“I usually claim that pregnant women should not read books about pregnancy and birth. Their time is too precious. They should, rather, watch the moon and sing to their baby in the womb.”
Michel Odent
Elegant Title
“When you sit with a woman in labour, allow yourself to become soft”
Ruth Ehrhardt, True Midwifery
So much of what we are taught nowadays when providing care to those who are pregnant and birthing is about DOING. Even the word DOULA has the word DO in it!
In this first collaboration between True Midwifery and Doula Douce, we invite you to spend a day taking care of yourself, one another, and to get a sense of what it feels like to embody ‘just being’ at a birth and providing the basic needs for pregnant and labouring women and people.
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We will practice this through:
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Song
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Deep listening and sharing
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Stillness
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Embodied practice
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Creating a day of spaciousness for ourselves as birthkeepers
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The inspiration for this gathering :
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This circle will be happening the day after the three-day seminar with Michel Odent & Liliana Lammers, for birth workers and parents, that I am organizing on 16-18 June, which Ruth is traveling to and attending.
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The idea for this circle originally stemmed from the fact that the course with Michel Odent & Liliana Lammers is a larger scale event, very rich in valuable content, which inspired Ruth greatly in her own practice as a midwife. She also wrote her book The Basic Needs of a Woman in Labour after attending their course, 12 years ago.
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Ruth Ehrhardt is the mother of 4 home-birthed children, a South African traditional midwife, the author of a book called The Basic Needs of a Woman in Labour (which has been translated into 15 different languages), and a birth and midwifery teacher.
She is the daughter, granddaughter, and niece of midwives, so it seems this work was in many ways predestined from birth.
Ruth has an innate love and trust for birth, women’s bodies, and babies’ intelligence. In her teaching and work, she mainly focuses on guarding and protecting the environment for pregnancy and birth, as opposed to guiding or facilitating the actual birthing process.
For more information on Ruth and her work please visit truemidwifery.com
How will the day look and feel like?
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Ruth will share her own experience and will offer an immersive experience, for participants to be able to experience first hand the heart opening experience of sitting together with a group of women, and being held, immersed in a safe space, sharing a songs, vulnerability and the joy of coming together. So that they can go out in the world having not only dived in depth into the knowledge of the basic needs, but also having their own inner experience of it. Allowing for this feeling to be a reference, a base to connect back to. Receiving the imprint of an ocytocin-rich environment and remembering how a settled nervous system feels like.
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We'll gather in a beautiful location in the North of Amsterdam, with much privacy, with a ground terrace right by the water. There will be snacks, purified water, teas and coffee, and for lunch we are proposing a potluck format, where each one of us brings some food they are happy to share and we put things in common for a hearty moment together (though that's not mandatory of course).
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The day will be split in two, 3h in the morning, 3h in the afternoon, with about 1h lunch break, starting at 10am. Each 3h session will consist of a sharing circle, guided meditations, singing together, and Ruth sharing her own knowledge/experience, all of it following an organic and gentle pace.
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How much does it cost to participate in the circle?
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Until 31/05, there is a sliding scale fee from 140€ till 200€ (incl. VAT). This way we are hoping those who have more limited funds can take part more easily, and those who feel in their heart that they want to support this project are welcome to make more of a financial contribution.
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From 01/06, the participation fee is 200€ (incl. VAT).
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If you have any questions or if you'd like to pay in installments, you are welcome to contact me at sarah@douladouce.com
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