The Fourth Trimester - the first forty days after giving birth is a powerful time. It is a raw, stripping, heart opening time of vulnerability when the body of the mother requires deep care and tenderness in its process of recovery. It is an irretrievable time of bonding with a new and precious being which in its health requires softness, deep love and ferocity.
It is also a time where deep unearthing takes place. An unearthing of body memory and memory of how we as mothers experienced our own entry into the world.
This period of time is a re-birthing. The mother is either becoming a mother for the first time or re-birthing a new phase in motherhood.
How a woman is held in this transition is significant. How the body is nurtured, how her soul is tended, how her heart can express are all significant elements of tending to this passage.
Learning to listen in, to listen to our tissues, to our instincts, to our animal knowing is one way of tending to this time with care.