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How to create a sacred birth space in a birth center or hospital room

Pregnancy & birth

4 Dec

I LOVE creating beautiful spaces. Think of your favorite room in the house, or a space that you have felt safe in. What do you love about this space and why? The colour, the feeling, the smells? What elements of it would you re create in your birth room?

The room I feel cosiest in in my house is my family room. I have put a lot of love into this room. It has a big soft sofa and rug, blankets that I have made, art I love. I painted it a soft relaxing pink (I really love pink) and have a little alter with some goddess statues. There are few things I love more than snuggling up with my family under the blankets, curtains drawn, scented candle and a good movie on the go!

Or when I'm alone sitting on the deep rainbow rug in front of the window reading a book with a big mug of herbal tea, I tend to gravitate to this sunny warm room, this revelation of space I have created from the cold, hard ugly room it was before! I could definitely birth in my family room, I would feel so safe and cosy in the big soft sofa and would have so much space to dance and move my baby down if I needed to.

I also love to help create beautiful sacred feeling birthing rooms, because of course your birth is sacred and so is your birthing room, a feeling that can seem lost these days especially in a medical environment. The space should feel private, have soft lighting, a cosy warm nest for muma and her love to snuggle up in, affirmations and beautiful positive images hung and a great playlist filling the room. Very much a romantic love nest!  This will create the right vibe for birth. When you think of a birth room what do you see? Most women I ask say a room with a bed in it, a typical hospital room. This is largely due to common images we see online, on tv and in moves which of course are mostly hospital rooms and women on hospital beds. Just because this is common to see it doesn't have to be YOUR experience and your space.

The environment you birth in is very important and can have a great effect on the levels of fear and anxiety you feel. A vital ingredient to a positive and undisturbed birth is a feeling of  warmth and safety, a space in which you can promote those magical hormones that allow your body to soften, open and release.

The ideal birthing room for some is at home, this isn't always possible and sometimes not your choice. You can definitely create a beautiful feeling space in a hospital or birth center room and I have helped create many. I have noticed that people tend to enter  the space and react softly and quietly when a room is set up to FEEL soft and calm, so that feeling of being observed is definitely lessened. You can even pop a sign on the door hotel style! You are absolutely allowed to move the room around in a hospital. Move the bed against the wall, just forget the bed for a while. Request a couple of birth mats, bring your own additions and have your birth partner and/or Doula set up the space with you or for you. below are some ideas for things to bring to create your sacred birth space. All of these (bar the pillows and duvet of course)fit into my doula bag and I have never met a midwife who has any objections to the room changes, remember that you are an honoured guest not a patient. It can be really nice to add lovely things to your birth room bag throughout the pregnancy, create and add to your birth alter at home and meditate and practice yoga in front of it, then when you are going to the hospital or birth center take it with you in a bag or little case. One mother has kept her birth alter in a memory box along with some dried flowers from the birth room.

Some suggestions for your love nest:

  • led candles
  • fairy lights plug in, battery or solar (solar powered have worked before but do a test run!)
  • things for your alter such as statues, pictures, crystals, vision board/birth mandala
  • your own blanket, duvet, pillow from home
  • light pashminas/scarves (for birth ball and to drape over things you don't like the look of)
  • create a long playlist, include songs and chants that relax you and songs that make you happy
  • affirmations
  • photos of your babies siblings if you are birthing baby number two and up
  • Flowers

 

This is a little felt goddess staue surrounded by led candles in a hospital birth room. I also had a lovely glass tea pot with me for herbal tea, just because it was pretty! The big hospital window sill made for a lovely display space. The room felt very cosy and was dimly lit. It also smelled amazing due to lovely smelling massage oil used.

 

These are just some suggestions, your sacred birthing space will be personal so add your own elements and comforts. No matter how long you spend in your birthing room you will not regret building a beautiful and loving space to welcome your baby into.

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❤️ 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 ⁠

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