Blog

mentoring, our work

A New Chapter: Heart of Birthing

Roshnii Rose

The past year and more has been a journey of personal growth and discovery as Supriya and I followed the Birthing from Within mentor training programme, ‘Birth as an Heroic Journey’.

Now that we have become certified, a new chapter has opened up in our work together.

For me, the course surpassed my expectations in all ways. I hadn’t realised what a steep learning curve I would have to climb and what deep processing would unfold as a result. What I loved about the course was its focus on the internal preparation required to become a mentor and the multi-faceted practices we now have to support parents on the rollercoaster journey of family life.

The training invited us to question the assumptions and narratives that we have adopted in our own lives as adults, mothers and birth workers, and to look at the ways in which we are sometimes held back by these stories.

I came to realise that, in order to support people fully through the full spectrum of birthing and parenting experiences, I needed to let go of some of my attachments to certain approaches and birth outcomes.

As a reflection of our broadening perspective on our work and the acknowledgement that there are more layers of complexity to birth preparation than simply trusting in one’s body and the process, we have decided to change the name of our partnership.

The name ‘Heart of Birthing’ brings together many elements. It recognises that, as mentors, we dive with our clients into the depths of their experience; and that parenthood requires us to be compassionate both with ourselves and one another.
It also hints at the fact that navigating the unpredictable path of parenthood is, indeed, an art; as well as the important role of artwork in our exploratory processes.

So, if you are somewhere along this pathway; whether you are standing at the gateway of pregnancy, about to cross the threshold of birth; or finding your feet as a new parent; and you need support or to gain insight; get in touch to talk about how we, as mentors, can accompany you.

mentoring, motherhood, parenting, postpartum, pregnancy

Free Mentoring Support Line for Parents

Roshnii Rose
photo credit

Pregnancy and the early months and years with a new child provide ongoing opportunities to navigate unknown terrain and face emotional and physical challenges. 

This time of the covid-19 pandemic can create heightened anxiety and fear as we find ourselves teetering on the brink of yet another unknown. It is also proving to be a time of slowing down, simplifying our lives and finding new resources within ourselves to cope with what is unfolding around us. 

If you are pregnant or parenting a baby or young child/ren and you would benefit from the support of a compassionate mentor in this period of added uncertainty, we are offering free online mentoring sessions over the coming period. 

This is a chance to connect with yourself and to honour the rite of passage you are moving through at a time when the strange mix of news, social media and physical isolation may be adding stress or confusion to your daily life. 

As mentors, we offer a heart-centred approach that allows you to process what is arising for you and find your own meaningful and achievable solutions. 

We use tools such as empathic listening, meditation and visualisation, mindfulness practices, affirmations, journaling, creative writing and artwork.

For more information, read about our prenatal and parent mentoring services. 

You can speak with us via voice or (ideally) video call for up to 1 hour at a time.
Please message us to book a slot in advance, this way you will not be kept waiting and we can maximise the time we have. 

We will be available at the following times (GMT or, after 28th March, GMT+1)

Roshnii: Thursdays ~ 2-3pm, 3.30-4.30pm, 5-6pm
Supriya: Saturdays ~ 2-3pm, 3.30-4.30pm, 5-6pm       

Donations are welcome but not required. We do not want lack of money to be an obstacle.      
If you find it hard to reach out and ask for help, know that we too have been there and encourage you to push through the block that is holding you back. We all need one another during this testing time and this is a chance to receive some well-deserved support. 

If you have any questions, get in touch.

We look forward to connecting with you. 
Roshnii and Supriya

our work, pregnancy, reflections

Mentoring from the Heart

Roshnii Rose

Supriya and I are now three weeks into a year long journey that will lead to us becoming certified childbirth educators with Birthing from Within and although we have already dived in deep, I feel I am still just scratching the surface.

Rather than using the term educator, which could imply an old-school paradigm of teacher and student, we are encouraged to use the word mentor, which describes a person with experience and understanding who guides others to find their own wisdom and direction.

As you may know, if you’ve read some of read my previous posts, such as this one, Pam England’s (founder of BfW) work has been a great source of inspiration for our work with pregnant women and their partners.

What I love about the BfW approach is that it takes a completely different angle than conventional childbirth education, using a variety of creative and experiential tools to enable parents to access their inner knowing as well of making sense of the various information, opinions and decisions they may encounter through the childbearing year.

As someone who holds creativity and spirituality deep in the core of my daily life, I resonate with the use of art, archetype, story and metaphor that makes this practice so unique.

What is more, the course is causing me to explore and question my own stories and assumptions about birth which is a challenging but necessary process.

I look forward to the unfolding of inspiration and insights over the coming months as we add depth and richness to this rewarding work.

events, our work

New Spaces & New Faces

Roshnii Rose

This weekend saw us christening a new space for our pregnant mamas’ circle, which we are very excited about.

We are extremely grateful to those families, particularly Veronica and Andrea, who generously hosted the group at their homes these last months.

Now we have use of the beautiful, bright room at the Casa de Povo in Barril de Alva, where we have plenty of space to move around and expand into.

If you are interested in joining our fortnightly pregnancy circle, give us a shout.

The other exciting event of the weekend was the first in a series of screenings around Portugal of the feature length documentary Why Not Home?, which we helped to organise as part of our involvement in the home birth movement, Uma Mãe Nasceu.

Mike & Grace Delivery

The screening took place with a small crowd in the small town of Tábua and was met with interest and enthusiasm. The next one we hope will be to an audience of midwifery students at Coimbra University, which has the potential to be quite an eye-opener for those training within the hospital system who don’t often get to witness physiological birth.

The film is particularly interesting because it looks at medical professionals who work in obstetrics in a hospital environment but have chosen to give birth at home. For Portugal, a country where doctors are very much put on a pedestal, the idea that the professionals themselves acknowledge that a hospital may not be the ideal choice for every woman’s birthplace is somewhat controversial. Hence this feels like an important film to bring into the public arena.

It was a pleasure to meet the group of people who attended the screening and for me, rounded off a day that reflected so much of what I love about working with birth: Connecting with individuals at a transitional point in their lives and bringing awareness and positive change in this field to our communities.

birth, our work, pregnancy

Call out to pregnant mamas

supriyahorn
Clay birth power symbols sculpted by the group

I’ve had the pleasure of running an intimate pregnant mamas’ circle over the last 6 months with Roshnii. It feels like we have all been on quite a journey witnessing tiny bellies grow into full voluptuous curves. We are now on the verge of welcoming several of these mamas over the threshold into new motherhood. What an exciting time.

There have been tears, growth, realisations and much laughter shared. As well as teaching yoga for pregnancy our focus when working with pregnant women is to encourage and facilitate them to dive deeper into their subconscious and unconscious, to explore and uncover more of themselves. 

I feel such gratitude to be able to walk this path beside pregnant mamas witnessing the infinite transformations that occur as the miracle of pregnancy unfolds. These last few months we have enjoyed making labyrinths as a tool for childbirth, moulding clay into birth power symbols, experimenting with the power of the breath in its myriad forms and used drawing and visualisation as a way to access deeper parts of ourselves.

This cycle of women is slowly coming to a close over the next couple of months. We would love to continue the group so if you are pregnant yourself or know someone you think would enjoy a nourishing nurturing space to prepare body and mind for birth please shout out. We would love to hear from you.

Contact us for more information.

Babywearing, motherhood, postpartum, reviews

How and why I wore my babies

Roshnii Rose

Before you read about my experiences of babywearing, take a look at these amazing images depicting Portuguese women in the earlier 20th Century carrying their babies.

portugal-babywearing

I loved using baby carriers to hold my babies close while on the move or at home, when they were little and needed cuddles while enabling me to keep my hands free.

By carrying my children I felt connected to women all over the world, through the ages and in different cultures who have done the same. It seemed the most natural way to move from place to place with a young baby as I was able to smell him, feel his body against mine, listen to his sounds, talk to him. He could see what I could see and be involved in my interactions with the world. I knew straight away when he was hungry and could also feed him while in the carrier if necessary. He didn’t need to cry to get my attention and he could sleep cuddled up against my body, where he felt safe and relaxed, not to mention soothed by my movements and heartbeat, which resembled what he felt in the womb. Continue reading “How and why I wore my babies” →

baby, birth, breastfeeding, motherhood, postpartum

The amazing benefits of Skin-to-skin: Investing in your long-term wellbeing

Roshnii Rose

There is nothing more beautiful than holding your bare baby against your skin in the magical moments after birth.

For some years now, the practice skin-to-skin contact, immediately or as soon as possible after birth, has been found to be beneficial to both mum and baby.

Newborn skin to skin

However, here in Portugal, it is still common practice for the pediatrician to take the baby away for medical checks in the first crucial minutes  or hours after birth. Here, I am going to explain why asserting your right to spend the first hour of life skin-to-skin with your baby is an investment in the long-term health and wellbeing of both of you.

You may want to discuss your preferences with your caregivers during your prenatal appointments so that they know how important it is to you that you have an uninterrupted hour of skin-to-skin time immediately after birth. Your partner, doula or birth companion will need to assert your wish to have this skin-to-skin period at the birth when you, the mother, may not feel like speaking up.

Skin-to-skin, or Kangaroo Care (KC) as it is known specifically when the baby is in an upright chest-to-chest position with the parent, is not just something nice to do with your newborn. There are many important and tangible health benefits for both mother and baby.

Continue reading “The amazing benefits of Skin-to-skin: Investing in your long-term wellbeing” →

our work

What is a doula anyway?

Roshnii Rose

Although the word ‘doula’ dates back to Ancient Greece, it is relatively new to the English and Portuguese language, but what does it actually mean?

Below is a (not exhaustive) list of some of the aspects of the role of a doula in this day and age, which I recently wrote for the Uma Mãe Nasceu website…

Doula is a word of Greek origin meaning servant or handmaiden. It has become the term used for someone who takes care of a woman during labour and birth and in the early days and weeks with a new baby.

These days, when we live in less close-knit communities than in the past, women are often choosing to hire someone to fulfill the role of a birth companion that might once have been taken by a grandmother, aunt or other experienced woman in the community.

doula-hug

Reassuring presence
A doula is often, but not always, a woman. She will have a positive perspective on birth and mothering either through her own experiences or by attending other women. Her role is to provide emotional and practical support to a mother, her partner and family throughout pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period. Continue reading “What is a doula anyway?” →

motherhood, our work, postpartum

‘Closing the Bones’ – Every mother’s birthright

supriyahorn

My first experience of having my ‘bones closed‘ after the birth of my daughter was with Rocio, a shaman, healer and ethnobotanist from Ecuador, who touched my body and could feel straight away how my energy was both blocked and leaking out of me. It is a bit of blur what followed but suffice to say I felt quite different when I left the clinic that day after having been jiggled and massaged by Rocio’s warm healing hands. Some years later, as a doula, I heard about a technique called ‘Closing the Bones’ being taught by two doulas, Maddie and Sophie. At the time I didn’t realise it was the same technique that Rocio had given to me, but I felt drawn to the idea of closing the body after birth so decided to learn in order to offer it to birth clients postpartum.

It turned out that Maddie and Sophie had been trained by Rocio to pass on the techniques. During the workshop I had a profound experience with the woman I was working with. As she rocked my pelvis with a rebozo in a technique called sifting, I felt held and nurtured. I went back to a memory of myself in my own mother’s womb; energy started to flow throughout my body and I experienced something similar to a full body orgasm. I wasn’t able to formulate any words for several minutes after. It felt like my whole body had been bathed in a healing light. I continued to experience the effects of what we had experientially learnt during that workshop for several days. One of the most poignant realisations was of feeling like I had come back home to myself. I felt centred and complete, which meant that I was able to be with my daughter in a completely different way.

Continue reading “‘Closing the Bones’ – Every mother’s birthright” →

birth, labour, reflections

Leave the clock behind

Roshnii Rose

As a pregnant woman, surrounded by a birth culture that is obsessed with monitoring the progress of labour, it is hard not to focus on how long labour has lasted and how long and frequent your contractions are.

Yet it appears to me that the habit of ‘watching the clock’ from the first rhythmic twinges of early labour can make the process seem long, drawn out and eventually exhausting.

timing-contractions

Every woman’s labour is different to the next and the effacement and dilation of the cervix can happen in fits and starts rather than along a predictable curve, so even if you are closely timing your labour it doesn’t mean you know how far you’ve come or how far you have to go, which is ultimately what all women long to know.

In the world of birth, you hear a lot about long labours, fatigue and lack of progress, which then lead to interventions such as the use of synthetic oxytocin to speed up the labour or epidural anasthesia to enable a mother, who has been labouring for many hours, to rest .

But what if our image and expectations of labour were different? What if, instead of watching the clock or the smartphone app to time contractions, a woman in the early stirrings of labour set her mind on some other absorbing task? Continue reading “Leave the clock behind” →