Teta Wardeh

06/05/2026

🎞️ My Photo Gallery app pops a memory on my screen from a year ago.
We had just arrived in Lebanon a couple days earlier and my kids were making Zaatar mana’eesh with Téta (grandma) - see last slide.

When we got back to Aotearoa end of June, we brought with us about 5 kilos of homemade Zaatar mix that my mum had made us with the main ingredients sourced from our village in the Shouf, wild thyme زوبع and sumac. When we were there, we also got to mix it with olive oil from our own orchard - talk about being a Lebanese zaatar snob! 😌🌿

We ran out of Téta’s zaatar last week and things have not been the same.
Today, I mixed a small batch of the Common Thyme which is available here, with some sumac and roasted sesame seeds.

It won’t be as yummy as my mum’s, or any Lebanese wild thyme but it’s an act of resistance, and preservation of our cultural and culinary heritage in face of the literal physical destruction and annihilation of our Lebanese villages and heritage by people whose history doesn’t connect to the land - which is why they want to erase any trace of the indigenous.

We’ll be back 🎶 راجعة بإذن الله 🤲🏽
ان قلتوا ايه، ان قلتوا لا 🇱🇧

13/02/2026

One lap around the sun later 🌞 and my heart is grateful 🥹

Grateful for the people who made this past year what it was: those I worked with, reunited with, met along the way, laughed and/or cried with, planned alongside, collaborated with, sang and danced with. Maqām of Liberation ladies especially hold a big piece of this.

Grateful to have gone back home to Lebanon لبنان 🇱🇧 to old friendships that welcomed me back as if no time had passed, and the new ones that settled in gently.

Grateful too, for the technology that keeps us close across oceans and time zones, when distance could’ve made it harder.

Not everyone or everything is pictured here. Some moments live off-camera, or behind my children’s faces (which I keep private). They still count, deeply!

My year doesn’t start in January. This is the beginning 🌞🌿🌺

05/02/2026

My Autumn 2026 Birth & Postpartum Doula availability

This is an availability update for Birth and Postpartum doula support in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland for March-June 2026.

I work with a limited number of families each month in order to offer a steady support through pregnancy, birth, and the early weeks postpartum.

🎠 This carousel shows my current availability by month and is designed to be easy to save and screenshot if helpful (slide 2).

Alongside birth and postpartum doula support, families can also book:
🦋 Healing Birth support - Unravelling your Birth Trauma
☎️ Pick My Brain - 1:1 Mama Coaching calls

All information and bookings are available via my website:
itsevamaria.com/tetawardeh-doula-packages-list

Based in West Auckland, supporting families across Tāmaki Makaurau.

Arohanui 🌺
Eva

29/01/2026

🎶Maqām of Liberation is extending its summer pause, with intention 🙏🏽

💃🏽These women-led movements gatherings have been unfolding for a year now, shaped by breath, rhythm, Arabic music, and the simple act of moving together without the pressure to perform.
As summer is (finally) summering, and Ramadan is approaching, it feels right to extend our rest and return with more space.

🥁I’m looking forward to gathering again in April, reconnecting with familiar faces and welcoming new ones, so we can mark one year of Maqām of Liberation together in a generous and grounded way.

Thank you to everyone who has showed up, danced, witnessed, checked in, or held this work with care.
I see you and I’m grateful for you 🤗
More soon 🌿💃🏽

26/01/2026

Maqām of Liberation is back this Sunday, 1 February | Tāmaki Makaurau- Auckland

A women-only space to move with breath, rhythm, and Arabic music without a set choreography or performance pressure.

We begin with gentle guidance, then allow the dance to open and unfold freely.

This gathering quietly marks one year since Maqām of Liberation began, and comes just before a short pause in March for Ramadan.

🗓 Sunday 1 February 2026
⏰ 3.00–4.30pm
📍 Dominion Dance Space, Mt Roskill
💛 Koha welcomed
📝 Registration essential - check the stories or DM me

If your body is asking for movement, grounding, and shared presence, you’re warmly welcome.

26/01/2026

ALARMING
to say the least

Shortage raises rates of maternity intervention, while improving access to care could potentially save 4.3m lives a year, say experts

31/12/2025

🥳 On New Year’s Eve, we count down minutes, seconds till midnight.
🤰🏻Birth doesn’t work like that. Babies don’t read calendars. Babies are not late. The system is impatient.

🗓️ Remember that due dates are guesstimates, not deadlines. And while calendars, rosters, and schedules prefer certainty, physiological birth unfolds in its own time.

As we enter a new year, especially the mamas approaching their ‘due dates’, this is a reminder that waiting is not a failure, and timing is not something to ‘fix’ when mama and baby are well and healthy.
👶🏻 Baby-led birth asks for patience and trust, not urgency for convenience.

🥳 As we count down to midnight tonight, and a new year begins, remember that your body and your baby are not on the clock. Some beginnings cannot be rushed!

Happy New Year! 🥂🌺

23/12/2025

✨ It’s Christmas Eve, and this reminder matters more than ever🎄

If you’re due close to Christmas or New Year, I invite you to sit with this thought for a bit: “The Season is not a Reason for Induction”

🤶🏻 Choosing an induction can be the right decision when informed, medically indicated, and aligned with what You want.
This isn’t about telling women what to do. It’s about protecting Choice without Pressure.

🥳 Around holidays and long weekends, it’s not uncommon for inductions to be suggested earlier - sometimes from 37 weeks - simply because systems, staffing, and schedules prefer predictability. That doesn’t automatically mean it’s in your/your baby’s best interest.

If your pregnancy has been healthy, your baby is well, and there’s no medical indication to intervene, it’s okay to say:
✨ Why is this being suggested?
✨ What happens if we wait?
✨ What are the benefits, risks ans alternatives?

🤰🏻Being physically tired or eager to meet your baby is real, especially at the end of pregnancy. I felt it too, 4 years ago, with my almost-Christmas baby. Yet exhaustion and festive timelines are mot medical reasons on their own.

⏰ BIRTH IS NOT A SCHEDULING INCONVENIENCE, it’s a physiological process that unfolds in its own time!

💝 Informed consent, supportive partners and care team matter, and so does knowing that you are allowed to stand your ground.

This is the heart of the B (of my ABC) in my work:
BIRTH DESERVES RESPECT, CONTEXT, AND AUTONOMY; even and especially during the holidays!
🎁 Your body and your baby are not on a festive deadline.

19/12/2025

TRUE STORY 🥲 [reporting from the trenches]
If this made you smile (or sigh), you’re not alone. 🫂

🎄December has a way of filling our calendar at a time when many bodies are actually asking for less… less stimulation, fewer requests, more rest (even writing Rest now was autocorrected to Stress twice 😮‍💨)

🌺This is true for our female body too.
Learning about our menstrual cycle isn’t ultimately about optimising or fixing ourselves. It’s about noticing patterns, honouring our capacity, and making kinder choices; ❤️
especially around end-of-year gatherings and family commitments.

🩸The Luteal Phase often asks for clearer boundaries and simpler days, even when our follicular selves were feeling generous and unstoppable weeks earlier.

🎁Consider this a gentle permission slip to plan ‘with’ your body during the holidays.
🤔 What will you be doing differently this time around? 🍷🧀