24/06/2025
✨Grief after Birth – an Unseen Reality✨
Last week, I guided a mother–baby healing bath — a deeply restorative ritual where a mother, her baby, and her partner came together to begin healing after a traumatic birth experience.
During the birth in a Portuguese hospital, the mother was mistreated, both physically and emotionally - and was separated from her baby. The father, too, was left feeling powerless and unsafe, emotionally shut out from the process. The shock and sadness left deep marks - on both parents, and their baby.
In the bonding-bath ritual, we invited space.
Space to rewrite their story.
The baby was gently welcomed again - wet, warm, and skin-to-skin on her mother’s chest - in a safe, loving, unhurried environment. With soft words and present hands, that very first contact was re-felt, re-experienced.
No pressure.
No fixing.
Just being.
Not to change the past, but to meet what’s there.
To feel what was stuck, to feel witnessed in the emotion of the trauma, and slowly create space for integration. For each of them - mother, baby, and father. Through safety, presence, and love.
A week later, the mother wrote to me:
“It feels like my body is mine again. Not the doctor’s. She is not the main character in this birth story anymore. But we, my baby, me and my partner - We became the heart and amazing team of this birth story.”
“I feel how my baby finally feels truly safe. She’s found peace. Solid ground beneath her feet to grow from. It’s just beautiful”
These words move me deeply. Because grief can also live in birth - especially when birth is touched by fear, violence, or the loss of autonomy.
🌀 What if we gave space to that, too?
🌀 What if we acknowledged how birth trauma can impact a family’s daily life - bonding, trust, the body?
I’m grateful to do this work. And grateful to share it - so that more people know: healing is possible. Together. In love and presence.
Curious about the mother–baby healing bath or my work around grief after birth? Feel free to message me. ✨
