Sacred Whisper Bellingen: 2015

A few years ago, I was humbled to take on a most honouring role: the coordinator of Bellingen Baby, our local natural birth and parenting support group. I was handed the role by the most amazing and inspiring woman: Mieke. Mieke runs Love to Birth doula services, and is studying and raising a large and vibrant brood of children. When it was time to take the role on, I took in, in trembling, but excited hands.

The Bellingen Baby logo

Bellingen Baby is a group that was created many years ago- I think we are around the three decade mark, I would have been just a little cherubic bub myself when those first women were gathering in circle- as the Mid North Coast Homebirth Support Group. The impulse of the group, whilst it has shifted slightly from homebirth to natural birth in all locations, is to provide a safe, held space for birthing mamas and papas to find a path for birth and parenting that feels authentic and nourishing for them and their baby.

We hold monthly workshops on a different topic each time: in the past some of the most energetic and engaging discussions have been around sex after birthing; nappy free/elimination communication; herbal remedies for families; art as a tool to prepare for birth, belly dancing for birth... some topics are highly practical, some are deeply emotive. Sometimes we have a guest speaker, and sometimes the magic resides in the wisdom of the group. All this is provided for just a five dollar donation per family- making this (r)evolutionary information available to all- and children and babies are of course most welcome.

I can remember the wonderful moment in my life that I found out the Bellingen Baby existing. My partner, tiny baby Bodhi and I were sitting at Riversong Cafe (the space which is now occupied by the Purple Carrot). We often came up to Bellingen for a day or two, knowing that it was our soul home and one day we would physically make the move here too. I wandered over to Kombu (which was where the Alternatives Bookshop is now) and perused the always interesting noticeboard outside.

And there it was, in all it's divine, hippy-esque beauty a flyer for Bellingen Baby. The topic for the month was The Moon as a Divine Metaphor for the Feminine, I think it was being run by Shekinhah. I was so excited, I yelped, and grabbed Zai, who, with a mouthful of food in his mouth and chatting to the waitress was a little non-plussed to be dragged from his seat, and showed him. There is a NATURAL BIRTH AND PARENTING GROUP HERE, we just didn't HAVE THIS KIND OF THING where we came from. AND IT HAPPENS EVERY MONTH. And this month they are TALKING ABOUT THE MOON AND FEMINITY. Holy crap, Zai, there are people TALKING MY LANGUAGE and they are RIGHT HERE IN THIS TOWN!!

Zai smiled, probably patted me on the head and went back to eating.

(Incedently, I missed that workshop, but we came up to Bellingen monthly after that, on the third Monday of the month, to go to Bello Baby...and when we finally did move to Bellingen about a year later, the VERY first things we did- like, twelve minutes after we arrived, was to go to a Bellingen Baby workshop. That one was on birth mandalas-- Creativity as a tool for birth-- and was run by the wise and respected Joie, the original founder of the homebirth group!)

And the great news is, Bellingen Baby is back this year...it kind of fell off the radar last year for me, in between all the other passions in my life. But the time has come to call the circle back in. We have some awesome women helping out this year (which I am really excited about) and I can just viscerally feel the potential for all those deep, rich, heart centred topics we will explore this year.

And so, I invite you to:

Bellingen Baby New Year Gathering

Bellies, babies, older children and families welcome

3pm Tuesday 13th January

Lavender's Bridge, Bellingen, North Side

Bring Your Ideas for topics to explore this year

Bring a plate, if you can manage it

For more info, call Sammi on 0418 950 793.

You can also join our Bellingen Baby facebook group here, and/or text me your email address and I will add you to the newsletter list.

© Sammi Cambray/Sacred Whisper Bellingen 2014

Sammi is a holistic doula and birth counsellor, and the publisher of Sacred Whisper Bellingen

Ph:

0418 950 793

Blank canvas

This morning, whilst listening to the sweet deep sounds of divine feminine singer Peruquios, I am creating the most delicious gift for a mama I am having the honour of attending right now. She birthed a beautiful baby girl twelve days ago, and I have loved the process of prenatal, birth and postnatal doula work.

Word medicine from my own birth journal (a trilogy!)

As part of the Art of Sacred Postpartum training I am undertaking, we learn how to create handmade birth journals for our mamas. This activity resonated so deeply for me, for if I follow myself down to the very core of who I am, I am a story teller, and a holder of stories. There is a lyric from a Mama Kin song- My Friend that goes "You're the alchemist, you're the holder of so many stories, you grab the stars and light the way home,"

The cover of my own journal- Awakening, nourishment, trust: the shamanic, ecstatic birthings of Sammi Mirabai Seed

That's what I see as my medicine on this earth walk, the sacred path of helping people- and more specifically, birthing mamas- find their story, to sit in honour and nurturing and witness of that divine story; to help them find that point of alchemy where story becomes a source of strength and nourishment and growth for them.

So on this beautiful sunny summer morning, my partner and children out swimming at the Never Never (morning swims are their favourite!) I am crafting this birth journal for the mama. With my hands that seek to express the gentle love and care- and honour- I feel in my work, I take paints of oceanic hues that soothe her soul to colour the pages. I will scatter words that come to me from my work with her- arising, the art of grief, meeting each surge, sacred emergence, within the borders. I will paste in photos of her and her precious little one. I will draw a little. I will, in the back, write in the birth story from my perspective with all the amazement I held to witness her process. And most importantly, I will leave so many blank pages for her to write her own birth story, to give life to and integrate that story that had become such an integral part of her psyche.

Birth mandalas are the title page for each child's birth story

Here are some photos from the journal I made for myself- because, of course, until I have fully lived the lesson myself I am not equipped to pass it onto others.