The Birth Gem Doula

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

Two Asian comfort basics for a convalescence packa

Two Asian comfort basics for a convalescence package
❤️Congee - A nurturing bowl of congee is incredibly reassuring. In China and in other Asian countries it’s typically given when you’re unwell, it’s easy to digest, gentle, clean warm and fun to improvise with. It’s also a great porridge alternative for those avoiding wheat. I have prepared a quinoa, chia and rice congee spiced & flavoured with fennel and chamomile. I topped my bowl with coconut, goji and rose petals and stirred in some dark muscovado sugar.
❤️ Kitchari - Again kitchari is a very reassuring and balancing dish, perfect for when you need warmth and comfort. A friend of mine found its growing popularity funny and was amazed to see it served up on yoga retreats because she remembers her grandmother serving it to her in bed when she was unwell as a child. This simple nutritious comfort food ‘the chicken soup of Ayurveda’ is easy to digest, contains comforting and anti inflammatory spices and like the congee very versatile. I top mine with sliced egg, coriander, chilli and toasted almond.
I hope that these dishes bring comfort and that the love they where made with can be felt in every spoonful 💖
#foodismedicine #congee #kitchari #foodsthatheal #nourishandnurture #nourish #fooddoula #convalescence #letfoodbethymedicine #fourthtrimester

⁠ @mother.ly shares the first and last time she

⁠
@mother.ly shares the first and last time she nursed her precious baby, so much is stirred when I see this image. I imagine the pride, the tenderness, the strength, the relief, the guilt and the mourning. I imagine the epic journey they must have shared from that first feed to the last because though breastfeeding is described as one of the most natural things we experience in motherhood it is often one of the hardest. A feeding journey can often feel like roller coaster of highs and lows, rarely is it a simple and smooth path. ⁠
This national breastfeeding week I have often thought about this image. Rarely do we consider those lasts and this last is a big one, it could be your conscious decision or it may not be, you may have known it was your last feed or not. ⁠
🌸The anxiety and pride of that first feed is often mirrored to some degree in the last, how many of us knew the last feed was going to be the last feed? How did you mark this moment, this transition for both mother and babe, or indeed did you? Our last nursing day/ week or the day we pack away those many teats and bottles can feel so emotional, surprisingly so. I know I cried big time knowing that this was my last baby and truly the last ever nursing time for me. I treasured every tender moment of that day, lying on the sofa, gazing into each other eyes, stroking his little face as he smiled up at me before patting my breast like a soft little drum! I had regrets, doubts, relief that gave way to guilt oh the guilt! I mourned and even felt rejected at the lack of fucks he gave! What a roller coaster! I soon celebrated my new found space and the wonderful new gifts that this ending gave way to. My heart soared as we experienced a whole new world of firsts including one epic moment of pride, the time he slept without the soothing comfort of my body! 'Nobody has measured, not even poets, how much a heart can hold. - Zelda Fitzgerald and how true is this of motherhood.⁠
Motherhood really is a journey filled with so many conflicting emotions, a never ending heart expanding spiral 💖⁠
#breastfeedingjourney #beautifulbreastfeeding #nationalbreastfeedingweek #motherhoodrising #amothersheart

Tomorrow will be bitter sweet as it’s the last p

Tomorrow will be bitter sweet as it’s the last postnatal visit to a mother who birthed her 2nd child just as we entered Covid times. Our visits together where long awaited and though we started after her babies 100th day have been no less special. Navigating an almost two year old and a baby with her husband working from home we have still managed to create time for connection and nurturing, delving into her gifted box of traditional postpartum products whenever the chance arose.Through some chaotic moments and very interesting and stealthy massage sessions, naps and even a bath something this mother has always been able to count on has been a steady delivery of nourishment! This week she will enjoy
❤️ Toffee brownie
❤️ Peanut butter granola bars
❤️ hearty herby vegetable stew (with all local organic veg and herbs)
❤️Prawn cakes with satay dipping sauce
The postnatal period is about so much more than simply recovering from birth and I’m so honoured to be there to support mothers in the way I do, this work and this journey is so important, now more than ever we need to value ‘women’s work’ motherhood is sacred, women’s work is sacred 💖
#sacredpostpartum #postnataldoula #motherhoodjourney #postnatalrecovery #fooddoula #foodismedicine #nourishment #womenswork

Slow easy stillness (for me anyway) at Barcombe. T

Slow easy stillness (for me anyway) at Barcombe. The smell of Himalayan balm and the warm sun on our faces ❤️
Home now writing the updated menu for this weeks postnatal nourishment package and a special convalescence delivery among many other sacred postnatal offerings! An abundance of rose for your teas and pampering products and a bounty of greens just begging to be transformed into something delicious! You would think after all the food from yesterday’s birthday celebration I wouldn’t have the brain space for more food thoughts but I always do! #wildswimming #slowdays #douladays #greenwitch #nourishment #sacredpostnataldoula #sacredmotherhood #slowisgood #slowandgentle #convalescence #foodismedicine #foodheals

Yesterday was another busy one but after deliverin

Yesterday was another busy one but after delivering the last of this weeks postnatal nourishment by way of @birth_and_beyond I snuck in almost an hour of sweet ritual and connection after dropping in on the gorgeous mothers of @thevillage_naturalmothering, It felt very naughty sneaking this unscheduled non work time in before my next appointment but I also felt very welcomed after years of being away. Even just this small time of meaningful and held connection felt like a sweet oasis in what has been quite a chaotic few weeks! The reminder of the gratitude I feel for this work, for the company of other women and just the simple joy seeing the smiling faces of just a few of the mothers and babies I have supported in some way over the years was the icing on the cake!
I arrived home refreshed and centred, more than ready for my next postnatal visit 🥰
Connection matters, ritual matters, mothers need other mothers 💖
#motherhood #motherhoodrising #motherscircle #mothersneedeachother #sisterhood #ritualinmotherhood #wheeloftheyear #gratitude #doulalife #thevillage #naturalmotherhood

This is a rare one for me, posting a picture of my

This is a rare one for me, posting a picture of myself but this week I have been reflecting a lot on the realness of the mother bodies we see on social media and our often complicated relationships with our own, after all the birth of a mother is an epic transformation for the body mind and soul, amazing yes but intense and often messy and complicated as most major transitions are.
After talking with a client during a postnatal visit and a much needed massage of her beautiful body I was confronted with my own journey into love for my body, it’s been a long one and continues. I see our bodies as fantastic works of art. Complete miracles and how could I not given the nature of my work, yet I have no pregnancy pictures and barely any of me in my early motherhood almost 16 years ago which is so sad and wow 16 years! 😳. So this is my body, my soft imperfect and very loved body, not always by me though. A body that has birthed two babies, these stretch marks I own lovingly and also not so much. This soft loose stomach that has stretched beyond belief to house two people, it’s been used as a pillow for tiny heads, a road for toy cars and a trampoline for small feet! I know I’m just one of many mothers who falls in and out of love with her soft miracle of a mother body, and that it’s normal. In just one day I can look at my body with affection, respect and pride then for one of many reasons this can be turned on it’s head and I can look at my body with frustration. I will grab and wobble my loose belly, run a judgmental finger down the stretch marks and compare this body to its younger version. What I forget in these moments is that she too was unhappy in her body, possibly more so. I’m not going to go into the reasons we judge our womanly bodies so harshly, we know why, for now I will simply lay my hands gratefully on my womb space and give my soft belly some loving massage, I will send the gratitude and love my body deserves through all of me. Mothers, your bodies are absolute works of art and I love them all even when you might not be 💖
#motherhoodrising #motherhood #4thtrimesterbodiesproject #motherhoodbody #sacredmotherhood #postnatalrecovery #yourbodyismagic

Thank you notes and meaningful gifts make our doul

Thank you notes and meaningful gifts make our doula hearts swell don’t they! The journey of doulaing and being in service to families is gift enough, so any card, note or gift is just magic 💖
🌈The rainbow painting is from the big sister of a doula baby birthed almost a year ago! With this painting and kind words is a box of fresh produce that went on to be included in a postnatal nourishment box, this family have offered to provide me with vegetables and soon even eggs for my nourishment boxes, what a dream 😍 looking around her vast vegetable garden that has been in progress since we met, all of us together again talking, sharing and planning felt so wonderful especially after this extended period of isolation, one that I feel has for sure hit mothers in a big way. I look forward to this continued partnership and regular vegetable garden visits. Oh my heart, so full of gratitude! 💖
🌿 The card and kind words that of course caught a couple of tears came with a baby sage plant, very appropriate as that week the baby was officially registered with his beautiful name, Sage 💚 and sage he certainly is! The little plant immediately joined his big siblings in my herb garden and will go on to nourish mothers in meals, herbal remedies, incense, oils and more for many years to come. I will lovingly tend him often and with this gorgeous family in my heart, I hope to see you soon though mumma with some herbal magic too. My heart swells when I think about the beautiful connections made on this journey so far, the love we share, oh this doula life, thank you for the gifts! ❤️
#doulalife #postnatalnourishment #vegetablegarden #mothergifts #herbalremedies #herbmagic #doulalove #nourishmentforthesoul #4thtrimesterbodiesproject #motherhoodunplugged #sacredbirth #sacredmotherhood #mothercraft #fooddoula #motherlover

Birth mandalas, mother craft, ritual, and feeding

Birth mandalas, mother craft, ritual, and feeding. All this with a birth lovingly placed in the middle!
These past two weeks have been pretty much non stop, today my feet are just about touching the ground before it’s go time in the food doula kitchen again!
❤️Being a birth keeper in this Covid universe has been a new and unique challenge with nothing to compare it to, like many I didn’t know what to expect as my doula diary filled up, as a passionate massage therapist not being able to offer so much of what I love to give for so long has been hard. I have like most adapted and shifted, practiced being strong and open yet soft and loving. I been holding space with as much love and with my heart as open as always while we navigate the covid parenthood path new or otherwise together often with so many new challenges and anxieties. I have found that birth keepers are as needed, arguably more needed than ever, as is nourishment, my food service has been busier than ever as friends and family, unable to visit their loved ones find ways to care and love from afar, building custom nourishment and pampering packages from my ever growing menu!
❤️It’s a good thing that I love being in my kitchen, there are so many new and adjusted dishes filling my house up with delicious smells and my family are enjoying taste testing them all for you! I’ve perfected the gooey ness of the gluten free vegan avocado brownies and added a Bombay style potato filo pie. Pies may actually be the most perfect postnatal meal in my opinion!
#birthkeeper #covidparenting #fooddoula #postnatalfood #whofeedsmama #feedingisloving #nourishment #nourishmentmatters #avocadobrownies #vegancooking #postpartumbody #4thtrimester
#filopie #birthart #sacredpregnancy #sacredpostpartum #veganglutenfree #douladays #mothercraft

Contact Details

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

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