Joyful Birthing & Beyond

09/26/2025

!!

Parenthood is a series of fleeting seasons. The sleepless nights, the tantrums, the endless “whys” — they don’t last. And some days, that truth is the only thing that gets us through.

But neither do the little hands reaching for ours, the wide-eyed wonder, the sound of footsteps running down the hall. Those pass too — often faster than we’re ready for.

No stage of parenthood is forever. And that’s the paradox we live with daily: the relief of knowing hard moments will end, and the heartbreak of knowing the sweetest ones will too.

All we can do is hold both truths, let the hard ones deepen the sweetness, and quietly honour the gift of having lived it at all. ❤️

Quote Credit: Unknown❣️

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08/27/2025

Learn more & reserve your spot today: https://joyful-birthing.com/services/boston-hypnobirthing/

08/07/2025

Seriously…!!

Make it make sense 😵‍💫

07/25/2025

Our culture has a long history of dismissing and ignoring women’s pain. Did you know that at least 8% of women experience significant pain during a cesarean each year in the United States? I didn't... until I listened to this podcast. If you're pregnant, this is a must-listen. Get informed, talk to your provider, and consider your options should you experience significant pain during a cesarean.

The Retrievals Season 2 pulls back the curtain, exposing the ways women’s suffering during cesarean is so often overlooked, minimized, or outright ignored by the very systems meant to care for them.

07/23/2025

Do you want a calm, empowering birth experience?

HypnoBirthing provides an alternative to the cultural belief that birth is a horrible, painful ordeal that women must endure and suffer through. It rejects the notion that birth is something women need to fear and provides women and their partners with a clear path to better, easier birthing.

I used HypnoBirthing for my three, unmedicated births and cannot imagine birthing without its foundation (this photo is of my third birth with my sweet son by my side).

Learn more here: The HypnoBirthing Advantage: Easier Birthing Explained: https://joyful-birthing.com/the-hypnobirthing-advantage/

Sign up for the Fall HypnoBirthing series here: https://joyful-birthing.com/services/boston-hypnobirthing/

07/20/2025

❤️❤️

“Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.”
The extraordinary will take care of itself.

William Martin,The Parent's Tao Te Ching

Book:[ad] https://amzn.to/450Nk2p

05/29/2025

All so good! 💕

“Things I Wish I Knew at 30”
—By a grandparent who has learned

1. Time is your most valuable currency.
You’ll never get it back, and one day you’ll wish you hadn’t spent so much of it chasing things that didn’t matter. Invest it in people, in presence, and in peace.

2. Take more pictures—even of the ordinary.
One day, the background of that photo will mean more to you than the moment you were trying to capture.

3. Your kids don’t need perfection, they need connection.
Be there. Be silly. Be wrong sometimes and say sorry. They’ll remember the way you made them feel more than anything you ever bought them.

4. You can’t out-earn poor health.
The grind means nothing if your body can’t carry the fruits of your labor. Take care of it. Move more. Sleep more. Eat like you want to be around for your grandchildren.

5. Pride is expensive.
It’ll cost you relationships, apologies, and peace of mind. Learn to drop it before it drops you.

6. Most of what you’re worried about won’t matter in five years.
And the things that do matter—faith, family, friendship—deserve more of your focus today.

7. Say “I love you” more.
To your wife. To your kids. To your parents if they’re still around. Love unspoken can feel like love unfelt.

8. The moments you’ll miss the most are the quiet ones. Reading bedtime stories. Sunday mornings with coffee. Little hands in yours. Don’t rush through them. Let them linger.

9. You don’t need everyone to understand your journey. Just a few people to walk it with you. Keep them close.

10. One day, you’ll be someone’s memory.
Make it a good one. Not by being perfect—but by being present, honest, kind, and real.

05/08/2025

No digging big holes at the beach. Ever.

05/03/2025

I am sat in a heap of your old clothes, sorting them into charity bags. I've hung on and hung on, but the time is now.

It's silly really because it's just clothes. But it's not, you know. Because every other item I pick up is imbued with so much of YOU at certain stages.

Strangely, it's not the babygrows that I'm struggling to part with. For some reason, it's specifically the age 3-4 stuff. Those trendy little jeans. The Paw Patrol t-shirt. That Paddington dressing gown. All the comfy, softest joggers I could find. The first of your clothes to be labelled with your name, when you started nursery. The pants. Oh, the little pants you would refuse to wear.

Three. What is it about three? We went through a lot together at three. But goodness me, you were adorable at three. Did they design it to be that way? Make you at your cutest at the exact point I had the least capacity to appreciate it.

Three. You are double that age now. All the toddler chub gone. You've long moved on. Yet, here I am, still stuck back there, in all the previous chapters of you.

And so the clothes, they will go. But the memories I’ll keep, flat-packed in my mind, ready to make space for new ones.

Because no doubt, a few years from now, I'll be looking back and thinking: Six. He was never lovelier than when he was Six.

Art by Yarn Birdy

Words by Mother Truths

Taken from my new book...
'STRETCHED: All the feels from second-time motherhood'

Available to buy worldwide: https://linktr.ee/mother_truths

04/28/2025

I am so thrilled to announce that Bonnie Rovics has joined my team of amazing doulas at Joyful Birthing!

Bonnie brings a wealth of experience and expertise in the birthing industry as ProDoula Certified Birth Doula, Spinning Babies® Parent Educator, a woman’s empowerment coach, a Mongan Method HypnoBirthing® Educator, a Breech Release® practitioner, and a licensed massage and shiatsu therapist specializing in women’s health and prenatal massage. She loves working with clients to help them learn advocacy, feel fully informed about their labor and birth, alleviate suffering and trauma in birth practice, and learn from past experiences.

Welcome, Bonnie!

Learn more about Joyful Birthing's doula services here: https://joyful-birthing.com/services/boston-birth-doulas/