Well Maiden Birth and Healing Services

10/11/2023

Baby snuggles while mama rests in guided meditation with a castor pack for holistic belly care. Herbs are brewing for a whole body herbal bath to follow.

Warmth.
Mamas nourishing mamas.
Traditional postpartum care.

The right way.

08/07/2023

I’m busy.. tending to clients, being a mother, developing content.

This work is a gift.

Today’s little creation: a recipe list for my postpartum clients. Here is a sneak peak.

Let me know if you want me to come cook for you ;)

07/06/2023

POSTPARTUM PREPARATION CLASS

INNATE Postpartum Care and The 5 Essentials of Postpartum Healing starts next Thursday!

I’m starting to finalize curriculum for day one now and I’m pouring over with joy that our community is ready for this conversation.

There is still time to sign up. Link in comments. It is best suited for people who are in their late second or third trimester.

This is best to begin between 20-30 weeks gestation.
This is a five-week series that focuses on planning for the postpartum time. We’ll move through the five essentials to postpartum healing: extended rest, nourishing food, body work, warming therapies and community. We navigate through the different systems of the body including the pelvic floor, the uterus, the breast, the belly and the heart/mind connection. You’ll learn about body work and herbal techniques and recipes which support body healing and ultimately the harmonious connection between parent, child and village. You’ll leave with a framework that describes your needs and an understanding of how you can tend to common postpartum challenges. This curriculum is designed by Rachelle Garcia Seliga of Innate traditions.
*A sixth session reunion is scheduled after all group participants have given birth.

05/29/2023

The Nest: A Postpartum Support Circle is now complete. I have to close these doors.

It has been a lovely and sweet offering.

Big thanks to the mamas that came. YOU are the WHY.

Big thanks to Artistree and the Ottauquechee Health Foundation for making it possible. Big thanks to Francesca Gabourel for all of the graphics.

The work itself won’t stop. Just this little chapter. I’m still here in ESSENTIAL WAYS to serve the postpartum community of the Upper Valley.

05/25/2023

More of this power!

is a 💜! Baby Noah gets 🧸

05/18/2023

Here are the visible aspects that I carry with me when I enter into a clients home for a postpartum doula session.

🌀Wash cloths and towels for herbal water applications
🌀Home grown and blended herbal mixes for yoni steaming, sits bath, foot baths, nutritive teas.
🌀hot water bottle
🌀basin
🌀closing of the bones cloth
🌀moxibustion box
🌀fire
🌀castor oil and pack materials
🌀insight cards
🌀altar items
🌀essential oils and massage oils

The invisible items that I carry are harder to measure and capture. They are in my mind and heart and they reflect years of training as mother, nurse, doula, lactation counselor, kitchen witch and woman.

This is what home care can look like.

04/30/2023

That mama is grooming herself and her babe with so much patience. I was just so mesmerized by this video.

Pure nature.

04/27/2023

Have you heard about Closing of the Bones?
What kind of ritual did you give yourself after the birth of your baby?
Was something missing from your postpartum time?
What is your vision for healing after your baby soon arrives?

Closing of the bones was revealed to me at the beginning of my second full-term pregnancy. I was in Taos with Rachelle Garcia Seliga of Innate Traditions. She shared this medicine with me and other healers from around the country. She said I too could share this with the people that I tend to.

And so, I’ve been slowly integrating what she gave me and learning how to bring it through my own hands and practice.

I’ve selected cloths that feel good to my hands to perform the wrapping and closing and binding and re-knitting together of body. Commonly, the Rebozo is the material used for Closing of the Bones. I do have one which is crafted perfectly with wisdom but I’ve taken time to gather what feels healing to my hands. This word, Rebozo, belongs to the traditional peoples of Mexico. We are so lucky that they have preserved these practices and that they have made their way back to the people. The thing is, this practice belongs to the human body, no matter what ancestral lineage or where it dwells on the planet. I know this to be true, that this practice can be anywhere, because my hands and heart already know how to do the work. It is inside of me. Rachelle helped to wake it up and I am so grateful to her for that.

Here in Vermont, in New England, these ways of traditional postpartum body care are not so known and less understood. With Well Maiden Birth and Healing Services a Closing of the Bones ritual looks like coming together and creating a deep listening space. You find safe shelter for your children and your home and you allow yourself to go into sanctuary either alone or perhaps in circle with others. You remember your story. You tell your story and then you rest on blankets and allow the healer to lay hands. We wrap you from crown to root while singing and providing healing touch. It’s a resting place, a time of turning inward, of re-atuning to body, of remembering boundaries so as to begin to intentionalize finding yourself again. There are physical and emotional benefits to this experience.

In a 1:1 session I like to set aside at least 2 hours. In a group session, a whole day of delicious shared retreat space. You can be one week postpartum or one decade.

Sometimes I want to run from being self-employed because it requires so much tedious care. But, when I really get into the work, I remember my why. Working with clients in this way is such an honor, it is so sacred. Please reach out if you’d like to talk a little about your own journey and your own needs.

04/17/2023

Still love this one 💜

04/16/2023

Postpartum Doula Care looks like warm nourishing tea, home cooked foods, gentle body care, deep listening.

04/10/2023

A disempowered perspective: “Since I’ve become a mother, I haven’t had time to meditate and I’m jealous of my friends who can”

An empowered perspective: “Since becoming a mother I’ve had to put pieces of myself down. I am grateful for the people that can keep doing that work and I offer myself love and ask to be seen in the work I have done to bring this life forward”

04/08/2023

Other than your mother, who has mothered you?

04/03/2023

Village as Placenta. Keep reading.

It takes a village.

It takes a village to raise a child and to raise a parent.

Let’s normalize that. Say it again, it takes a village to raise a child and to raise a parent.

That is why I am running the Innate Traditions course starting May 25th. It helps us to understand the value of village (and other essential healing tools).

My teacher Rachelle Garcia Seliga talks about the layers of support that are needed. She calls on the beautiful symbol of the placenta and how it offers two layers to the growing fetus: the amnion and the chorion. These are inner and outer layers. They form the tree of life, they filter and bring nutrients and hold the veil.

Like the emerging human, the birthing parent and the partner need two layers as well. In my journey, my first layer was my partner. The village is sometimes the first but is always the second.

Lately, now that my kid is three (the older one is 11!), i’ve found my mind again. Breast feeding has stopped. I’m sleeping more. I have a little more solitude now. My capacity to reflect and see what has been true is starting to come back.

And, I can see now… I can see that my village held me. Even through Pandemic. They brought me food, they sent me text messages, they came over and held space, asked about my birth story.

What would i have done without Aunties that held down the fort so I could leave with my beloved and see his eyes without the cries of the children. Without grandparents who persevered to bond with this infant even though the world was telling us we should not be together. The cashiers at the store who held their composure while i figured out how to pay with one b**b hanging out and a snotty babe whimpering while still trying to don a mask.

How could I have done it without my colleagues who let me show up to virtual meetings with kids in tow, one homeschooling in the background, one in my carrier.

I remember that stranger who sat with me in town one day while I sipped coffee and told me it was okay to just be there and that seeing children play brought joy.

The librarian who let me crumble to the floor and read books to my infant, or, well, lets be honest, I was reading Goodnight Moon to myself.

And. My soul sisters. The ones who came over and reminded me I was still woman, sat with me under the trees and in the green house and in the gardens.

I remember all you have done for me. I’m slowly coming back. And, I will give back.

Thank you for being my life giving cloak.

04/02/2023

I was listening to a Mom-Support Podcast yesterday... from a mama of an older teenage child.

There was a lot of messaging that being MOTHER is enough. That, when you have young children, you have to let a lot go, especially in the paradigm we're living in. You have to sort of pause things. You have to pause travel, friendship, work, education. Not all of these things all at once of course, but... you find me one mama who didn't have to pause at least one of these things and did play a role in raising her children.

Maybe in a world with healed elders and circles of village this wouldn't be so.....

and maybe we can create that....

At Well Maiden I'm holding this vision, that we can create something new where mothers are supported to thrive so their communities can thrive....

but, that is going to take a while...

so.... for now....

I just wanted to say, I see you MAMA. You did enough today. Soon you'll be able to turn back to the parts of yourself that you had to pause and you'll see them in a new light.

The return is glorious but it does take time.

Let this moment be enough.

03/23/2023

Who are the lactation helpers in the UV community?

I’d like to develop a list of IBCLC’s and CLC and anybody else who he feels they have the wisdom and training to support people with questions around chestfeeding/breastfeeding/pumping/bottle feeding etc.

Thanks!

03/22/2023

Are you ready to go out into the world?

Do you have some questions about your postpartum experience?

Did you give birth recently?

Would you like to have a cup of tea with some folks and you need to trust you can show up with half a diaper bag and still leave feeling like your cup has been filled a bit?

Come. I PROMISE it will be worth your time. And, it's FREE.