pinch-me moments because I can’t believe it gets to be this good.
To anyone considering becoming a mother, I can’t tell you enough, it’s like nothing else. So much love, so much fun. Pure ecstasy.
❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
Never thought Motherhood would be so intimate.
All the silky skin, the little breaths, the warmth of our bodies, the reciprocity, the synchrony like symphony to my every morning. I’m utterly obsessed.
Never known a love like this ❤️🔥
After 38 hours of labour, roaring through fire, the sun rose for the second time, and I birthed my baby into my own arms in the lounge room of our home, with the love of my life by my side.
12 weeks on, I finally wrote out the story of our birth.
If you want to read it too, send me a dm or comment below x
Everyone wants to hear the birth story. But what happens when the story is hard to tell?
The three of us spent our first weeks postpartum nestled like this. We talked about our big birth in the softness of those first sunrises, and at the dusk of each long day. We cried a lot, bonded by the golden thread that now made us family. We shared our hearts and let the sorrow waft by.
I actually had the birth of my dreams, but it looked and felt so different to how I imagined it. It took me a few weeks to understand that this birth was perfect in all the ways I didn’t know birth could be perfect.
📸 @jess___photo
What’s better than a birth comb? Or paying $32 for spikey birth balls?
Nature.
These are Casuarina tree pods. I found one near my house while I was on a walk recently. Nature provided me with exactly the tools I need. A couple of days later I found another one, less spikey, less intense. Maybe I’ll use one as a sensory object in early labour and the more intense one when it all gets hot and heavy. Or maybe I won’t use them at all.
But I was reminded how much nature can be a support in labour. I was reminded when I went for a sunset walk and I could hear the creek flowing and the birds singing and my body relaxed and softened instantly. I was reminded when I swam in the ocean, diving underneath and then floating atop the salty sea.
And I’ll ask for support from the Earth (the great mother) when I go into the depths of myself to birth my baby.
Nesting phase activated 🪹🐚🦦🦢🌾
I’ve had a hugely grateful heart this past week. For everything that has led me here, where I live, the opportunities I have, and how much work and devotion I have given to this rite of passage.
And, I’ve also cried alot. I’ve had some big pregnant realisations arise recently. I’ve had to voice them even when it’s felt scary, I’ve had to be brutally honest with myself, and I’ve had to step into a place of trust in my body and with my baby, even when it doesn’t make sense in my head.
But this is birth and this is what I’m here for.
🤲🤲🤲
The way I see it, women know how to birth.
I’ve known this from the day I was born.
My mother birthed me in front of the fire on the lounge room floor.
And then I knew it again, 27 years later, at the first birth I ever saw, again (in a pool) on the lounge room floor.
So when it came to my own pregnancy, I've chosen to birth at home and decided to have one scan and that was all.
All scans, tests and procedures in the perinatal period are optional.
You have the right to ask: Why? What are the risks? How will this benefit me? What happens if I choose to opt out?
Every step of the way, you are in charge of your body and your baby. No one else.
Preparing for a physiological/natural/home/intervention-less/empowering birth demands this of us.
It positions the mother, her body and baby at the centre, not under a hierarchy of care.
It demands us to self-enquire.
‘How do I feel about this?’
And we learn to trust ourselves in our choices and voice it.
I created a little resource with some articles, research and information about scans and how to navigate them in pregnancy. Plus I included the kinds of questions that I’ve been asking myself and my care-providers, and some conversation starters to have with your partner.
If you want to feel empowered during each step of your pregnancy, comment below and I’ll send it to you.
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#pregnancy #pregnant #prenatal
What the hell, guys? I love being pregnant.
I feel so myself. So in awe of my body. So nourished. So supported, thought of, cared for.
Maybe pregnancy is the remedy for all the women who struggled with not feeling enough, feeling like their body wasn’t perfect, feeling like they needed to do more or be more to be loved, needed to eat less or eat different to find worth.
I don’t have to feel any of these feelings. I get to marvel at my growing body putting on weight, ballooning out of my pants, being nourished by the foods I eat. I get to move my body because it feels so good, not to make me feel more (or less)! I get to experience the excitement in friends and family and strangers’ faces when I tell them I’m growing a whole human inside me. I get to be tired and not feel guilty. I get to be loved on and know I deserve it. I get to feel the expanding of my heart every day as my relationship gets stronger and my connection to my baby gets deeper.
I know this is not everyone’s experience and I’m definitely in my second trimester glow up phase. But let me tell you, I am heart achingly grateful and so here for it.
🤍 I wrote a guide on creating ceremony for yourself.
Because I wanted to share this practice that has supported my life through big transitions, heartache, birth, and death.
And wanted to make it accessible to you, so you can have a ceremony even if you don’t have the energy to create something grandiose.
Even if you don’t have the funds to pay for someone to hold you.
Even if you’ve never had a ceremony for yourself and have no idea what to do.
I take you through steps on how to create a ceremony that is unique to you.
That celebrates, honours and supports whatever you’re going/have been through.
My intention for sharing this is that you will find solace, peace and healing in closing the chapter or giving light to what might have been buried for months or years beneath.
Comment here if you want a copy, and I’ll send it to you.
Take it slowly, and please reach out if you need support x
