The Birth Gem Doula

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

Contact

Phone

07545 061 535

Email

contact@thebirthgem.co.uk

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

It’s a hot one again and I’m sure all you preg

It’s a hot one again and I’m sure all you pregnant people are feeling it! I posted some tips last year tips and in honour of my heavily pregnant sister I’m posting some revised tips on how to stay cool if you’re pregnant during a heatwave, do comment with your own tips if you have any! 🌞 Stay hydrated! Keep a bottle of water with you at all time’s and drink regularly even at night. I know frequent loo trips aren’t fun but neither is dehydration!
🌞 wear loose, light coloured clothing in natural fabrics like linen and cotton, synthetics don’t help with heat. if you want to be covered then floaty beach dresses are great. If you’re not too bothered and at home then a bikini, pants or nothing will do! 🌞 Avoid being in the sun or standing for long periods, get shade often and invest in a mist spray bottle or a mist spray fan. Keep this bottle in the fridge overnight filled with with rose water, a relaxing and luxurious scent and great for the skin on top of being refreshing! If not available then chilled water will do just fine.
🌞Relaxing like a beautiful mermaid in a shaded paddling pool is also a fab way to keep cool if possible, cool showers are refreshing for when the heat gets too much too
🌞 pregnancy is tiring in normal weather, in a heatwave more so, take it easy and rest with your feet higher than your heart for at least an hour a day. If your ankles and feet are prone to swelling do gentle rotations of the joints and alternate with chill packs on the joints ( the gel kind) and the back of the neck, basically wherever feels good. If you have willing hands don’t be shy, ask for a massage!
🌞 A few tips for a more comfortable nights sleep. Freezer blocks on your sheets for a while before bed can be very refreshing. Putting your sheet folded in the freezer for an hour before bed. A hot water bottle filled with ice cold water on your feet in bed with you can be very soothing. A fan in front of a bowl of ice, its worth noting that thr breeze of the fan can be quite irritating on your skin while pregnant.
Take care of you and take it easy you beautiful ones!
#keepingcoolduringthisheatwave #heatwaveandpregnancy #pregnancytips #pregnantinaheatwave #doulatips

Bump beauty, isn’t she divine! It’s been such

Bump beauty, isn’t she divine!
It’s been such a long time since I’ve painted a bump, what a joy it was to touch and adorn this magic body, spending time during this sweet gentle place of in between. I was trusted to make this henna design up as I went along, all the while responding to babies movements so she was contributing to the design!
I’ve always felt that belly painting is such a beautiful way to celebrate and claim your remarkable body during pregnancy. An act of simple self love in what can sometimes feel like a very medically touched place, your bump measured, palpated and scanned, why not lovingly painted?
#bumppainting #bodypainting #honouryourbody #bumpbeautiful #pregnancyismagic #birthdoula #yourbodyismagic #placeofinbetween #sacredpregnancy

All of my postnatal doula offerings are flexible,

All of my postnatal doula offerings are flexible, they have to be as it’s the nature of motherhood to throw us curve balls! If you book me to support you I will be there to support you however I can. Today I think of a card often pulled from my mother wisdom deck. River - surrender. All mothers are well versed in going with the flow, the motherhood law of surrender often begins in pregnancy doesn’t it and it’s not always easy an easy lesson this one of flexibility and surrender. To me motherhood embodies the soft and strong, a slow miraculous unfolding but the river of motherhood life can certainly be exhausting. I’m here for you when you need, you do not have to journey alone and you where not supposed to.
‘Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it. The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid. Everyone knows this is true, but few can put it into practice.’
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
💖On curve ball days I’m still here for you however I can be and today that’s by sending food! So Im sending lemon cake love to @mumazed and her poorly darling along with a big meal and ginger chicken broth❤️
This would have been a cake to mark our last postnatal pampering session today but for now it’s a get well cake sent with lots of love. See you soon!
#surrender #motherhood #cakeday #doulalove #foodoflove #motherwisdom #postnataldoula #motherlove #motherlovers

I’ve been thinking a lot about food recently(no

I’ve been thinking a lot about food recently(no surprise there) and how it connects us. Ive said this before and will likely say it many times more but true nourishment is so much more than filling a hungry belly.
There are a lot of things I love in my nourishment work, one being discovering peoples comfort foods and the memories they evoke. I love the stories that go with these favourite dishes, the Stories and memories of how they felt and who fed them. For me it’s always ginger chicken broth with noodles, ramen will always be my favourite meal to prepare and enjoy, a huggable bowl of cleansing goodness that started with me eating endless super noodles as a teen!
For one mother Kitchari and Bombay style potatoes I prepared prompted a fond memory of a retreat she had attended. This became her favourite dish during our time together.
For one family their fondest memory from my deliveries became a flower bath soak enjoyed by the whole family, now often enjoyed together on a Friday!
My Chicken, squash and wild mushroom pie has become a favourite comfort food for one family.
So many stories and so many connections wrapped up in food deliveries, Mississippi mud pie missions, nutty apple cake and even a wedding spread.
Food has such a powerful ability to connect us, it’s so woven into every part of our lives and it’s such a joy to prepare and deliver ❤️
#nourishbowl #nourish #postnatalrecovery #postnataldoula #foodoflove

I’m forever fascinated and excited by birth and

I’m forever fascinated and excited by birth and can never get enough of sharing with you! This picture of a beautiful VBAC supported by the amazing midwife @barefootmidwife just blew me away as her pictures and videos often do! ❤️Heres just one way a gentle birthing is beneficial. It’s worth mentioning that a Caesarean birth can also be gentle to allow for some of this clearing and that baby will also start to clear their lungs towards the due time. anything left after birth they will likely clear with their first big breaths earth-side.
Posted @withregram •
❤️Did you know that your baby has a special fluid in the alveolar sac in their lungs while in the womb. This fluid will get mostly cleared out by the squeezing of the Yoni, as you can see here. The rest of the fluid that is not cleared from the squeezing will get absorbed into the capillaries that get expanded from the placenta blood that flows back to the baby after they are born. These capillaries expand and absorb the rest. This is why it’s exceedingly helpful to not push hard once the head is born, as this is when the chest wall is low enough for the compression. We want this time there, as it helps with breathing. As you can see with this baby, his chin was still in there and it was pretty snug, so once I helped release the chin he was born without incident. I am glad we didn’t release it until the next wave was arriving, as this provided the necessary time for clearing. This birther had no tears and it was her first Yoni birth. #VBAC #waterbirth #birthgeek #birthundisturbed #birthismagic #empoweredbirth

Yesterday I prepared one of my favourite essences.

Yesterday I prepared one of my favourite essences. I look forward to this every year maybe even more than the fruit!
🍐Pear blossom mother essence
Peacefulness & support. The spirit of the pear blossom brings balance. The words associated with this flowers energy are peace, balance, harmony, loving and centred.
💖Pear blossom essence is an ‘Vibrational midwife’ and can benefit the mother and all who assist her to experience the wondrous, transcendent nature of birth ~ Spirit in nature essences
💖 In Greek mythology the pear is sacred to Hera, mother of gods, marriage and birth. Idols of Hera where carved from pear wood and she was known as Hera ‘Apios’ Greek for Pear. Have you noticed how the fruit resembles the shape of the uterus?
💖The pear tree invites us to notice that true unity and balance is a continuous rhythm of joining and letting go. A harmony of balance.
Pear blossom essence always feels right for me, besides rose essence it’s truly my favourite!
#flowerwisdom #giftsfrommotherearth #floweressences #flowerpower #pearblossom #motheressence #hera #goddess #treewisdom

I love facilitating birth mandala sessions, a sacr

I love facilitating birth mandala sessions, a sacred pause for reflection 💖
today none of the materials from my basket where actually used! This beautiful peaceful, green mandala unfolded in its own perfect way using printed leaves and a special found stone for its centre. What a joy it was to share our love of all things craft afterwards and talking of how deep the importance of craft truly is. Taking time to birth something beautiful into the world that didn’t exist before. The second pictured was created by another mother sinking into her time of in between a couple of weeks ago and has since had precious white blossom pressed and added. A soft calm moon gazes down and playful little bugs flutter in its light. The symbolism layered in this like all birth art is so special. These mandalas can be birthed slowly and added to whenever beauty and inspiration strikes over the weeks or months.
Mandala
Manda- essence
La - container
Each unique piece of art birthed lovingly from the centre reminds me of how each birth is as unique as each woman. The only right way to birth is the way that feels right to the birthing person. Birth has the ability to connect us to the unknown and invites us to truly let go, it can also bring us right to the edge of our limits! Creating a mandala is a beautiful gift to yourself and a great tool for your birth room layered with personal significance, to remind you of your true intentions for birth. A symbolic womb gestating your vision. #birthmandala #birthart #sacredpause #birth #sacredpregnancy #doula #natureart #slowbirth #craft #creatingbeauty #doulalife

The birth of a bloom. Softly, softly, gradually u

The birth of a bloom.
Softly, softly, gradually unfolding. What a joy to find and arrange, a gentle reminder from Mother Nature on Earth day that it is our privilege to birth ourselves slowly and to bloom in our own perfect time 💖
I’m treasuring this slow time, it almost feels like I’m in a time of in between before birthing myself back into society. I’m in no rush at all and I wonder if this reflects my own birth?!
What does this mean for you right now? What slowness are you treasuring/ struggling with? What lessons can you take from Mother Earth?
#giftsfrommotherearth #bloom #bloominyourowntime #sacredfeminine #slowliving #sacredpregnancy #doula #aftercovid #treasuretheslow #earthday2021

Contact Details

The Birth Gem - Doula, Massage and Reiki
Boxers,
Royal Oak Lane,
High Hurstwood TN22 4AL
07545061535

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