Ceremonial Support

How do you make meaning? It is a defining characteristic of my doula role to support birthers to explore intentionality in the transformation that occurs in pregnancy, birth and postpartum. I believe in consciously asking doula clients about their spiritual or religious affiliations in their birth and postpartum process. Moving into becoming a parent is an initiation- a moment in our lives when we step into a new aspect of our living & being that we didn’t know existed before. For many of us drawing upon the strength that transcends the naked eye is another arm of support during a pivotal life moment. In a prenatal meeting, I always ask if the client has a spiritual or religious practice that informs their well-being. Then, I ask if I may have permission to remind them of the sacred symbols, prayers, images, meditations and visualizations during their birthing and postpartum. I do this because many of us have spent years mining a relationship with beloved prayers, images, nature, stories, poetry, objects and knowledge of this can be a powerful reminder of support during labor and delivery. When clients tell me they hold a more secular worldview, the above may still apply as we all have connections that inspire. I ask folks to share with me names of those who uplift and remind them of courage, strength and reflect love.  At a recent birth, a client showed me photos of her female lineage, naming her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. It is a very human thing to invoke the spirit of ancestors, and other unseen beings of strength and support, to create safety, and ensure our place in the cycle and seasons of life. 

In postpartum, we seek to thank the body for its work in pregnancy and birth. By doing so we reach a stage of completion in the cycle of being initiated into motherhood. Commonly referred to as the “closing of the bones,” this ritual provides a time out for the new parent to be witnessed in their transformation from maiden to mother while having their body “closed.” By sequentially wrapping their body with a long scarf - which literally feels like a big hug from head to toe! - we close the body after having been portal to new life-gestation-and-then-coming into the world. While at one point in time variations of the closing of the bones was known and used worldwide, today this practice has been kept in tact primarily by indigenous peoples of Latin America and now widely taught to birth keepers around the world. White folks living in America have been severed from their traditions of origin and it is our job to reclaim where our own ancestors lost these wisdoms. It is my desire to honor this primarily oral tradition and give credit where credit is due (I was taught by Rachelle Garcia Seliga of Innate Traditions and receive ongoing training with Ann Drucker who studied with mayan traditional healers). I facilitate this ritual to support the spiritual function of this initiatory time, a missing link in our modern lives. Taking the time to properly honor the body for it’s work, pay attention to our shifting identities buffers and centers our well-being.