A Blessingway is a beautiful traditional Native American ceremony conducted at the end of a woman’s pregnancy to pass on wisdom and prepare her for birth. Mother or Birth Blessings are mother-centred baby shower events inspired by this idea. As opposed to gifts for the baby, women may bring tokens for the mother’s birth space, decorate fabric with affirmations, contribute a bead for a necklace, or participate in thread or candle ceremonies. The idea is to honour and empower the mother for her impending birth.
My beautiful friend Rachel is 36 weeks pregnant, and I’ve been documenting her journey as a way to promote homebirth and homebirth midwifery. You can read about her 20 week appointment here. Mother blessing’s are ideal for homebirthers because they’re held in what will be the birth space (ie. the lounge room) and fill that space with positive energy and tokens, so we gathered a few of her closest friends and family to honour her.
Michaela from Henna Horizon came to decorate Rachel’s belly so artistically… isn’t it stunning? living art created on the spot!
Then we circled in the way that women have circled to support each other since the dawn of time (we’ve forgotten!). Rach had requested women bring something to contribute to her birth space and a bead to contribute to a necklace, should they wish. Photos, plants, affirmations, birth necklaces from other blessings, a custom oil roller ball, bunting, candle, shells and other things were brought for the birth space, and the accompanying stories shared. Some poignant, some hilarious, some sad. It didn’t take long for the tears to flow! It was a beautifully uplifting time though and our cups runneth over.
After that, we hung the birth necklaces that were brought for the birth space, ate amazing cake made by Rach’s sister, Karen, and it was seriously delicious! (Karen is actually a very clever baker, and you can see more of her baked treats on insta at The Bake Club, and Rach put her necklace together.
We finished this lovely afternoon with a few more photos with her necklace outside as Rachel’s dad arrived with soon-to-be big brother Henry.
She is so ready to birth her baby in this wonderful space with so many beautiful things holding so much incredible female energy. I can’t wait to document it all! Stay tuned!
UPDATE: Rachel had her beautiful home-hypno-waterbirth and followed it up with a family herbal bath session. Enjoy x
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