Midwives of the Lake

24/07/2022

♥️ “What if we told women the truth about birth
We’d have to tell them that contractions will probably be more than “surges” or “sensations.”

That they’ll probably rock your f✨cking world and leave you begging for salvation as you clutch the edge of the tub or the hospital linens

That your gentle breathing exercises and your Spotify soundtrack will be left in the dust as you sweat and pant and sway and swear your way through it

That you’ll trip harder than any mushroom you ever did in college and vomit with the same ferocity and travel to places deep within yourself that you didn’t know existed. That you’ll float above your body and simultaneously be trapped in it with an intensity you’ve never tasted

And in that intensity, in the sweating and the swearing and the swaying and the vomiting and the endless hours of contractions crashing down upon you
You’ll find your strength
You’ll find a resilience you’ve never known
You’ll find the power you need for the journey of motherhood ahead

In the messy humanity of it all
You’ll find that you are holy
A portal to the divine
Capable of indescribable miracles
A vessel of sacred life

What if we told women the truth about birth?
We’d have to tell them they are capable of anything
Worthy of being treated like goddesses
Made to walk through the flames
Surf the tidal waves
Dive into the underworld
And come out alive

Not unscathed
Not unchanged
But whole
And healed
And ready to take on the world

If we told women the truth about birth
We’d have to admit that we’ve lied about everything else
And that they are more powerful
More fierce
More capable
More beautiful
Than we’ve ever let on.

If we told the truth about birth?
We’d shatter the world.”

Spirit Y Sol

08/03/2021

"The online course I took with Hannah was deeply meaningful and a truly connecting experience. I felt steeped in the feminine mysteries of pregnancy and birth, and surrounded by nourishing feminine energy. I was so glad this workshop was available online!!"

This was one of the reviews written by a doula, who joined the online Touching Bellies Touching Lives workshop at the end of 2020. She also joined the first Discovering Birth Retreat in Guatemala in 2018 where we made this altar and reconnected to the layers of history of birth and cultural conditioning. Exploring the use of visual imagery and how to reclaim birth as a rite of passage.

Join us for the next online course on April 10-11/17-18.
Visit https://www.midwivesofthelake.com/online-teaching-module for more info and email midwivesofthelake@gmail.com for any questions you might have!

07/03/2021

In collaboration with Awakened Spirit Yoga, we are excited to open the registration for our 20 hour live online workshop "Touching Bellies, Touching Lives"!

This workshop dives into the world of birth through the lens of an experienced homebirth midwife and guest speakers. We examine the cross-over between the worlds of professional and traditional midwifery. The teachings examine the layers of cultural conditioning and limbic imprinting and explores the current challenges in the notion of undisturbed birth. How can we integrate birth rituals into our practice and celebrate birth as the rite of passage as it is supposed to be?

Open to all (student) doulas, midwives, birth workers, herbalists, (prenatal) yoga teachers, pregnant women and couples.

Join the diverse, international group of participants and receive an early bird discount until March 21st!

For more info and registration: https://www.awakenedspirityoga.com/online-20-hr-prenatal-health-continuing-education-course

01/10/2020

The history of birth is a history of connection and separation. When birth became medicalized, hands got replaced by tools and touch became mainly diagnostic. When I read the book "Heart and hands" by Elizabeth Davis, I understood the value of connection and the gift that I bring to a birth. It is not my backpack full of equipment or the amount of births I have attended. It is my capability to truly connect with the woman and the couple. To feel birth, to smell the fluids, to touch and massage her naked body, to get covered in amniotic fluid, to feel my heart race, to stay present and to not get fear into the way when the woman is going through her last transition. I invite you to read the next quote about separation and connection.

"Diagnostic technologies, from the most mundane and routine ultrasound to the most exotic embryo transplant, have in common that they work toward the construction of the fetus as a separate being - they reify, they make real the fetus.
They make the fetus a visible, audible presence among us, and they do that by doing two other things. The medicalize pregnancy, and they render invisible and inaudible, women. The history of Western obstetrics is the history of technologies of separation.
We've separated milk from breasts, mothers from babies, fetuses from pregnancies, sexuality from procreation, pregnancy from motherhood. And finally we are left with the image of the fetus as a free-floating being alone, analogous to man in space, with the umbilical cord tethering the placental ship, and the mother reduced to the empty space that surrounds it.
It is very hard to conceptually put back together that which medicine has rendered asunder... As I speak to different groups, from social scientists to birth practioners, what I find is that I have a harder and harder time trying to make the meaning of connection, let alone the value of connection, understood.
- Barbara Katz Rothman, midwife (1992)

This is a picture with Emma, the woman who brought me to the Lake for the birth of her first son (and a couple years later her daughter was born). The story of connection through heart and hands.

22/09/2020

For Julia. Because you are a mother now.

I will always remember our nights on the boat, floating over the water, going to attend a birth. You would wait for me on the dock with bags filled of your magic. Our hearts would race when the water would bring us to the shore. You brought your incense, candles, food (how I loved not to be hungry during a birth), essential oils, protein shakes and what not. You even brought hoses and pumps at one point:). A doula in heart.

Our professional and personal story together got interrupted suddenly. My land is laying behind yours, empty. Your belly grew in the months I was not there. You gave birth a couple of days ago with me on the other side of the world. I wanted to hold you so desperately when I heard you scream in the phone. All of us were connected, all of us were with you in your long days of birth. You have blown me away with your strength. You went beyond and felt the death and rebirth. You are a mother now, with a gorgeous son. You went through the veil and came out reborn. I honour you Jules for the amazing woman that you are.

22/09/2020

There are 2 weeks left to register for the online module!
"Touching bellies, touching lives: homebirth in remote settings" was created throughout my last 8 years of practising as a homebirth midwife. It is a teaching module that is theoretical and practical and guides (student, to be) midwives, doula's and prenatal yoga teachers through wisdoms, insights and alternative approaches that I have gathered throughout the years.
This first module will be taught live online in the weekends of October 10-11 and 17-18 (5 hours a day, different timetables for different timezones).
You can read all the information and registration info on:

The creation of this online module was inspired by the Discovering Birth Retreat, held in Guatemala in the previous years. Homebirth midwifery has been my passion for the last 8 years and I have developed my practice throughout the years by working in remote settings in Uganda and Guatemala. I worke...

17/08/2020

With great excitement, I launch my first online teaching module! The registration opens today and will close on October 15th.
"Touching bellies, touching lives: homebirth in remote settings" was created throughout my last 8 years of practising as a homebirth midwife. It is a teaching module that is theoretical and practical and guides (student, to be) midwives, doula's and prenatal yoga teachers through wisdoms, insights and alternative approaches that I have gathered throughout the years.

This first module will be taught live online in the weekends of October 10-11 and 17-18 (5 hours a day, different timetables for different timezones).
You can read all the information and registration info on: https://www.midwivesofthelake.com/online-teaching-module

22/03/2020

Announcement: Due to the current circumstances of the outbreak of the Corona Virus, the Discovering Birth Retreat will be postponed until September 7-14, 2020, Bambu Eco Guest House, Tzununa.
Email midwivesofthelake@gmail.com for further inquiries or information.

Keep shining your light and love each other.
Hannah

07/03/2020

Womb healing.

❤