Welcome to being a new mama, whether you are still pregnant or holding your babe in your arms! The birth of a baby is also the birth of a new mother and a new family regardless, if this is the first or fifth time. The postpartum period (time after birth), also referred to as the 4th trimester, is filled with so many emotions: love, gratitude, overwhelm, exhaustion, excitement and can feel unrecognizable with so much newness. This is a time of letting go of everything once familiar, a time of accepting drastic change and surrendering to the every need of this new little being that has moved from your belly into your arms. This is also a significant time of your body healing from the process of birth.
The World Health Organization (WHO) describes the postpartum period as the most critical and yet the most neglected phase in the lives of mothers and babies. This reality can leave new mothers and families deeply overwhelmed, but at Birth Awake we are here to offer skilled and attentive support for a thriving postpartum. Ancient cultures and traditions around the world have explicit methods for supporting a new mother and their family. These traditions focus on rest and recuperation of the mother and baby by having other family members, community, and midwives provide restorative baths, massages, nourishing food, general support and loving care of the other children. The caregiver at this critical time emboldens the new mother and family so they are better equipped to enter parenthood with strength, vitality and knowledge. There are many cultures that don’t even have a word for postpartum depression. This epidemic is a modern day phenomenon, which many feel is due to isolation and lack of support. Changing this reality is a deep passion of ours at Birth Awake. We believe postpartum support from a skilled and compassionate caregiver during this time is vital to a thriving mother, family and baby, not only in the immediate time of infancy, but in the many years to follow. We would be honored to serve and support you and your new family with gentle, nurturing, and evidence-based care during this incredible and critical time of bringing life into the world.
Services:
Hands on support with the baby
Infant massage
Sibling support and integration
Emotional & physical support for mom and family
Breastfeeding & infant feeding support
Cooking, food prep & nutrition guidance
Light housework
Errands, solo or accompanying mom/family
Advising measures for postpartum comfort and healing
Grounded, nurturing and caring presence
Competent educated midwifery support
“When a child is born, the entire Universe has to shift and make room. Another entity capable of free will, and therefore capable of becoming God, has been born. In that way, every child’s birth is exactly like the birth of a world teacher. Every child born is a living Buddha. Some of them only get to be living Buddha for a moment, because nobody believes it. Nobody knows it, and they get treated like they’re dumb. Babies are not dumb. Just because they don’t speak English doesn’t mean they’re dumb. A newborn infant is just as intelligent as you are. When you’re relating with her, you should consider that you are relating with a very intelligent being who just doesn’t speak you language yet. And you shouldn’t do anything gross to her before she learns to speak with you.” ~ Stephen Gaskin
Gaskin, Ina May. Spiritual Midwifery. Book Publishing Company: Summertown, TN, 2002, p. 13.