Hands Busy Heart Open

I call this "hands busy heart open", one of the many things I do as a doula. Applying counterpressure during surges, and when they ease I am resting with mama, watching without looking, waiting with confidence. I may use the quiet time to check on the birth pool, to communicate with others in the room if necessary.

It becomes a rhythm, and you get to feel with her when the next one is coming. One of my fondest memories from a birth is us all, myself, mother and father dozing on the sofa between surges, then getting swiftly back to action when another one came!

As labour progresses you'll usually find me sat on the birthing ball at the side of the pool - sometimes still giving counterpressure (something I did once leaning over the pool while heavily pregnant myself!), holding gas and air, stroking the hair back from mama's face.

There is always a moment when she begins to bear down and the familiar noise brings a smile to my face. The father looks at me - "is this still okay?" his eyes are saying, taken aback by the strength of the sound that he was told would come, yet in the moment it seems more powerful and primal than he could have imagined.

"Yes" my smile replies "yes things are unfolding perfectly"

Photograph of myself as doula at an incredible home birth, shared with kind permission

Hawthorn (The Wise Woman's Folk Herbal Series)

My favourite Hawthorn tree.... flowers in May, just like me.

Went walking today to collect the flowers for a heart nourishing tea and remarked to my partner how I love living where I am, but so many of my friends and clients are not here, are back in Cardiff. "Not lonely, but alone" is a phrase I have used before. How being far from my mother and family has often forced me to rely on Holy Mother and friends for comfort, something that has at times been very difficult, but needed and necessary.

I came back home and opened my "Herbiary" to see what Maia Toll had to say about Hawthorn. She talks of years gone by, fairies, Hawthorn as a portal to the Otherworld, but mainly our connection to the land we live on and to consider if where we live feels like home.

It never ceases to fascinate me how plants and trees will inspire the same thoughts and feelings in us, our connection undeniable. I was talking about how at home I felt here as I walked away with a pouch full of blossom.

This eclipse season and now Mercury retrograde are already deeply affecting myself and those around me. The longings of a child's heart are coming up - whether that is for attention, belonging, connection, safety. If you can, pour some water over Hawthorn flowers, and ask your heart what your inner child needs to feel nourished right now.

Hawthorn says "take heart and have courage, you are strong and beautiful like me"

Love Jenny xxx

On Placentas

I don't know how many placentas have passed through my kitchen, but it is a lot.

Some things never change. Being one of the first ones to meet the new father, what an honour - always pale and proud, hoping he has fulfilled his mission properly when it comes to the precious, irreplaceable placenta. So grateful to hand it over to me and know his part is done.

You never know what you're going to take out of the box. You never know what the energy will be like, but if you know the mama well, you will feel her. The huge ones like dinner plates, the dainty ones.

The ones with extra lobes or cord anomalies. The pearly white cords or the prematurely clamped ones curling like retro telephone cords.

The manual extractions that arrive in pieces and that cause spontaneous prayer to spring to my lips. The birth before arrival with the string still attached on the instruction of the 999 call handler.

Working with placentas you work with families in the most intimate way at such a vulnerable time. When you're the first to hear the birth story that didn't go to plan and hold space for that grief. When the mama comes to the door herself with her face glowing because she did it, she did it herself, and her triumph radiates out from her like sunshine.

I love the different women who chose encapsulation. They are impossible to put into a box but they share one thing in common - they believe they are important.

I love it when families come back a second time, a third time, who let me know of the new life they have created before they announce it to the world.

An honour. Thank you.

https://placentaremediesnetwork.org/specialist/jenny-wren/