Postpartum
So dear Mama, your precious little one is finally here!
How does one ever absorb the miracle of a newborn baby?
An epic accomplishment on all levels.
Your body has worked harder than ever before,
gestating and birthing new life onto our planet.
And you feel rearranged on all levels of your being – physical, mental, emotional,
sexual, and spiritual.
Your hormones have been on a huge roller coaster.
There are so many new and conflicting feelings alive in you.
Disbelief. Awe. Heart bursting open like never before.
But it’s all so relentless!
You feel exhausted, as if you were on call twenty-five hours a day.
The half-eaten meals, the cups of tea gone cold.
Oh, and sleep…..”What’s that?” you’re probably asking.
Everything takes so much longer with a little one, doesn’t it?
Your body has by necessity slowed right down through this primal time in your life.
It no longer subscribes to linear time as you attune to your baby’s rhythms.
But your mind is saying a whole other thing about what you “should” be “achieving” in a day.
Not only navigating your own recovery, but you are focussed on keeping alive another human whose needs are constant and communication hit and miss.
This level of responsibility can be utterly overwhelming.
There is no doubt that being a new mother is an incredibly
isolating experience in many parts of the world today without a true Village for support.
Don’t for a moment believe that it’s how it’s meant to be!
Our culture values self-sufficiency and independence in women.
And yet, this is the very time in your life as a woman when receiving unrequited
care and nurturing from others is key to a smooth transition with joyfulness and celebration.
Not just for yourself, but especially for your baby.
There is a biological principle at play here.
Mothers and their babies are hard-wired to co-regulate or affect one another on a deeply primal level. This is to ensure baby not just survives, but thrives.
If Mama’s not okay, nor is her baby.
And if baby’s not happy, her cries will trigger a response in her mother to offer a soothing solution.
The postpartum can refer to the first few days, six weeks, several months or years following baby’s birth.
When a new mother gives herself permission to receive the nourishing support that helps her to thrive, this ripples out to her whole family, not the least to her baby.
In her seminal book The Fourth Trimester, Kimberly Ann Johnson cites five universal needs of post-natal mothers:
- an extended rest period
- nourishing food
- loving touch
- the presence of wise women & spiritual companionship
- contact with Nature
If these needs are consistently ignored, a new mother is more likely to struggle with perinatal mood disorders such as anxiety and depression. Any early symptoms of trauma are also more likely to take hold.
Applying my holistic skills in several overlapping fields, I can support your transition through the post-natal time in fluid way. Sessions can be held in-person at my practice or your home, or online via Zoom/ Skype.
Nurturing Massage
Birth asks a lot of a woman’s body. Post-natally, it takes time for the organs to return to their optimal positions, for hormones to rebalance, and blood and fluid levels to normalize. On top of the impact of birth, the body of a new mother has to adapt to frequent feeding and carrying her baby which also takes its toll. Through the ages in many cultures around the world, new mothers receive daily massage or gentle nurturing bodywork to promote their recovery and increase energy levels. I offer this as two-hour sessions of lush and deeply nurturing Hawai’ian bodywork (Lomilomi) at my practice, or a modified version as home visits for an additional fee.
Somatic Resilience Sessions
These sessions involve specialized supportive touch and presence through clothing to help calm your nervous system, reduce anxiety and promote deep sleep. The sessions can include your baby to help them settle more easily, reduce colic, and pave the way for optimal brain development.
Feminine Embodiment
I teach gentle but potent practices to post-natal women with the intention of increasing vitality, self-compassion, clarity around instinctual boundaries, increasing access to pleasure, building libido or sexual energy, connection to a greater reality beyond their identity of mother, and a safe place to express feelings. These embodiment practices can be taught 1:1 or in a group. Other ways to enhance embodiment include deeply nurturing and sensual massage, Pelvic Embodiment Sessions, and Somatic Resilience Sessions, depending on needs.
Pelvic Bodywork
Birth invariably changes a woman’s pelvic anatomy, whether their baby was born vaginally or via Caesarean section. Scar tissue, pelvic organ prolapse, pelvic pain, diastasis recti, and symphysis pubis dysfunction are among some of the conditions that may present post-natally. My special focus is to combine this level of working with the body when birth has been traumatic. In these situations the pelvic tissue can become protective and reactive resulting in tension patterns which may lead to pain.
Closing Of The Bones Ritual
This is ancient ritual which originated in Central America involves gentle techniques of body wrapping, containment and rocking using hand-woven scarves. It offers a profound sense of honouring, closure and celebration during life transitions such as the birthing journey so that the person experiences a sense of fully returning to their physical, emotional and energetic bodies.
Post-natally, it is recommended from six weeks onwards to mark the sacred rite of passage through birth. It can also be experienced many decades later when there is a feeling of unfinished business around a life event. Other than birth, it is useful in times of grief and loss through death, the end of relationship, etc.
The session runs for a minimum of two hours and is tailored to your needs. It can include feminine embodiment practices, Somatic Resilience techniques, deeply nurturing bodywork, Womb Steaming and other processes upon request.
Postnatal Sexuality Coaching
The journey through birth rearranges a woman in every way, not the least in her experience of her sexuality. This time in a couple’s life often heralds changes in intimacy, sensual and sexual relating between them. It can be a time of deepening their connection, or it can bring unexpected challenges. Through my work in the field of sexual trauma, I often see entrenched patterns of protective responses develop in couples’ intimate relating that are below their conscious awareness rather than by choice. The same mind-body lens can be applied to helping couples understand and expand their sensual and sexual relating in the context of the postpartum. Other process to help women more fully inhabit their bodies include feminine embodiment practices e.g. Embody Woman Series, nurturing sensual massage or Pelvic Embodiment Sessions for women, and Somatic Resilience Sessions.
Trauma Therapy
If the birth of your baby was distressing or traumatic for you or your partner, I specialize in 1:1 sessions of a gentle mindbody approach to reversing the symptoms of trauma.
The initial aims of sessions would be to help settle your nervous system, create a sense of safety within your body, and learn tools to promote feelings of relaxed alertness. Reversing the symptoms of trauma does not require revisiting the details of your experience through your memories, thoughts and words which in itself can add to your trauma. Click on the tabs below to read more about birth trauma
Birth Debrief
No matter whether your birthing experience was blissful, traumatic or something in between, an early conversation with an unbiased, trauma-sensitive professional where you can share your raw and real feelings in a safe, confidential and compassionately held space has been shown to reduce the potential for developing an entrenched trauma response. This would ideally occur within the first three days of birth and include a separate session for your partner if the experience of birth was in any way distressing for them.
Somatic Resilience Sessions
These incorporate gentle, attuned touch and listening to help baby discharge any stress they may be experiencing from their birth journey. Babies tell their birth story through movements, sounds, crying and other subtle ways of communicating. When they have the space held for them to do this, they usually become more settled. Having their nervous system soothed in this way will set them up early for optimal brain development.
Attachment Education
My approach to parenting is influenced by the understanding that babies are unable to self-regulate or soothe and are entirely dependent on their caregivers (usually parents) for this. A baby’s cries and other behaviours can trigger parents into re-experiencing their own unresolved moments of distress from babyhood. I share some ways for parents to engage in self-enquiry so that they create healthy choices for themselves and their baby.
Baby Massage Demo
Touch is the first sense that babies experience in the womb and is essential for their development. Gentle baby massage is an ideal way to connect and bond with your baby, ease their physical discomforts, calm their nervous system and optimize their overall development. My emphasis in baby massage is on simplicity, presence, intuition, and fun.
Soul Mama Collective Gatherings
Together with homebirth midwives, I convene a monthly gathering of pregnant and postnatal mothers geared towards celebrating the mothering journey, regular self-nurturing, and creating a supportive community of like-spirited mothers who place a high value on the powerful portals of birth and attachment parenting.
Applying my holistic skills in several overlapping fields, I can support your transition through the post-natal time in fluid way. Sessions can be held in-person at my practice or your home, or online via Zoom/ Skype.
