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This past year, from the beginning of 2020, to the middle of 2021, has been pretty much a
global living hell in one form or another for the human population, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Starting a new business at the end of 2020, during the pandemic felt initially full of hope and optimism... working online would be a way to reach people, to help people and offer the support I know is very needed... I know this as one of the many mothers who would have had their mental wellbeing saved and my 2 years of hell drastically cut, had such a service been offered to me. However, it felt as I moved through into 2021 and through the first half of the year that expectant and new parents were waiting. Waiting for a big change before even allowing themselves the opportunity to consider hypnobirthing, to consider taking time to heal from trauma, to connect with other parents and focus on their own self care... anything other than just putting one foot in front of the other and getting on with it and through it seemed too much for many - this is what I gleaned by listening to conversations online, engaging in discussions with my peers and talking to friends who were expecting babies at the time.
However now, certainly within the UK, we have been granted more "freedom", people have been meeting outdoors for a while now and now, whether you personally agree with it or not, people are meeting indoors. There has been not only a change within how society is being ran and how we behave within it, but also an emotional change. It feels akin to having an extremely dark and heavy weight on our shoulders and chest that suddenly this has been lifted and we feel light, free and WE CAN BREATHE! There have been green shoots of excitement in relation to parents connecting and reconnecting, with our children now having opportunities that they have missed out on over the past 12 months. It is very much like we have been living in the desert and are now starting to connect with, or if we aren't yet connecting, certainly starting to see our tribe on the horizon.
So however you are personally moving on through the remainder of the year, I'm sure that you are doing so with some level of increased optimism and improved hope.
So, what does this mean for me? Well, as Birthscapes Founder, it has meant that around being a stay at home mum... which takes up most of my time as my daughter is not in any childcare and we have no family support...I have been liaising with local venues and finding a place that feels just right regarding safety as we are still living through a pandemic despite these changes, and also somewhere that parents can connect and just enjoy being parents and where they can focus on this and their own wellbeing needs.
Birthscapes key mission is to support the wellbeing of parents and reduce risk of perinatal mental illness and isolation in turn, as well as helping to support positive attachment and bonding with baby....so it is a mission of wellbeing for both parent and child! As such, finding a venue to run the Beyond Birth course that I trained as a Perinatal Mental Wellbeing Practitioner with Sophie Burch (AKA The Mamma Coach) to deliver last year feels the right thing to be doing. I have I feel found that perfect venue at St Oswins Church Hall in Wylam, a lovely rural village in Northumberland with a lovely community feel to it. So now... well, I just need to get the word out.
The course is due to start on Friday 10th September, from 1:30pm-2:45pm and will run for 6 weeks at £55.
Partners are welcome to, in fact encouraged to attend...with all Birthscapes courses being inclusive of all parents and Beyond Birth particularly welcoming of all parents and seeking to raise awareness of the need for both dads and mums to look after their emotional wellbeing.
I am so very excited to be offering Beyond Birth and feel that it really is a stand-out program that offers so much more than so many of the more traditional / mainstream baby classes and postpartum courses, which though all are fantastic with their own merit, often miss addressing how we are actually doing as parents. I know that we often hide behind a mask as new parents, a mask which shows the world that we are managing, when actually we feel like a swan with our legs frantically paddling under the water... or we may just feel as though we have been plunged into the lake and we can't find a way back out. As such, parenting for many of us can feel isolating and lonely, despite attending multiple baby groups... because who is going to be the one to speak first and if we do, how will everyone else respond?
Beyond Birth offers a safe and sacred space to share and be heart without judgment. Being a mess of a parent is completely acceptable and you know what... there really is no perfect parent, honest! We all have our skeletons, just some of us might seem to do a better job of hiding them.
By coming along to Beyond Birth, you are stepping into a room of support, connection and "real-ness". In addition to this, you will be taught the tools you need and will so benefit from in being able to calm yourself and switch out of your adrenaline fuelled fight, flight, freeze response into your calm and responsive state.
By buying your 6 week course ticket, you are committing to at least once a week, take time for you, where you are not worrying about how to get this time around caring for baby... because baby will be with you, so you will learn how to schedule in self-care whilst parenting, because actually in reality it isn't often that we get that sacred self-care time to ourselves and for some of us, this really might be something that just never happens.
What have you got to lose by coming? I'd say nothing and that in fact you have everything to gain.
Katy Williams, Founder of Birthscapes
