Weaving Wellness

I care deeply for the wellness of our mothers and I believe when the rite of passage of becoming mother (whether it’s her first or 6th time) is witnessed and honoured in its purpose and wholeness, a mother can remember her power, and feel the love and support which surrounds her.

Whether it be a Mothers Blessing (before birth) or a Bespoke Closing of the Bones (from 6 weeks postpartum), the threads of these life transitions are acknowledged, honoured and celebrated with intention and reverence to hold space for a mother and her own journey.

This work is rooted in ritual & remembrance. Each time I sit with mothers in this way I too am reminded of the sacredness of life & the power of love.

With Love

Michelle

My mission is to revive the wellness of our mothers, and in doing so revive the wellness of the next generation.

This work is vital. It is lifesaving and life giving. It is health promoting and dis-ease preventing. It is regenerative and necessary.

This is my work, to provide mother-centred care services which deeply nourish, honour and support women in their mothering journey through providing holistic postpartum care, wellness support & breastfeeding/infant sleep guidance.

It is an absolute honour to be doing this work.

With Love

Michelle

Postpartum Care requires COMMUNITY !!

If you are a health professional, mother, grandmother, friend, expectant mother, this is a free & special workshop is for you.

You will leave with a deeper understanding of some of the key elements of support that all mothers require after birth based on our physiological design and how this helps both baby and families.

We will speak to:
✨Postpartum Care for Maternal & Family Wellness
✨The current narrative around postpartum care and the implications of the lack of support in the short &long term
✨Touch on some of the cross-cultural elements offered to postpartum mothers honouring their physiology
✨Explore how we as a community can play our part in supporting mothers.

When:
28th May 2024
5-6pm
, 146 Ross River Road, Mundingburra

Please RSVP your interest in attending this workshop.

✨ A simple yet profound act of looking inward gives us an opportunity to acknowledge the stories etched in your heart, the fears that lurk in the shadows, and the dreams that dance in your thoughts.

It is listening more deeply to the unspoken and the subtle yet significant signs.

Motherhood is an invitation to consider all of which is innate to you and of what make you who you are!  Your values, beliefs, story/narrative, energies, vulnerabilities, quirks, and uniqueness.

The journey of self reflection and looking inward allows one to gain perspective to have a deeper sense of self. It is what helps to create boundaries, to be discerning and to choose a life which feels in alignment.

Postpartum Care requires Community!

If you are a health professional, mother, grandmother, friend, expectant mother, this free & special workshop is for you.

You will leave with a deeper understanding of some of the key elements of support that all mothers require after birth based on our physiological design and how this helps both baby and family wellness.

We will speak to:
✨Postpartum Care for Maternal & Family wellness
✨The current narrative around postpartum care and the implications of the lack of support in the short and long term
✨Touch on some of the cross-cultural elements offered to postpartum mothers honouring their physiology
✨Explore how we as a community can play our part in supporting mothers

When:
7th May 2024
5-6pm
At The Wellness Collective, 146 Ross River Rd, Mundingburra.

Please RSVP your interest in attending this workshop.

How we choose to take care of our newborn mothers is an investment in our future.

Each year 1 in 5 Australian women suffer from perinatal anxiety and depression. I would assume due to recall bias these statistics are actually higher.

There is an urgent need for community acknowledgement, awareness & support, to reduce the immediate and long-term impact on not only our mothers but on our children and families.

Postpartum Care continues to be undervalued, under-researched & an under-funded area of health and wellness, however it is in fact health preventing & health promoting.

Postpartum Care is a necessity not just a luxury. It requires our modern society to change the narrative of the “bounce back” & “getting on with it” culture.
It requires us to re-member our roots and to be deeply present with ourselves.

If you would like to learn more, please D M me to connect.

✨ Everything you need is already within you ✨

No need for me to say too much more, try it for yourself.

DM or comment to share your experience.

With Love

Michelle x

💥Postpartum care is a topic which in our society is undervalued, under researched & underfunded. It is my dream, my vision and my responsibility to continue to grow our communities awareness & acknowledgment, & to have all mums understand, value & feel deserving of postpartum support.

Last night as part of the Sundalah Wellness Festival, we and I spoke to a intimate audience of midwives, women’s health physiotherapist and pregnant mamas on a topic I am, we are so deeply passionate about;
- POSTPARTUM CARE!

Together we;
✨Explored the current narrative
✨Touched on traditional & cross cultural lenses
✨Spoke to the implications of the lack of postpartum care for short and long term health
✨ Discussed some essential elements of postpartum care for maternal & family wellness
✨ Voiced how Community is foundational to supporting mums

This picture was taken at the end of our talk and represents so much for me. I think our faces say it all.

To anyone who has cared to read this far, this is my reminder - When you are deeply passionate about something, keep trusting in yourself and your vision.

💥If you missed our talk & are interested in learning more, reach out for future postpartum care workshop dates or 1:1 postpartum planning sessions.

With gratitude

Michelle
Xx

✨ Breastfeeding

For some mothers breastfeeding comes easy and for others it can sometimes feel unnatural clunky, painful and bring feelings of anxiety and unease.

If you are in the trenches of breastfeeding worries or would like to learn more before bub comes along.

I am now offering 1:1 antenatal education & postnatal support at a very affordable price, with no strings attached.

My approach is hands off and aimed to guide a mother to own her inner wisdom. Appts can be set up via tele-health or in-home visits.

DM or comment with 🤱🏾 to learn more.

With love

Michelle

Postnatal depression, anxiety and depletion are at an all time high.

Learn why the wellness of our mothers matters more than ever, and discuss the essential elements of nourishing and supporting a newborn mother.

This special workshop is for ALL community members.

You will walk away with a deeper understanding of key elements of supper that all mothers require after birth and how this in turn supports baby and family wellness.

Postpartum Care requires community.

Presents:
Postpartum Care Provides Michelle from Weaving Wellness and Tanya Nourished Beginnings

Dates:
11th April 2024 - 5-6pm
(this Thursday evening )

This workshop is part of the Sundalah Wellness Festival - Tickets to be purchased here: https://festival.sundalah.com.au/

🌷Bespoke Postpartum Ceremony

The Honouring of a woman’s journey to her becoming of mother. Providing you as mum a sacred container to be held to receive, to release and to integrate your own journey into motherhood.

The space is held with fellow postpartum care provider Tanya and our current availability for this offering for the next two months is:

April 23rd - available
April - 27th - booked
May - 11th - available
May - 14th - available

If you are interested or want to know more about this offering, please drop me a DM or comment with a 💛.

✨ YOU ARE ENOUGH ✨I AM ENOUGH ✨

Our core beliefs shape us. Shed the limiting ones and rewrite your story.

You are enough, exactly as you are, mess and all, beautiful and broken. Everything you need, is within you. 💛

Did you know, at least once a week I lay with my children reminding them that it is when their little body is resting and or asleep, their muscles are growing, their brainpower is getting stronger and their bodies are healing.

Rest is a fundamental physiological need for everyone, including us mothers. So why do we as mums feel the need to be in a state of constant production?

Cross-culturally and traditionally an extended rest period is prescribed for newborn mothers, to give their bodies the best chance to heal, to recover and to bond with their babies during the integration phase post birth.

Rest has been proven to have positive impacts on a persons heart rate, blood pressure, mental health and coping abilities, and brings a sense of calmness.

Rest is often viewed as synonymous to sleep, but it’s a concept that encompasses far more aspects of the human experience including the way we conserve energy, our lifestyle balance, our coping skills, the boundaries we set and our time management. Rest can be physical, sensory, social and or emotional rest.

Above everything rest is definitely not a waste of time and it definitely is not counter productive. It is an occupation which needs to be honoured in all its incredible power which it brings!

Have you thought about your relationship with rest? I challenge you to look at how much time you give yourself to rest.

Yesterday I did a breath work session and one thing that surfaced for me was the sensation of feeling as if I had forgotten to breath. It might sound silly but most often we as mothers are so busy managing the juggle of life we forget to use the fullness of our breath.

When was the last time you paused to simply just breathe?

Well my friends, This is my prompt to you right now, to take a pause and just be with your breathe!

Swipe to learn more.

If you ever find yourself feeling a sense of overwhelm or worrying about the past or the future.

Try this quick, easy and free activity. It gives you an opportunity to take a pause, to attune to your five external senses, and bring you back to the present moment.

Try it and see for yourself.

It is also suitable for everyone of all ages. I often find myself doing this with my children when we are outside exploring and it gives us all a sense of gratitude to our surroundings.

The postpartum season is our greatest gift and is full of diverse richness.

How we treat ourselves and what we choose to receive or not receive during the early weeks and months after birth, has the potential to influence both you and your babies health and wellness thereafter.

This makes up a big part of my ‘why’. Providing holistic and mother-led postpartum support and nourishment promotes health and wellness and is essentially the core of preventative healthcare.
It is also the reclamation and the remembering of our blueprint.

If this speaks to you on a deeper level, like, share or comment. I would love to hear from you.

✨✨✨ threads of well-being

Self care goes beyond the act of brushing your teeth.

As women and as mothers, we have the responsibility of preserving our own essence.

We must prioritise our own well-being and tend to our own self, the way we deserve, through acts of compassion and self-love.

We must cultivate daily self-care practices, to help us feel grounded, to let go of our worries, forgive our past, wash away our troubles and deeply connect to our being.

Can you make self-care a non-negotiable? Not sure where to start or need help to optimise self-care practices.
Reach out and I can help guide you.

IGNITE the fire which burns inside. Let it be the generator of your energy. Pay attention to how it burns and connect to its essence.

GROW from what fuels this fire, allow it to help guide and build your inner strength. Let it keep you curious. Enable it to melt away what no longer serves you and what is out of your control.

TRANSFORM - Embody the fire and let it give rise to the version of you which you desire to be. Let this fire liberate you with passion and clear vision. Dance with it and let its radiance be your guiding light.

Sometimes this fire may be wild and raging calling for passion, at other times it may be a just small glowing ember requiring love and connection.

Have you taken time to pay attention to your inner fire? What fuels it? What dampens it?

On my walk along the beach this week this palm from spoke a thousands words to me. I saw it sticking out of the sand and I instantly sympathised with the leaves, thinking to myself, that’s exactly how I feel.

All day I had been feeling a sense of heaviness, irritation, exhaustion and like I was being smothered. I was then thankful, the palm buried in the sand had made me take a pause, reflect and realise I was deep in OVERWHELM.

I share this because having these feelings from time to time are the reality of being a mother,, however a sense of OVERWHELM WHICH LINGERS FOR DAYS, WEEKS or MONTHS IS NOT NORMAL.

Part of my why in taking my journey to help mothers is for mothers to never feel alone, for mothers to know there is someone close by who they can to turn to for support, guidance and care at any moment.

The overwhelm in motherhood is real, and if it burdens us, it burdens our children. This is why mothers need support, this is why mothers need the wise women in their communities, this is why mothers need time and space to reconnect with their centre.

If this has triggered anything inside of you, please reach out, speak to someone or seek support.

Mothering was never meant to be done alone.

Can you relate?

We are all wired for connection.

Oxytocin is our love hormone which in motherhood helps us to protect our offspring.
It is context dependent and changes frequently. If we feel unsafe it will promote defensive and protective behaviours. If we feel safe, oxytocin promotes healing, growth and connection.

We each have a role to help protect a mothers oxytocin supply, as the ripple affects are essential to her and her babies survival, short term wellbeing and long term health.

Swipe to find out ways to help protect a mothers oxytocin supply.

One Off Postpartum Visits -

Designed to help support, nourish and guide mothers at any stage through the first 12 months after birth.

From 1 day, 1 week, 1 month or 1 year postpartum.
✨
For the mums who may have not organised a postpartum package and get home to discover they would like a little extra care and support.
Or
For the mum who is 1 week postpartum and wants a little extra support to build her confidence in care giving activities.
Or
For the who is 1 month postpartum and feels depleted and just wants to have an opportunity to tend to her own self care needs.
Or
For the mum who gets to 6 months postpartum and suddenly feels a sense of overwhelm and loneliness.
Or
For the mums who get to 12 months and want support to reconnect with herself and tend to any scars left from childbirth.

Designed for any mum at any stage in the first 12 months. No referral needed, simply a phone call away, with flexible hours to suit your needs.

Offering Postpartum Care Packages

Availability -
September, October, November, and December

If you are interested please contact me for more details or book a non-obligatory tele-health call via the link in bio.

Our food is medicine, our fuel source and helps us to feel safe.

What we choose to put in our body matters.

There are a lot of resources and education of what foods we ‘should and should not’ eat during pregnancy, however little education is provided regarding what foods are important after birth.

Nourishment through our food in the weeks following birth is essential for postpartum healing, breast milk production, immunity boosting and protection of our cognitive abilities.

Foods in the postpartum season should be easy to digest, warm in temperature and warming in nature.

Information I wish I had of known more about in my postpartum journey. Instead I drank a lot of cold smoothies and ate salads - no wonder I become rundown and sick.

What I should of been eating was warm soups, bone broths and slow cooked meals, all of which I now love to cook for newborn mothers.

I am interested to know what your first foods after birth were or will be?

Motherhood changes us completely and wholeheartedly.

“Your body evolves, your brain expands and your love explodes” Michelle Joy

Reframing the way we view the changes which occur to us as we become mothers can help shift some of the negative connotations that may be associated to them.

Let’s look at what we refer to has “baby brain”, attached to this phrase automatically sparks negative associations.

Research from our fellow mother neuroscientists are proving this otherwise and are helping us to understand the positive brain adaptations which occur to ensure we as mothers evolve.

From the moment a woman falls pregnant, the architecture of her brain starts re-organising re-sculpting and adapting, all to help ensure the survival of her baby.

Lets celebrate a Mothers evolution to protect her baby, the way she was physiologically designed to - her increased senses, ability to assess risk, increased efficiency, expanded feelings of empathy and ability to better read non-verbal cues, the list is expansive but I think you get the picture.

Reach out if you would like to learn more.

I am just sitting by the fire 🔥 pondering life and thought it’s time we as a society start normalising the importance of warmth in the postpartum season. Something I wish I had is known nearly 5 years ago!!

Postpartum is considered a cold state of being, when a mother is at her most vulnerable - physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

The practice of preserving and building warmth into the body is a traditional prescription cross culturally.

Take the traditional custodians of the Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory as an example. A mother is moved from her site of birth to another nearby clearing, where a fire had been burning since the onset of her labour. The fire is then extinguished and the ashes removed. The newborn mother can then squat or sit over the warm earth, some of the warm earth is then also wrapped in a cloth, which the mother can then hold against her abdomen.

Warmth is required to promote healing and to protect a mothers immunity, fortifying her strength and resilience for long term health and well-being.

Bringing warmth to the body also helps to optimise circulation helping to improve the bodies capacity to heal.

As a postpartum care provider I can help bring this warmth through rituals like moxibustion, which is a traditional chinese medicine practice. Recent studies have proven moxibustion aids in the building of blood and immunity.

If you want to know more, please feel free to reach out. For now I hope all of you mums out there at least have socks on your feet.

With Grace

Michelle Joy

LAUNCHING: A co-creation between .of.loving and .au

Together we have created a beautiful day retreat to bring all the beautiful mothers together to honour each other and each of our own unique journeys through the seasons of motherhood.

The day has been curated to carve out space and time to connect with self and with other mothers. To reflect, to share and to create unique pieces of art to freely express each of our own your transitions into becoming mother.

Bri and myself, are both mothers who juggle life around our children and we are extremely passionate about creating village to witness and hold each other through the motherhood.

When: 15th July
Where: Magnetic Island
Bookings are essential and available via www.weavingwellness.au
for any further details please do not hesitate to contact myself or .of.loving

Mothering was never meant to be traversed alone. The first weeks, months and years of a child’s life require a mothers / primary caregivers rapid attention to their needs for comfort, affection and play, as this helps in building healthy attachment and brain development.

This rapid demand is too much for just one person, and it requires a mother/primary caregiver to feel supported and resourced.

Strong social support helps protect a mothers / primary caregivers own nervous systems as the support acts as a buffer from the toxins of stress.

Research has proven that a lack of social contact is more damaging to our health than obesity, and smoking a pack of cigerettes a day - loneliness is both detrimental to a mothers/primary caregivers and a child’s health.

Support may look different to different people. The best way to feel supported is to start asking for support. This may require creativity about how and what help feels like. It may look like sharing play dates with a trusted family/friend, paying for a doula, a babysitter, a cleaner or attending a mothers group / something similar.

Having a village of care is important through motherhood but even more critical in the first 3 months following birth. This is the time a mother is at her most vulnerable and must prioritise her time to rest, heal and be with her baby over household chores.

If you feel overwhelmed or unsure where to start, I offer support to help guide you in finding your own unique village including 1:1 postpartum planning sessions either via a home visit or via a Telehealth appointment.

Please DM for any further information or support.

With Grace
Michelle

ANNOUNCEMENT- I am hosting a Preparing for Postpartum Workshop

Saturday 1st July
9am -12pm
Serenity Space Yoga Studio, Magnetic Island

Click on the link in my bio or head to www.weavingwellness.au to see details and to purchase your ticket.

Postpartum - defined in the dictionary as “time after birth” where many of us immediately visualise a mother cradling her baby as they adjust and attach to each other in their new found physical forms.

Many of us do not visualise the postpartum mother as the one cradling her womb following her miscarriage, or the mother who feels the emptiness after a heart wrenching medical termination.

Truth be it, any woman who has “carried the soul energy of life in her womb” will experience the major transition of postpartum.

Postpartum is a time of extreme intensity and massive adjustment - physically, cognitively, emotionally, and mentally. No matter the mothers lived experience, postpartum is a time which requires community.

We must honour, hold and support all women through all of their mothering transitions - fertility, pregnancy, birth and POSTPARTUM.

As an Occupational Therapist and Postpartum Care Doula I offer holistic and integrative postpartum care and support to ALL women, ALL mothers.

Please DM if you would like to know more.

With Grace
Michelle Joy