Postpartum Care

Daily, holistic, woman-to-woman nurturing for the postpartum mom providing support through physical touch, emotional understanding, nutrition, energetic restoring, education and most importantly… life-sustaining love!

There is an Indian belief stating that the way a mother is cared for the first 40 days after birth will impact the next 40 years of her life. Because Mother is central to family, when she is healthy (emotionally, physically and spiritually) the whole family is too. It takes a mother approximately 1-2 days to birth her baby, but it takes about 6-weeks for her to fully birth herself as a mother. A new mother is psycho-physiologically as delicate as her new baby and requires love, nourishment, rest and care, in order to fully step into her new role as a mother.

This is the most dramatic time of rapid change in a woman’s life on every level of her existence. It is also the most demanding time, with the baby needing to be fed and cared for around the clock. This can make recovery and integration very challenging, often leading to postpartum depression. In the U.S., the postpartum depression rate hovers around 25% and varies in severity. In countries where the 40-Day Sacred Window is a standard practice, the postpartum depression rate is less than 2%. It is time that the U.S. starts taking up these ancient healing and nurturing practices if we want to be a healthy, violence-free society.

Ayurvedic Postpartum Care Package

Ayurvedic Postpartum Caregiving Services

It would be my sacred honor to support your transition into motherhood with my Ayurvedic Postpartum Caregiving services. This proposal outlines what the full, 40-day package would look like. I am happy to customize my services based on your needs and budget. 

Let me know if you have any questions.

Preparing During The Third Trimester

• 3 Prenatal Planning Visits

• Meeting 1:  2-Hour Zoom Call: Education and Preparation

WHY Postpartum Care Is Important

• Education about what birth does to the mother’s body
• Education about what is happening to the mother on a psychological /emotional/ mental level
• Education about lactation and hormone changes

WHAT Is Needed To Optimize Rest And Healing For The Mother

• The Importance of High Quality Nutrition from an Ayurvedic Perspective
• The Importance of Rest 
• The Importance of Massage
• The Importance of Birth Story Listening and Emotional Space Holding for The Mother

HOW To Plan and Prepare For Optimal Healing And Bonding Time

• Infrastructure for Nutrition
  • Diet Protocol for the Mother
  • Recipes she will need
  • Grocery and Supply list
  • Meal Prepping and Planning
  • Stocking the Pantry
  • Taking food to the hospital
• Infrastructure for Rest
  • HCA 
  • Body mechanics for breastfeeding
  • Warmth
• Infrastructure for Touch
  • Massage supplies
  • Infant Massage supplies + tutorial
  • Belly binding supplies
• Birth Story Listening and Emotional Integration Preparation
  • Journal questions
  • Preparing the family to hold space
• OTHER–
  • What a day will look like with my methodology
  • Cloth diapering and EC infrastructure
  • Vaginal sitz bath support
  • Scar healing for cesarean birth

• Meeting 2: 1 hour Zoom call: Infrastructure and Supplies

• • • You will be provided with a supply list, grocery list and task list that we will discuss on our Zoom call. After that, I will be available over email, text or phone at any time to answer questions about infrastructure and postpartum supplies.

• Meeting 3: Home Visit—

• • Once you have acquired all of your supplies and have your infrastructure in place, I will come over to get a lay of the land (mainly in the kitchen area). I will also bring my massage table over (if there is space for it) and start getting acquainted with the space.

• Meal Prepping Day (additional cost)

• • • I will help you with meal preparation. I like to have four batches of bone broth made ahead of time, as well as two batches of brainy bites. We can either do this together or split the tasks. Doing it together can be fun! If we do it together, this can take place at the home visit meeting.

• 3 Weeks Full Ayurvedic Postpartum Caregiving

• Day ONE–Two Options

• • • • Option 1: Begins when you are in labor! I will be “on call” for you starting at 38 weeks gestation. When you are in labor, I will start cooking for you. At some point during the labor, I will deliver your meals to you at the hospital. Your husband will have everything he needs to feed you your first sacred meal. If I am able to come into the hospital, I will bind your belly. This will be your first day of care.

• Option 2: Begins the day you arrive home from the hospital. I will meet you at your home after you have settled, or I can be there to greet you when you arrive home.

• Days 2 – 15—

• • We will decide on a time for me to arrive in the mornings, usually between 7:30-9:00am. Upon arrival, I will check in with you, then make your breakfast. I will serve you breakfast, clean up your breakfast dishes, then start preparing your lunch, dinner and snacks. At some point when the baby’s rhythms allow, I will give you a one-hour full body, hot oil massage and bind your belly.  You will receive daily full-body massages throughout the duration of the 15 days. I will serve you lunch, clean up your lunch dishes and make sure you are all set for the evening. The first week I will leave between 6-8pm. Weeks 2-3 I will leave between 3-4pm.  I work Monday – Friday. Each day of caregiving will vary slightly based on your needs. Each day you will receive your massage belly binds!
    • See below for full details of what my caregiving includes
    • On Fridays I make sure there is plenty of food to last you for the weekend.
  • I do not keep a time card but can tell you that over the course of three weeks, the amount of hours it takes me to care for the mother averages about 8-10  hours per day over the course of three weeks. The first week is usually 10 hours per day, but as we settle into our rhythm, weeks two and three are slightly less than that. I base my fees on the average amount of work I spend each week. Week one is based on 50 hours. Weeks two and three are based on 40 hours. These hours include the time spent caregiving as well as the time I spend outside the home grocery shopping, meal planning and prepping.

POSTPARTUM MEALS, SNACKS and BEVERAGES

• Meal planning, preparing, cooking and serving fresh breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner for the mother. The meals, snacks and teas I provide are based on my 21-day Postpartum Meal Plan. All the foods are very specific to her body’s delicate digestive system, post-birth. The menu will start out with extremely simple foods and become more complex as her agni (digestion) gets stronger. 
• My diet protocol follows includes my “6 Daily Essentials” and my “5 Principles For Nourishing A Postpartum Mother” A methodology you will learn about in our Zoom Educational Calls.
• Large batch cooking allows for husbands/partners to partake in the nourishment. Any leftovers can be frozen and used as a “Transitional Plan” for when the help is gone.
• Postpartum Teas are served daily to the Mother, per my Postpartum Tea Protocol. Each tea is custom made from my personal apothecary.
• Shopping for the ingredients I am preparing for the mother, I can also do light shopping for the whole family while I am out
• Daily assessments will inform me of what the mother and baby’s dietary needs are.
• Preparing appropriate galactagogue snacks, Ayurvedic herbal tonics and shakes to support breastfeeding and healing.
• Making sure Mother’s area is clean, snacks and drinks are fresh and handy for mother throughout the day and prepared for her before I leave so she is set for the evening/night
• Kitchen cleaning, washing dishes and leaving the kitchen clean when done

MASSAGE and BODYWORK

• Full body massage, or specific, focused area massage….approx 1 hour, daily
• Birth Story Integration and processing time
• Womb blessings, abdominal massage
• Breastfeeding guidance and support
• Daily Belly Binding, if desired
• Womb care support and advice
• Vaginal steaming (when bleeding is reduced)
• Stedna Spa Steam treatment (hydrotherapy)
• Herbal sitz bath for Mother 
• Help bathing on days she plans to do that
• Support with postnatal yoga when strong and ready

BABY CARE and SUPPORT

• • Infant massage tutorial, education and support
  • Help bathing the baby
  • Elimination Communication education and support
  • Cloth diapering guidance, fi desired

• General support with breastfeeding and baby care

EMOTIONAL and PSYCHOLOGICAL 

• Birth story processing/emotional support daily
• Active listening and loving presence
• Ritual and ceremony as needed and requested (daily and upon completion of Sacred Window)

OTHER

• Any needs that arise unexpectedly, I am there for the mother and baby in whatever capacity I can 
• I am well networked in the birth and healing community and can provide trustworthy resources 

 **This is just a general list with the essentials that are included. Of course, I am there to support mother and baby for whatever arises and the structure can be modified as needed. If other services are requested beyond the daily tasks, then they will either replace some of the daily tasks, or I will charge my additional fee of $60/hour for my time spent.

**My preparation duties outside the client’s home will include: grocery shopping for foods related to what I am cooking, some food prepping (soaking almonds overnight, soaking lentils, making Ayurvedic snacks, etc). This is included in the fees.

WHAT I DON’T DO

• Clean house
• Laundry
• Childcare
• Running errands
• Clean dishes for the entire family (a few here and there is fine, but please don’t leave all your dinner dishes in the sink and expect me to do them in the morning.)

Just to reiterate…I am there to cook, massage and care for the mother. Any other household tasks will need to be delegated to someone else.

If other services are requested beyond the daily tasks listed above, then they will either replace some of the daily tasks, or I will charge my additional fee of $60/hour for my time spent.

Please contact Shelley for pricing. Email Shelley: shelley@sacredbirthjourney.com

The origins of the postpartum sealing practice I offer is in the traditional Mexican matrilineal care.  I am humbly honored to have learned these healing techniques from Tema Mercado, a Mexican midwife in my community.  

Binding the stomach offers support, stability and comfort to the womb, muscles and internal organs, healing and repairing the postpartum body. Binding is a terrific way to heal the muscle walls and also support spine and posture realignment. Binding is also considered very emotionally healing for postpartum mothers. Pregnancy physically and energetically opens and fills up the body with life, and binding “seals” and closes the bones, helping the new mother feel centered, grounded and stable in her body again. Binding can also be very healing after a miscarriage.

Postpartum Sealing & Belly Binding Packages:

Belly Binding Session (in-home)  (1 hour) $160

• • Abdominal massage and sacred womb blessing

• • Belly bind application

• • Instruction to teach you how to bind yourself daily at home. A friend or family member is welcome to learn so they can wrap you at home

• Includes your own Bengkung Belly Wrap or Elastic Bandage Binding Wrap

Belly Binding + Postpartum Massage Session (in-home)   (2 hours) $220

• • 60 minute postpartum massage including abdominal massage and sacred womb blessing

• • Belly bind application

• • Instruction to teach you how to bind yourself daily at home. A friend or family member is welcome to learn so they can wrap you at home

• Includes your own Bengkung Belly Wrap or Elastic Binding Wrap

Postpartum Sealing Session  (2-3 hours) $280

• • Phone or in-person consultation

• • Vaginal herbal steam bath

• • Warming herbal bathing ceremony

• • Closing the bones rebozo wrapping

• • 60 minute postpartum and full body massage including abdominal massage and sacred womb blessing

• Belly bind application
• Includes your own Bengkung Belly Wrap or Elastic Binding Wrap

In a Birth Story Listening ™ session, we review the story in ways that are creative, fresh and insightful. Through compassionate listening, genuine validation and thoughtful questions, I help the storyteller navigate their way out of old, unhealthy thought-patterns (such as self-blame) and into deeper realizations about themselves in relation to their birth experience. Together, we literally turn suffering into art by exploring the birth story through process art, mythological storytelling, archetypes or dance. This, in turn, awakens new awareness for the storyteller. This awareness is often in the form of a new positive self-belief, which becomes action when the storyteller brings a greater sense of self-love back to her family.

Birth Story Listening ™ sessions are highly therapeutic, and effective, but they are not therapy. It’s more akin to going to your wise elder, sister, or grandmother in your village and seeking counsel.

What does a Birth Story Healing session include?

Birth Story Healing sessions typically last 2 hours. Through dialog and other creative processes, I guide you into reconstruction of how you perceive yourself as a birthing mother or father (or partner).

A birth story session is for anyone who has given birth, miscarried or aborted a baby. Whether your baby is 6 weeks or 30 years old, it’s never too late for a session. Birth Story Listening is also helpful for doulas, nurses, midwives, OBs or anyone who has witnessed a traumatic birth.

It is important that you leave your child(ren) with another parent or caregiver so that you can take this time to fully focus on your healing. Sessions take place in San Diego at Yoga Jai Ma or my personal home art studio.

Cost: $100

Click here to read my blog post about birth trauma and birth story listening.

Podcasts Shelley is featured in on the topic of Healing from Birth Trauma

http://www.newmommymedia.com/episode/healing-from-birth-trauma/
http://www.newmommymedia.com/episode/healing-from-an-unwanted-cesarean/

Read an article Shelley wrote for Natural Baby Pros on Healing from Cesarean Birth

https://www.naturalbabypros.com/article/13/healingcesareanbirth/

One day all mothers in the world will feel a sense of holiness for their baby’s placenta, as we reclaim the power of our bodies together. Loving, thanking and giving our placentas back to Mother Earth is our right…..in doing so, Earth will be fed, nourished and healed, there is no separation between Earth and Mother. We are ONE.

This workshop is offered four times every year and is great for expecting mothers AND all women who have ever grown a placenta.

In this workshop you will discover:

• • The placenta’s role in providing nutrients and protecting your baby from harm

• • The energetic qualities of your baby’s placenta

• • How to birth the placenta gently, safely…..with love and respect

• • Ancient cultural traditions and beliefs about the baby’s placenta (first mother)

• • A deeper understanding of your own cultural conceptions about the placenta

• • Meditations, dance and movement connecting you with your placenta and baby

• • Communication with your baby’s placenta through process-oriented art and journaling

• • Physical, emotional and energetic benefits of delayed cord clamping and lotus birth

• Rituals and practices to honor the placenta after giving birth

Your AMAZING Placenta! There would be no human life without this incredible organ!

Your sacred body not only creates and births a baby, it also creates and birth’s your baby’s first mother and companion for 9+ months…..its PLACENTA.

Many cultures still revere the placenta as sacred, holy and a second soul to the child. People in many societies still believe that the placenta is the physical body of the child’s guardian angel. The placenta, baby and umbilical cord is considered the holy trinity. American culture has yet to discover the blessings of their baby’s placenta; mainstream thought is that it is merely “bio-hazard waste” and even considered “gross.” Cultivating an awareness and compassion for our placenta will gift us with many healing benefits. Through education, awareness and rituals for the placenta, mothers can connect to a very primal, instinctual mothering presence within her body, awakening to a feminine power that pervades all things sacred, including Mother Earth herself.

One way to honor the placenta is by requesting to bring it home from the birth and not allowing it to be discarded as bio-hazard waste. The placenta will stay fresh stored in a plastic container in your freezer for many years. Mine stayed in the bottom of my freezer for three years before I had time to plant it!

A Placenta burial ceremony can be simple or elaborate. We will meet to discuss ideas and assess your needs for creating the ritual. Some things to consider are:

• Do I want to plant the placenta under a new tree or existing tree?
• Where do I want the placenta to have its final rest?
• Who will be present to bless the placenta to rest?
• What, if any, art would I like to create with the placenta and umbilical cord?
• Once we have established your needs and desires, we will set a date for the ceremony and burial.

Placental Burial Ceremony

This ritual service includes:

• 45-minute phone or in-person planning meeting
• Setting up an altar with symbolic objects honoring the life and death of the placenta
• Creating art from the placenta and umbilical cord
• Reading a letter you wrote to your baby’s placenta
• Blessings and prayers for the placenta and baby
• Burying the placenta

Cost for ceremony facilitation: $125

Click here to read my blog post about placenta treatment in birth

Additional recommended reading:
Placenta, The Forgotten Chakra by Robin Lim

“I believe that the placenta is truly alive, experiences emotions and has intelligence of its own.” ~ Robin Lim (Nurse-Midwife, CNN Hero of the year)