Tell your birth story

Our top recommendation for stepping into your new identity as a mother? Tell your birth story, over and over again.

As described by renowned midwife Ina May Gaskin, “for each mother, [birth] is an event that shakes and shapes her to the innermost core”.

Your birth story is not only a memory of how your little one came into the world, but a powerful bridge that connects the former you with future self.

Those vulnerable and laborious minutes, hours, days just before you meet your child are a time capsule of your transition to motherhood, a right of passage that should be honored and shared many times over.

If you’re nearing your due date or newly postpartum, jot down the details: the song on the radio, the name of your delivery nurse, the last meal you ate that day. These details, while seemingly mundane, will someday transport you back to the precious moments of becoming a mother.

Wondering how you can support a friend or family member who’s newly postpartum? Encourage them to share their birth story. Don’t try to override their feelings of grief and sorrow, don’t compare or contrast in hopes of lessening their pain, just listen. Just hold the space.

This simple act of non-judgmental support will be an instrumental part of their postnatal recovery.