Natural Rhythms - Health, Wellness, and Birth Traditions

01/07/2025

10/27/2024

📣 Midwives save lives.

A new paper from World Health Organization (WHO) shows that investment in midwifery models of care is key to improving outcomes and experiences of care through pregnancy and childbirth. Despite being an evidence-based, cost-effective model to improve maternal health, midwives are significantly underutilized around the world.

🔗 Learn more about the case for implementing midwifery models of care: https://bit.ly/3A2b8aT

09/13/2024

🫶🏽💜

Tools don't make you a midwife.
Letters... licenses or certifications... don't make you a midwife.
Being called to share your wisdom, and support, of physiologic pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, and the skills to manage the common variations and most common complications of the childbearing years, makes you a midwife.
No matter how you obtain this wisdom and these skills, the rest is fluff. The rest is guided by the women and families and communities a midwife serves.
No two midwives are alike and no two communities... or families... being served are alike. What a midwife brings to you, is as unique as you and your childbearing experience.

05/30/2024

I remember the first time I saw a toddler breastfeeding.

I found it weird. Really weird.

It seemed unnatural to me that a child who could walk and talk should STILL need to nurse.

The second time I saw it, it seemed less weird.
And the third, fourth and fifth time I was fine with it.

“Each to their own, but it’s not for me”, I would say.

I swore that I would breastfeed my own child till six months. Maximum.

Anything after that and they should be using bottles. Of expressed milk or formula. Particularly out in public. After all, they get all they need from solid food from six months anyway.

Six months came. And went.

He refused bottles.
I could barely pump a drop.
Breastfeeding in public was not the discreet affair that I had envisaged.....
And he refused milk in any other form other than straight from the tap...
I was stressed and confused and I inadvertently found myself breastfeeding into toddlerhood.

Every assumption that I had ever made;
About him not needing it past six months, and about how he should be taking bottles...
he dispelled my ignorance at every corner.

And he showed me that he DID need it.
I just had to find that out for myself.

And breastfeeding a toddler suddenly didn’t feel weird. It made so much sense.
For us.

When he was unwell he would rely on it.
When he was upset he would rely on it.
And when he was hurting, happy, tired, angry, hungry, thirsty, sad; he would rely on it.

Until one day he was able to check in with his own emotions, and he no longer relied on it.
He developed his own coping mechanisms.

So why is it important to normalise natural term breastfeeding?
Because if this is the first time someone sees it, then the second or third time it will be slightly less weird. And by the fifth time, it would hardly be noticed or commented upon at all.

Because the only thing that is unnatural about natural term breastfeeding, is society’s ASSUMPTION that it is unnatural or weird.
It was my unrealistic expectations that made it unnatural. And it was my lack of understanding that made it weird.

It is one of motherhoods greatest contradictions;
to push the importance of breastfeeding without adequate support, and then push for her and her child to stop before either of them are ready.

And that needs to end.

04/03/2024

FREE Breastfeeding Class THIS SATURDAY for expecting mamas in the Omaha area! Class will be held April 6th from 10am to noon. Food and tea will be served and transportation is available for those who need it. Can’t wait to see you!

03/06/2024

“Did you know that Mayan families in Guatemala, consider bedsharing to be the only way to parent through the night?

Did you know that in Japan, breastfeeding and shared sleep (soine) is seen as a means to sustain connection through touch or ‘skinship’ between mother and child?

Did you know that In Bali, babies’ feet don’t touch the ground until 3 months of age?

Yet, we’re told in western culture that our babies need to sleep on their own, that we need to get our babies on a schedule and that we can ‘spoil’ them if we pick them up ‘too much’.

One of my favourite cross-cultural pieces of research to share to help us challenge the mainstream parenting narrative, comes from Dr. Charlotte Peterson. She spent forty years traveling the globe to live with local families and witness parenting practices in peaceful cultures. She observed that in Bali, babies are seen as a blessing.

At three months of age, there is a ceremony called Tiga Bulan or “three moons”. It is not until the celebration of this ceremony that a new baby’s feet touch the earth. Until that point, the baby is considered “of the heavens” and is constantly held in someone’s arms.

After the ceremony, the baby is considered “of the earth”. Although a baby can be put down and “out of arms” at this point, Charlotte has rarely seen a Balinese infant or toddler not being held or closely watched, by her parents or family members, within those first three months.

For me, it feels validating to gain a different perspective, reminding us that our instincts to hold our babies close are ancient, wise and innately human. I seek out research like this as it allows me to better understand the difference between social norms & what’s best for our babies.”

words: ❤️
📷: ❤️

03/06/2024

Join us March 7th from 6-9 PM for Wellness Wisdom Circle! ⭕️

This is a space for us to learn with and from one another. If you’re interested in incorporating more holistic modalities in your wellness routine… if you’re tired of relying on insurance coverage, copays, and doctors notes to manage your care…

This is the place to START 🤲🏾🌿🌀✨

Bring your knowledge, questions, and a mask as we are prioritizing accessibility for all of our community members for this offering! Air filters will be flowing and masks will be provided if you don’t have one available.

You don’t want to miss this opportunity as you will have a chance to:

🗣 Chat with experienced herbalists and community care workers!

📑 Receive educational resources and handouts

🍯 Take home some holistic goodies to start your wellness journey at home, crafted and sourced locally!

&

🤝🏾 GROW COMMUNITY

We can’t wait to see you there!!

02/02/2024

Another FREE Breastfeeding Class for expecting mamas in the Omaha area! Class will be held Saturday, Feb. 10th from 10am to noon. Food and tea will be served and transportation is also available for those who need it. Register at the 🔗!

11/26/2023

Super excited to teach a womb medicine workshop today at the Lincoln Indian Center. Come on out at 3:30pm!! This is a women’s teaching, but ALL are welcome to come and share in the knowledge of caring for ourselves and honoring our sacredness. Hope to see some of you there today!!

AND, join us next Sunday same time same place for another beautiful experience. My good sis will be offering a teaching in traditional winter medicines. It’s gonna be good ya’ll!

🥰💚🙏🏾🌺🌱✨🌕

11/24/2023

Beautiful. ❤️✨

10/06/2023

Las ancianas lo sabían y practicaban.

Cuando nacía un bebé, hace 20 0 30 años atrás, las mujeres recibian el apoyo de toda su comunidad. Su madre, su suegra, sus hermanas, cuidaban a la parturienta durante al menos 3 meses. No se le permitiá a la madre sobre esforzarse, del baño del recién nacido , el vestido del bebé y la alimentación de la madre, se encargaba su pequeña comunidad, 2 o 3 mujeres que eran su apoyo o su sostén.

Hoy se burla y ofende a la mamá que dice "no aguanto más".

Se le dice en el mejor de los casos "¿quisiste la bicicleta? ahora pedalea", mucho casos comienzan con "el que quiere celeste que le cueste" "es tan facil no tener hijos"

Hay bebés que no duermen en meses, pero mamá es mamá y TIENE QUE lograrlo.

Como si mamá fuera una entidad abstracta y mágica que se apodera de la mujer y todo y todo lo puede.

Vayan despacio con las mamás que no aguantan pero sobre todo antes de ir a ver al peque, vayan a verla a ella y en lugar de darle algo más de trabajo dile " ve a descansar un rato, yo te ayudo con el / ella un rato".

Preguntale si tiene lavadora o cena a ayudala con eso.

Las mamás no son superhéroes, a pesar de disfrutar de pensarlo y exigirlo.
La depresión post parto es real y puede estar en la vida de la parturienta durante mucho tiempo.

09/24/2023

🦋✨🦋✨🦋

the newborn exam can be such a special moment, especially when it gets to happen at home. the whole family crowded around to meet the new community member, eagerly awaiting to hear just how big they are. a midwife and their assistant work from the end of the bed, in arm’s reach of the new parents.

when i pictured my homebirth, THIS was the moment i dreamt about. the joy, the pride, the support- and i look forward to it with every birth i attend 🧡✨