Navigating Corona-Lessons from Postpartum
I was told in my twenties that we are entering a time when there are no more prophecies. All of the prophecies the American Indigenous Elders had shared ended around 2012. At that time, we would be living into the unknown future. This was not a prophecy of the end of the world, or an end of time or anything like that.It was simply something new and not yet known was ahead of us. I was also told that we would be like a birth.
As a mother and a birther of children, the notion that we would have been, as a collective consciousness, growing a new reality and now we are birthing it was and is exciting and hopeful. As this re-birth takes place in real time, we are faced with new and intense challenges. As we breathe into them and relax into them, they can bring movement and guidance on our next steps as individuals and as a collective. If what we resist persists, and as a collective we have had resistance as a motto for the last four years; Then now we must relax in preparation for the next push of our collective birthing.
Enter the Corona Virus. Children are home from school, parents are home from work, shelter in place efforts are in place and an opportunity to rest is at hand. This is a time for each of us individually and as a collective to breathe, to take stock, to get enough sleep, to walk, do yoga, read books, connect with our children and to dream into the possibility of something new coming next.
There are many lessons from postpartum time that can be applied to the new, profoundly different, daily reality many of us are faced with in our collective effort to flatten the curve of COVID-19.
My sister-in-law, midwife and educator Rachele Seliga-Garcia founded INNATE Postpartum Care as a way to bring back traditional knowledge about care for women in the delicate days and weeks after the birth of a human baby. Her program focuses on community as the foundation for postpartum wellness. She adds rest, nourishing foods, bodywork and warmth as a framework built off of the foundation of community.
As postpartum mothers, many modern women are blindsided by the challenges of recovery from birth. Adjusting to life as a parent includes grief for the loss of how things were, fear for the unknown future and overwhelm in the present moment. These emotions.have been, sadly, par for the course of early parenting for many women in the modern age. It has been generations for some families that women have been birthing without elders and without an intact knowledge of what women need to thrive after babies are born.
In the same way that postpartum reveals this gap in our knowledge of self care, the COVID-19 protocol has shown our lack of knowledge of rest and self-care. The industrial revolution has sped up production, and we humans have been speeding up along with it. With this moment of COVID-19, how do we rest? How do we nourish ourselves?
Look no further than the 5 tenants of The INNATE Postpartum Care protocol:
Community- Expecting moms have to be creative about this. (see last week’s post about friends). So do we in isolation need to be creative about calling in our community. We now have an opportunity to connect to friends and loved ones we normally don’t have as much time to talk to. Community is likely not in person, but a phone call can be intimate. We have to be creative, and we are. Zoom meetings, outdoor distance dance parties, yelling at neighbors from porches… Creating community is a radical act of self love. Please, reach out.
Rest- Take time to take a break. Get good sleep, take a nap. Good sleep decreases chances of depression, anxiety, mood swings, hopelessness. Sleep is good medicine. For real, here is your permission, take this opportunity to relax. I will note, time lying down while on screen is a stimulating activity (not true rest).
Nourishing Foods- in the postpartum, it’s warming and nourishing foods. But as this is happening early spring, and you did not necessarily just give birth, bring healthy foods into your diet. On a budget? It is the PERFECT time to wild-craft a variety of wild edible weeds! Nettles are coming up. Purslane is going strong, Dandelions, miner’s lettuce and chickweed are all early spring favorites that you can find in garden beds, sidewalk cracks and what have you. They are full of nutrients and are free! If you don’t know what they look like…Google, you-tube or an old herb book off the shelf (if you have one) should get you going in the right direction. Additionally, you can look into a local meat producer or processor for bones to make broth (some throw them away… seriously!) Wild-crafting edible weeds is also a great activity to do with kids out of school. There is a lot we could say about nourishing foods, but local, in season veggies, meats bulk grains and legumes are the foundation of our diet over here.
Bodywork- Because we are talking COVID-19 and not post partum, and receiving professional body work is on hold right now, there is a lot you can do to exercise and stretch and care for your body. Things I think of include, dry-skin brushing, baths, stretching, walking, dancing, a myriad of online yoga classes, co-regulating sessions, online therapy and outdoor time. For me, being outside, in silence, on the earth is the most regulating thing I have been doing for my body. I highly recommend it.
Warmth- is the final pillar of postpartum care. I would say it is, in fact, the foundation of what we need to weather COVID-19 in grace, health and good spirits. According to Rudolph Steiner, warmth is central to growth for children. It is essential for our feeling of safety and wellness. For kids, this means making sure they have enough clothing for the weather, keeping the house warm on cold days and greeting them with love and reverence. Bringing a feeling of warmth and reverence to this time, to ourselves, to our family members and to the greater humanity will help us to build strength and courage for what comes next. The warmth of a loving thought, of gratitude, of seeing the silver lining. This is our connection to life-force itself.
There is a Steiner verse that meets this moment and our need for warmth beautifully:
Inner Quiet
Quiet I bear within me,
I bear within myself
Forces to make me strong.
Now will I be imbued with their glowing warmth.
Now will I fill myself
With my own will’s resolve.
And I will feel the quiet
Pouring through all my being
When by my steadfast striving
I become strong
To find within myself the source of strength
The strength of inner quiet.
-Rudolf Steiner
This is our call at this time. To greet the quiet as an opportunity to build our strength. That our life force is imbued with glowing warmth. That in this way, we will find our will’s resolve. This is how we will birth a new reality.
The work for INNATE Postpartum Care can be found at: www.innatetraditions.co
