Mama Birthing

Moms-to-be long for a circle of support as the birth comes near. This core desire arises from a primal innate knowing of what lies ahead. Unfortunately, our modern western culture dumbs down our intuition with the ridiculous platitudes of a “baby shower”.

You don’t need a baby shower… you need a mother shower.

The baby shower is about the baby. You (or your pregnant friend/daughter/wife) needs a ceremony that is for your (her) birth. You want connection and support… and you have an inner knowing that this is an old ritual. And, you are right. For those who want the full education on this process, read: Blessingways: A Guide to Mother-Centered Baby Showers.

You want a blessing way or a birthing way.

Ultimately, mothers preparing for birth need a circle of support. The ceremony before the birth is to gather, acknowledge and call to duty the mother’s circle of support. Here is a list you can print to help organize your circle of support at your blessing way. This is a way for your friends to honor you and your needs. Instead of gifting your baby, they are gifting you.. knowing you are the the only one who can give your baby what your baby needs.

Potentize your Circle of Support. Print the handout below to remind yourself (or the mother-to-be) of what you want from your Circle of Support.

Return to Ritual: more ideas for honoring sacred birth.

There are other ceremonies or ways women can come together to support each other. Take some time to tap into and visualize what you want. What rituals you are interested in experiencing? Print this handout to have a reminder to create what you want to experience.

• At-home rejuvenation retreat for conscious pregnancy
• A Birthing Way
• A sacred incubation – immediate postpartum cocoon week
• 42 day Postpartum Re-entry party
• 90 day postpartum Gentle Cleanse

Rites of passage

We have the power to change how we support and celebrate birth. It’s up to us to change what is normal and what is expected. If your traditions are outdated, it’s up to you to tell your peeps what you want and why. You’ll find that just having one friend or family member supporting you will make a world of difference in the months to come.

Which rites of passage will empower your transformation? Print this handout.

• Organize and request a circle of support.
• Create authentic meaning.
• Design ceremony (s) to articulate your highest intention.
• Eat nourishing foods to honor the physical endeavor of birth and postpartum.
• Identify support or gifts that align to your values and essential structures.

Mindful birth to postpartum

When mothers look back on pregnancy, most say that was the easy part. Yet, our culture puts the emphasis on pregnancy and the baby shower, and ultimately has no care parameters for the postpartum basic needs of a mother. This causes a myriad of health problems for mothers and children that lasts years.

Take time to create the future of postpartum care for yourself and for our culture. Here are some guidelines to help you out:

• Stay on target; attune others to supporting your targets.
• Make others aware of your patterned pitfalls so they can help you steer clear.
• Pause. Review. Rehash. Realign. Invoke next intents.
• Articulate and Celebrate that which is working best.

Create what you want to experience and celebrate.

I can’t handle my emotions.

Postpartum depression has a few faces according to Ayurveda. The faces fall into three categories: sad, angry, and overwhelmed. Of course, all of these emotions are totally normal…. until they are not. The spectrum of how deep they are felt and for how long indicates the severity of the imbalance. But, you already knew that. If you sense you’re in the deep end, get help from a postpartum Ayurvedic doula or Ayurvedic Practitioner.

Postpartum Anger & Postpartum Psychosis

This once forbidden topic is all the rage. From women’s lib emerges language for describing phenomena that existed for eons. Mommy rage is all the rage. What is actually happening? As far as I can tell the chain of events is something like this:

1. First Vata goes out of whack. The downward , grounding energy becomes uprooted.
2. This causes the clarity of a woman’s subtle energy body is immediately backlogged, polluted and disrupted.

You can print this or scroll down for the rest of the article.

The mom’s body is inflamed and acidic, due to:

• being in a continual stress response
• eating impure foods (another other than fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, grasses, legumes, etc)
• eating a pitta aggravating diet
• using acidic substances (caffeine, alcohol, recreational and prescribed pharmaceuticals),
• etc (google acid/alkaline for resources)

From another perspective, mommy rage is an issue of polluted flow happening within faulty structure.

The Shadow of Mommy Rage

The shadow, or unconscious aspect named and made conscious, part of mommy rage has to do with our inheritance from our mothers. IF our mothers were sacrificers, chances are they taught us how to sacrifice the sacred clarity of our energy body for the sack of some need of another person. Glimpsed from an evolutionary perspective, this was a super good survival strategy in a patriarchal culture. If you’re no longer playing by those rules, the sacrifice of the clarity of your subtle body is simply outdated. This is why the rage response, in my experience, seems like something I should simply not fall into.

The Yoga Analysis of Post Partum Anger:

Yoga offers an abundance of language to describe what is happening. The most succinct is the malas. There are 3 major ways we contract against the divine flow of abundance.

• Anava mala is the contraction in the heart which renders lack;
• Mayiya mala is the contraction around the third eye which renders judgment;
• Karma mala is the contraction in the solar plexus which renders selfish actions. Mommy rage happens as the mom’s self care falls apart in service of other (kids, husband, work). Anava mala puts a squeeze on the heart, aggravating Vata’s flow and putting pressure upward. The upward pressure stimulates Mayiya mala into a full blown contraction skyrockets Pitta into pinpoint intensity and awareness of inequity.  If we can recognize the contraction, we’re on the path back to cool clarity and intrinsic abundance.

The Path Back to Cool Abundant Clarity

1. Take a moment and allow everything to be as it is. Make enough room for all of your needs and how you feel. Don’t indulge…. just make space in your awareness.
2. Exercise breathing through nostrils for 20 minutes upon arising in the morning. Demand this time for yourself if possible. Cleanse the pranic channels asap.
3. Give yourself an oil massage with rose essential oil added to an organic base oil (coconut is great). Take a warm, not hot water after.
4. Identify and eliminate impurities in your diet/lifestyle. Easier said than done. Be aggressive with your ability to make better choices.