A Blessingway is a sacred pre-birth ceremony that has traditionally been performed by Navajo people and celebrates a woman's rite of passage into motherhood. Today, a gathering known as a 'Mother Blessing' is gaining popularity in North America. Unlike a traditional baby shower where the focus is on gifts, a Mother Blessing puts the focus back on nurturing the woman. A woman's closest girlfriends and family gather in love to build up her mind, body and soul in preparation for her journey to motherhood. It is intended that the mother-to-be leaves bursting full of love, strength, confidence, and belief in the ability of her body to birth her baby HOW TO PLAN A MOTHER BLESSING Keep the preferences of the mother-to-be in mind, after all this event is about her. Make her feel as comfortable as possible. Not all mothers will be into all the ideas below, so choose a few that best suit her. (1) Pampering Make a foot soak, and offer her a hand massage, foot massage or back massage. This can be a beautiful time for her to sit and relax and have her friends take turns laying hands on her and transferring as much loving energy to her as possible (2) Flower Crown Make the mother-to-be a flower crown to celebrate her beauty. Ask each woman coming to bring a flower from their garden to contribute to the crown when they arrive or just have a selection of stems for each attendee to choose from when they arrive. If you want to celebrate all of your attendees, you might want to have everyone make themselves a flower crown when they arrive. (3) Paint Her Belly Painting her belly, henna, or a belly cast is a beautiful way to celebrate the life inside her. Let the art radiate the life she carries. (4) Circle Time Gather all the woman to share a blessing with the mother-to-be. It can be a time to share their best mothering wisdom, an inspirational verse, or a song. You can meditate together, belly dance together, or sit, laugh and tell your favourite birth stories. (5) Leave Your Guests Thinking About the Mother-To-Be. During circle time, a beautiful activity can be binding everyone's hands together in ribbon. After praying over or blessing the mother, each attendant cuts herself a small piece of ribbon to wear on her hand until the mother-to-be goes into labour. Every time they glance at the ribbon on their hand, they can send up a prayer for their friend's upcoming birth. Once the birth begins, someone texts out a message to the rest of the group and they all cut off their bracelets together in solidarity. Another send home gift could be a candle that all the friends light when they hear the birth has started. (6) Bead Ceremony Ask attendees to bring a special bead to create a necklace for the mother to wear in the last few weeks of pregnancy and during birth. After each attendee offers their blessing, they can string their bead onto the mother’s necklace. She will be reminded of the love and support she has in her community of friends every time she looks at each individual bead. (7) Birth Flags Have some plain cloth banners for attendees to paint with encouraging words and phrases. The mother can string these in her home and have them be a reminder of her strength leading up to birth. This is a great option for women planning a home birth since she can decorate her birthing space with them. Some women who are planning a hospital birth and may also want to bring their birthing flags to hang in their hospital room. (8) Stone Painting Ask each attendee to bring a stone that you will paint with encouraging words for the mother. The mother can place the stones in various spots in her house (one by the bathroom sink, one by the kitchen sink, one by her alarm clock) or place them together in an encouragement altar. Seeing these stones will remind her of her strength leading into birth. (9) Bring Gifts for a Birth Altar A birth altar serves as a focal point for the labouring woman. Sometimes it can be difficult to stay focused on the positive affirmations you read and meditated on during pregnancy, so the woman can focus her attentions to her birth alter to give her visuals of her end goal- her baby. Items for a birth altar can include a birthing goddess, ultrasound pictures, positive words, aromatherapy, candles, and any imagery that you find beautiful and inspiring. (10) Eat! Of course, sharing a meal with friends is the best way to relax and enjoy each other’s company. Ask your guests to each bring a dish to contribute to a potluck meal (11) Let The Emotions Flow Be open and transparent with each other. Share your joys and your struggles. Don’t be scared to let the tears roll. After all of this love and attention, the guest of honour is sure to leave bursting at the seams with good birth mojo
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I always answer incoming calls whether I recognize the number or not. It could be a dad's cell that I didn't have programmed into my phone and that was the case in this birth... while I was eating dinner, I received a surprise call from dad to let me know baby Clark had just been born by emergency c-section. Dad wasn't able to witness the birth, he stood outside the OR helplessly waiting to join his family. It was an emotional experience for everyone involved. I rushed to the hospital to take a few photos in the first couple hours of Clark's life and re-joined them again the following day to hear the entire story.
I don't want to give away too many details of their birth story because they retell it perfectly in this Fresh 48 Video. I'm also including some photos to show you what a Fresh48 session looks like. If you don't want a birth photographer present at your birth, you can still have a photographer come the next day to capture your child's unique story through storytelling video.
What is a doula? A doula is an ancient greek word meaning "woman who serves." A doula gives families physical, emotional and informational support leading up to and during birth. While a woman is lost in labour, she may not know exactly what is going on around her, but she can still feel everything happening. One of the greatest contributions a doula can make in labour, is for that woman to feel her love and support beside her through her labour journey.
It is actually proven that the presence of a doula at your birth results in shorter labour times, fewer complications (including reduction of forceps, vacuum extraction and c-sections), decreased use of pain management drugs and decreased need of labour inducing drugs like pitocin. These photos show the true love and service of a doula. Mother's who've had doula's report greater satisfaction with their birth experience, make more positive assessments of their babies, have fewer cesareans and lower rate of post partum depression. Studies have also shown that babies born with a doula present tend to have shorter hospital stays with fewer admissions to special care nurseries and breastfeed easier. Jaydene Freund is a doula and birth photographer located in Vancouver, Fraser Valley. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook. If you liked this article, you might also like: 11 Amazing Photos of Half-Born Humans When you think of birthing in the hospital, you most likely think of a woman lying on her back in a hospital bed. Most women labour on their backs because they don't know what else to do. They arrive in their room and are asked to lie down so the doctor can check their cervix, and there they stay. A woman's position in labour can either help or hinder the baby's descent into her pelvis. A woman that moves her body during labour will give that baby opportunity to wiggle towards the light. Although hospital rooms are tight quarters, there are plenty of ways to labour off your back. Try a few of these positions next time you have a baby and cut down your labour time. Be sure to comment below to let me know your favourite labouring position. (1) Walk the halls. During a contraction you can stop to lean against a wall, door frame or your partner.(2) Birth ball. Sway from side to side, bounce, or move your hips in circular motions.(3) Place birth ball on the bed and lean on it. It's soft. It has motion. It's easy to sink into.(4) Standing. Lean on the bed or sway from side to side. This also give people great access to rub your back.(5) Sitting. When you are sitting you are still upright. Keep your hips open to give baby as much room to descend as possible.(6) Hands and knees. This is a great position to turn baby if baby is posterior.(7) Over the bed. This is a variation of hands and knees and offers more support.(8) Water. A bath or shower can help your muscles relax.(9) Toilet. This is a very natural birthing position and spreading your hips gives baby room to descend.(10) Squat bar. A bar attaches to the end of the hospital bed and allows women to labour or push in the squatting position.(11) Pull and push. This is a deviation of the squat bar where a woman leans back and pulls a sheet against the squat bar as she pushes her baby out. This is very effective for final stages of pushing.(12) Side-lying. When you are tired and need a much needed rest, opt for lying on your side vs. your back. Start by lying on your left side which is optimal for blood flow and switch sides at least every 30 minutes.Comment below to share your favourite birth position.
Jaydene Freund is a birth photographer located in Vancouver Fraser Valley, Canada. If you liked this article you might also like: WHAT WOMEN ARE ACTUALLY THINKING DURING BIRTH AND LABOUR or 11 AMAZING PHOTOS OF HALF-BORN HUMANS I love when a family asks me to document their entire journey to parenthood. It's so special to be able to look back at each stage of having your baby and treasure each little moment. I gave this family hundreds of photos, but here are just a few to tell their beautiful story... Then on a very foggy day, he started to make his way into this world... I returned 2 weeks later to photograph newborn photos in the comfort of their own home.
The journey of birth looks different for everyone, but each family has a beautiful story to tell their child about the day they were born. Here are clips from all the birth I shot in 2015 to make up a beautiful story of the journey of birth and the journey of parenthood. It's not about the "perfect" birth story, it's about finding beauty in the process of birth and life. |