• Facebook
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

The Birth Gem Doula

  • About
  • Doula Services
  • Massage and Reiki
  • The postnatal pantry
  • Blog
  • Birth Art Mandala and Belly Painting
  • Placenta Remedies
  • Contact

Birth Art Mandala and Belly Painting

Birth Art and Birth Mandala Sessions £50

Update to this service during COVID - 19 

Remote birth vision sessions

In person sessions are now available but I have tailored this service so that I can still offer it remotely for those that prefer this option. Everything you need to create your birth vision board/mandala can be posted or hand delivered to you in preparation for our session together. Once you receive your pack we will arrange a time for us to prepare a sacred space and I will guide you through your session remotely via video call.

"I received my birth vision package last week and was so exited! It has been wonderful to have this to look forward to, even just looking through the images and having the blank board up was positive. We had our session yesterday and it was such a relaxing and enjoyable experience, I didn't know what to expect as I see myself in no way artistic but Gemma reassured me that we all deserve time to discover and enjoy creativity. This has been the birth preparation I have most valued. My birth art has come with me all over the house since I created it and it makes me smile every time I look at it and I can't wait to use it in my birth space. I have even face timed friends to show them!" 

 A birth art session is a great way of pampering yourself during pregnancy, creating and keeping a reminder of your feelings during this amazing time is such a wonderful gift to give yourself.

Artistic expression can make your pregnancy feel more sacred, a true expression of your feelings with your pregnancy and can be a great way to access the subconscious mind. This is not a test of your artistic abilities, this is free expression!

What is a mandala?

The word mandala comes from Sanskrit circle. Mandalas are used in many spiritual traditions to focus attention, as a spiritual guidance tool and as an aid to meditation.

In Buddhism, the mandala is a symbolic picture of the universe. It can be a painting on a wall or scroll, created in coloured sands on a table, or a visualisation in the mind of a very skilled adept. The mandala represents an imaginary palace that is contemplated during meditation. Each object in the palace has significance, representing an aspect of wisdom or reminding the mediator of a guiding principle.

The mandala's purpose is to help transform minds and to assist with healing. With this in mind, I am sure you can see how creating a mandala translates well into a pregnancy and birth practice.

what is a birth mandala

This mandala is your sacred birth art, the intention is for this to be your visual tool to prepare for and to use in labour and birth. The 10cm circle supports visualisation as you unlock your subconscious through a meditative and creative state. As you tap into your inner wisdom images, colours, feelings and messages may reveal to you personal meaning in the powerful and beautiful images that grow from this 10cm circle out into your mandala or vision board. Your mandala is a visual affirmation of your what you aspire to embrace for your birth, your container that may offer inspiration and beauty, reminds you to focus and breath into  empowerment.

What can you expect?

You can expect deep relaxation and a deep connection as you create a beautiful gift for yourself and your birth experience. Expect a gentle time as you soften and open into this is a very gentle and sacred activity. The art you create will be a wonderful focus for your birth alter and when the time comes your birth room.

The mandala or birth art you create during a session will be whatever you put into it; the aim is simply to show up and to be present and open, the rest will flow. Each session including vision board sessions starts with a short guided meditation accompanied by a sacred feminine incense that you will be gifted to keep. In addition to having your beautiful mandala I will also make a flower crown for you to keep.

Vision Board Sessions

Vision boards have proven to be a very useful and practical tool in my life. Vision is simply seeing what does not yet exist, so creating a board of your desires can be a positive and uplifting exercise not to mention a great way to access the subconscious mind which research has shown controls 95% of our decision making!

The birth and pregnancy vision board has helped with creating a 'birth plan' as it can help to unlock your true wishes for birth just like the mandala session or any birth art session.

No artistic ability is needed to create a vision board, this is again free expression! Just show up and be present the rest will flow.

I offer group and individual vision board sessions, these can be in the comfort of your own home or at my home studio. I provide all materials though it's always nice to collect things that inspire you or catch your eye.

Each session including vision board sessions starts with a short guided meditation accompanied by sacred feminine incense or relaxing scented oils.

 

Belly Painting £60

Have fun with your pregnancy, get empowered and claim your pregnant body by turning your beautiful belly into a work of art.

Belly painting is a unique opportunity for you to be pampered and treasured, this service is perfect for blessing ways, showers, pregnancy photography session and is a wonderful way to honour your final months or weeks with you and your baby as one.

This work of art makes a great keepsake photo which I can provide included in the cost. I will discuss with you your design and email an example for approval before our time together.

Price can vary depending on design but starts at £60

The start of a design from a mothers blessing. Sometimes each guest will assist in drawing one petal making each one symbolic.

Birth art

Having a personal piece of art created for you is a wonderful, deep and loving way to honour your birth journey.

Share your birth story/ stories and or motherhood journey with me in a supportive and gentle session, either face to face or over video call.  From our time together I will create something beautiful for you that represents and honours your experience. No matter if your birth was yesterday or 15 years ago, baby number 1 or baby number 5, it's always the perfect time to to honour your amazing experience through something as special as your own personal goddess on canvas!

Pricing varies depending on canvas size. Contact me for more information on offerings and for prices.

Storm Ophelia, acrylic on 25in square canvas.

Storm Ophelia was inspired by an empowered water free birth during storm Ophelia in October 2017. The sky was calm and the sun a deep orange ball. The goddess stands calm and steady as the waves circle around her, she embraces the light and allows the wisdom to flow through her. The goddess wears the flower crown that was made for the mother during her mothers blessing. It represents the circle of support that meant so much to her during this time, it is a symbol of sisterhood. This birth was truly inspiring and as always a truly wonderful experience to paint.

 

Share
Tweet
Pin
  • About
  • Doula Services
  • Massage and Reiki
  • The postnatal pantry
  • Blog
  • Birth Art Mandala and Belly Painting
  • Placenta Remedies
  • Contact
❤️ Thaw ❤️ Over the land freckled with sno ❤️ Thaw ❤️
Over the land freckled with snow half - thawed 
The speculating rooks at their nests cawed 
And saw from the elm-tops, delicate as flower of grass, What we below could not see, Winter pass. 
🌱I’m not sure about you but I’ve never looked forward more than I have done this winter! The approach of Spring always brings with it optimism but this year it has a whole different energy to it. As I walked today I noticed the signs of new growth, so much beauty to be appreciated. The colours, subtle, vibrant and just so much potential. I thought about the energy and life stored in the seed, so quiet yet powerful and full of potential. A fertile void creating it’s magic just below the soil in the dark, much like in our inner own winters. Of course I couldn’t help but think of birth! How lucky I am to witness and be a part of one of nature’s most miraculous cycles, a most sacred reminder that we do not just live among nature. We are nature. 
Our true nature is ever changing, what is blossoming for you right now? What are you looking forward to? #sacredbirth #innerseasons #spring #wearenature #birthdoula #doulauk #motherhood #blossom #sacredfeminine #nurturenature #whispersfrommotherearth #walksinnature
Pie is one of the most perfect postnatal meals to Pie is one of the most perfect postnatal meals to gift. So much goodness can be encased in a buttery pastry crust! 
One of today’s pies is 
💖Scandi inspired salmon pie 
Ingredients:
400g - 500 salmon fillet cubed 
1tsp, pepper, salt, fennel seed, caster sugar
3rsp fresh chopped dill
120 Pearl barley cooked 
1 small diced red onion
Juice of lemon 
150g wilted spinach leaves 
100g chopped sundried tomatoes 
140g creme fraiche 
2tsp whole grain mustard 
1 pack puffed pastry or homemade 
💖 Method 
Put diced salmon in bowl with pepper, salt, fennel, sugar, half the dill. 
Cook and strain the Pearl barely and wilt the spinach, set aside. Put the onion in a bowl with the lemon juice. 
Mix the creme fraiche with the mustard and rest of the dill. 
Combine the diced tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients with the creme fraiche mix and transfer to a pie tin. Roll out the puff pastry and brush with egg white. Lay out Over the tin and roll and press the sides with a fork trimming the excess. With the excess I cut a heart shape and brush on with more egg white. 
💖 Bake for approximately 30/40 mins at 180 or freeze until needed. 
This is good warm from the oven and just as good cooled with a salad. 
The other pie pictured is chicken, squash and wild mushroom pie. It’s a little more faffy but just as nourishing! 
#fooddoula #postnatalnourishment #thefourthtrimester #thefirst40days #whofeedsyou #postnataldoula #doulasupport #motherhood #ahealthybabyisnotallthatmatters
💖Creativity is tool for connection⁠ As I sat 💖Creativity is tool for connection⁠
As I sat and planned some gentle Mothercraft ideas for a new client today I was struck by how much more I have come to value and cherish craft during lockdown life. ⁠
Making things with our hands awakens and deepens our awareness of the beauty and value of them. The slowness, the rhythmic and patient nature of creating something has always been so comforting in what is often a fast paced and loud existence, the comfort and value has grown so much more  during the past 11 months or so. I feel that no matter how simple the craft, how 'non artistic' a person deems themselves, creating and gifting yourself something beautiful always has value and we are ALL born creative, all born an artistic with the ability to create beautiful things with our amazing hands and souls, it's just the value in craft is often lost as we age. For me it's all in the intention, the rhythm of devotion, it's about how it makes you feel. Ultimately in your craft you have birthed something beautiful into the world that didn't exist until you created it and that's just gorgeous isn't it! Consider the preciousness of heirlooms, in the very word itself you feel the sense of a precious thing, though it's value will often be of the heart rather than coin! This embroidery for instance, who poured her love and time into this sweet scene? How much we value a hand made card, a hand written letter. Our precious strings of wooden beads, pressed leaves, pom pom garlands, painted scraps of wood and scruffy hand stitched blankets and rag dolls. Our own Works of art and works of heart matter the, process as much as the result.⁠
#workofheart #mindfullness #creativityforconnection #handcraft #slowliving #mothercraft
Love is all, love is all, love is all. A mantra t Love is all, love is all, love is all. 
A mantra that has served me very well over the past 11 months! 
If serving at the altar of birth and motherhood has taught me anything it’s that the most natural things can be the hardest. Keeping a soft yet strong and open heart is one of those things for me these days. A heart can hold so much and mine feels full to bursting often. It’s sometimes been hard to find love and compassion for myself, accept it from others, find love for others especially those that are hard to love! 
It’s been a struggle to to stay soft and strong on the corona coaster but I continue to remind myself to work and live from the heart.
I believe with all of me that Love is our original state of being, a baby is born to love, born from love, into love and this reminds me all the time that love is all, love is all, love is all 💖
#loveisall #loveisallornotatall #wearelove #doulalove #loveisourtruth #youarelove #softandstrong #motherlove #howmuchaheartcanhold
❤️leading from the feminine 🎶~ liquid bloo ❤️leading from the feminine 
🎶~ liquid bloom, sacred blessing ~
I don’t know about you but during this lockdown finding time alone has been most rare and in those rare moments my time of stillness has often been punctuated by requests for food, answers to questions and you tube videos and memes thrust in to my eye-line! 
❤️Yesterday I was gifted just a couple of hours of breathing space, an empty home, silence and sweet stillness, just a little sacred blessing. As is often our way I quickly slipped into that familiar patriarchal habit of feeling that we must keep active and appear to be ‘productive’ at all times, doing, doing, doing and guilt for not doing enough. I caught myself rushing about cleaning and tidying then felt a little nudge, a call from my heart space to be still and to be led by the feminine. I gave myself a little shake, shook off the doing and became still. I took my Rebecca Campbell oracle cards, sacred feminine incense and connected with my feminine wisdom and surrendered to this sweet time of stillness and those gentle reminders from the cards. How will you gently love yourself today even for just a minute? 
#workyourlightoracle #sacredfeminine #soulenquiry #theeverunfoldingrose #risesisterrise #nourish #motherhoodunplugged #motherhoodrising #leadfromthefeminine
🌕Life is all about enjoying the small pleasures 🌕Life is all about enjoying the small pleasures these days. Sitting down after a morning workout for a pot of herbal tea with a book is one of my favourite little rituals. Today is EXTRA special though because the book I am about to open is one I have had the rare honour to follow the progress of over the years and written by my beloved doula sister @eva_shamanic_doula! 
I’m not ashamed to say a few proud tears came when this book arrived. What an inspiration she is and how happy I am that these beautiful thoughts and teachings are out in the world in book form, I know without a doubt that the contents of this book are part of who she is and come from her heart and soul. I’m looking forward to loaning this to my clients who feel drawn to working with the moon in a deeper way during their pregnancy. In anticipation of this book I prepared and saved a special tea for this very occasion! I picked the herbs for drying on the Harvest moon too which feels so special and appropriate. 
As I start to read I can hear her voice and am sending right back to her the brightest of moon beam blessings! ( yes Eva I flipped right to the last pages to read acknowledgements etc first!) 
So today’s simple pleasure has really been a massive one! 
#pregnancybythemoon #moonbeamblessings #sacredpregnancy #doula #doulauk #pregnancybook #doulasisters
❤️ Nourishment ❤️ I love nurturing and nou ❤️ Nourishment ❤️
I love nurturing and nourishing new born mothers. For 10 moons or so she has nourished her baby & will continue to give so much of herself body and soul, it always feels so right to truly nourish her in return. 
True nourishment is about so much more than just filling an empty belly, it’s more than a delicious cookie but can definitely start with one! It’s really about meeting her most basic needs with love, feeding, truly caring for and seeing her. Food made with love and intention nurtures and nourishes in such a special way and on a deep level. You don’t have to have the skills of a trained chef in my opinion, just loving intention. Something simple, intuitive, warming and comforting. A jar of soup, container of cookies or herbal tea left on a doorstep or handed to a partner carries with it so much more than its nutrients, this action is one of the most ancient and heartfelt ways we have of sharing love and appreciation without words during a most tender and open time. 
In a time like this one where physical connection is quite limited sharing the gift of simple nourishment is the perfect way to send deep sister love to a newborn mother. 
#postnatalnourishment #thefourthtrimester #postnatalfood #madewithlove #nursingcookies #foodheals #feedingthemother #motherhood #doula
A moment of deep love ⁠ What an honour it was t A  moment of deep love ⁠
What an honour it was to witness this sweet moment. I had arrived in time to be with the birthing mother while her husband got some much needed rest after a night of supporting her through early labour. Resting safe in the knowledge that his love was receiving the gentle support she needed. He returned and they connected in such a beautiful moment of sweet surrender that only your love can offer. ⁠
A concern that comes up often when considering hiring a doula is that the doula might replace the role of the birth partner. ⁠
Unless this is the plan then absolutely not.  If I’m asked this by a potential client my answer is always similar. If you intend on being an involved birth partner then it’s my job and my pleasure to support you in being that. I may be experienced in birth but you are experienced in the birthing mother, no one in the birth space shares the deep connection you have and this connection is invaluable. A good doula takes nothing away from your connection or role in birth, she prepares you to birth together if this is your wish and actually frees up space so that you can be what you need to be during this most precious journey. ⁠
The role of the birth partner begins in pregnancy,  you may feel that 10 moons is a long time especially if you have busy lives but take time to think about what kind of birth partner you really wish to be for her so that you can meet your baby together in the most loving way possible. What can your doula do to prepare you to birth together and  help make space for this experience? Help you build a birth plan, hold space, be on food and water duty, teach you massage and comfort techniques, even fill and empty the pool and tidy afterwards so that you can enjoy your time together after birth? There is so much a doula can do for you to take the pressure off of what it can be to be the sole birth partner. This support and preparation is more vital now than ever when we know that you will likely be sole birth partner in a hospital or birth center setting. ⁠
#birthpartner #birthwithlove #birthdoula #sacredbirth #birthingtogether #birthpartnertips #birthpreperation #antenatalsupport ⁠

Contact Details

The Birth Gem - Doula, Massage and Reiki
Boxers,
Royal Oak Lane,
High Hurstwood TN22 4AL
07545061535
Copyright © 2021 The Birth Gem. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy