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“All life wants to be honoured. This is a natural urge. It also points us toward the fact that we are designed to live in community. The way that each part of nature effects the whole. As Mothers, we are birthing the next generation. How are we birthing and living in community at this time?

The shift our lives takes to grow and birth new life is dramatic. When we allow this birth to transform us we also give birth to us as the Mother. After a transition in life, we come back to our people in a new role with new responsibilities along with the evolving wisdom that all of this brings forth. When this shift into Motherhood is honoured, the whole community benefits!

Is this what we are currently experiencing and seeing? It is sometimes easy to feel like there is something wrong with US if we are not coping, feeling like we are only just surviving rather than thriving in our selves, and in our whānau. That is a grief in itself as we realise we have somehow gone off course from our original design and /or intention.

Usually a ‘rite of passage’ such as birth, or any other difficult growth period in life, no matter how the experience was, you come back a different person. What makes a huge difference is if you have a welcoming committee, a community to acknowledge, witness and accurately reflect back to you, the experience you have had. Without this social recognition, it can be so disorientating and very hard to fit back in to life. I have certainly experienced this before, when I have had a life altering experience and then I’m suddenly put back into ‘business as usual’, something always feels very a-miss. Then there is an adaptation that follows, to try and squash myself back in somehow but that usually results in parts of me leaking out or breaking at the seams. I have a feeling this is what many mothers and whānau are currently feeling.

If change is a natural part of life, we need to be able to move through these changes in a way that upholds our mana, power, beauty and dignity. To feel exalted! That is my wish and prayer for Māmā and whānau. It is the way we would want our children to feel in their lives. This is the ‘why’ for my devotion to this mahi. Mauri ora!”

Here is the link to Kate’s practitioner profile:

https://postpartum-care-directory.innatetraditions.com/practitioner/kate-williams/

“Repair is always possible. I love this statement. Rachelle from Innate traditions spoke this out during our training, and something happened within me. Of course! Of course. For anyone on any type of healing journey, this statement is like a warm hug, or a loving gaze full of acceptance. It is a statement full of hope. Repair is always possible.

My early postpartum time, particularly with my second baby, still brings with it sensations of grief and loss in my body. I can feel and hold that part of myself now, as it arises. I was so overwhelmed, and under supported.

For me, the lived experience of calling in that which i had lost, is what makes me know this statement in its truth. In other words, gifting myself with the things that i was unable to give myself in my early postpartum time, created a rippling repair in my family unit. I engaged in birth integration meditation, and felt the shift in my relationship with my child from that birth. I ate warm nutrient dense food, and my body came back into wellness after postpartum depletion. I allowed myself to feel my grief and loss in the presence of a loving listener, over and over, and my body let go of so much pain and tension. All of these things and more contributed to me experiencing a deep sense of repair and healing.

I deeply believe in postpartum care as part of well-woman care, AND i know that even if we didn’t receive it at the start of our mothering journey, it can still gift us with so many blessings at any stage in our postpartum - as we acknowledge that postpartum is for life.”

Here is the link to Lily’s practitioner profile:

https://postpartum-care-directory.innatetraditions.com/practitioner/lily-tanner/