Hello Cecilie and a very warm womb felt welcome to you. I am so pleased to have you here.
This is a virtual space where we can chat about all the Womb things and share where we are in our womb story.
Thank you for having me <3
I would love to start by asking where you are in the many cycles we are constantly moving within? (E.g menstrual, life, moon, 24 hour!).
I’m on cycle day 7, a few days into my inner Spring, after having had a really good bleed where I hardly had any cramps and felt present and connected. Seriously so good!
Today though I am feeling anxious, my son (who is 2.5 years old) has been sick all weekend and I’ve been both worried about him and stretched by his needs. I’m longing to connect and tend to myself by journaling or dancing. Emotionally I am feeling very grateful for my family and the life I am living. This is my 12th cycle postpartum, it took 18 months to return and I really missed it while I was waiting around for it - I felt like a boat without an anchor. Getting my cycle back has been grounding and a real journey in getting to know myself again, now as a mother.
I know language is powerful and that the words we use to describe female anatomy can be loaded. I would love to ask you how you feel about the word womb?
I love this word because it makes me think of the Middle Ages. At uni I studied English Literature and specialised in gender and mediaeval studies, and I absolutely loved it. I fell in love with the dark, mystical, absurd and wondrous tales and texts I was reading. Even though it might sound strange, diving into this far gone time and getting really geeky about their social structures and understanding of the world, enabled me to reflect on and explore my own perception of my modern world and life. One of my courses was called something like ‘Wombs and Tombs’ and I just remember how I was amazed with the conceptualisation of the womb as a vessel for both life and death. So the word ‘womb’ to me means so much more than a uterus with a lining that sheds and holds babies - it’s a mystical place of life and death of the physical and non-physical.
I know you have been on a big transition recently by birthing a baby with your womb, can I invite you to describe your current relationship with your womb?
Ah this question is great, thank you for asking me about my womb. I have so much reverence for my womb - that she nourished my baby until the placenta was big enough and gave him the safe space he needed. I freebirthed my son at home in our little bathroom with only my partner present. It was so wild and intense but through the whole process I trusted that my womb and baby knew what they were doing.
It blows my mind how she can shed her lining over and over, shapeshift from being a fist size to homing a baby, and push a baby out. Wild and powerful!
My relationship with my womb has changed a lot: from being non-existent to a space I tune into daily. When I first got pregnant I was so overwhelmed by the thought that a place inside me could be the most safe space for another human being. It really humbled me and I gave lots of thanks to my womb. Now 2,5 years later I have a different appreciation for my womb - it’s deeper and more nuanced. I listen to what she tells me, literally through the blood she sheds - what does she feel like (painful, tight, expansive, easeful?) and what does the blood look like (fresh bright red, thick and deep dark?). It's a constant communion, where I try to listen as best as possible. I have a history of overriding my physical wellbeing - drinking, smoking and partying hard - where now I can no longer ignore what my womb is telling me, which most of the time is to chill the f*** out! Becoming body literate in this way has enabled me to fall in love with my womb and her cycle, which in turn has had an effect on my well-being and connection to self.
I am really interested to know if your relationship with your womb has changed? And if so how?
I was first connected to my womb as an adult when I got off the pill and had my first real bleed. I hadn’t had my menstruation since my mid-teens and honestly hadn’t thought about my womb at all. During all those years while maturing into a woman, I had thought about wombs, any wombs, other women’s wombs, but in a very either conceptual or matter of fact way.
This didn’t last long though as my womb had plans for me to really know her! One night I was lying in bed and suddenly woke up because my curtain had opened slightly and through the gap the full moon was looking straight at me - literally lighting up my face. This had never happened before. As I lay there thinking about how this was a really beautiful moment, and how magical the moon is to look at, I not long after felt the first initial pangs of what came to be my first adult bleed. It was like the moon had woken me up, readying me for the most natural and cyclical thing to happen, yet a happening that would be completely excruciating! Within a short amount of time the cramps came dull and deep, making me writhe in bed, until I couldn’t stand it anymore and went to the bathroom and ran myself a hot bath. This helped a little, literally scorching my body with hot water, but I couldn’t make the pain go away. I realised at this moment how I was an animal, part of nature. I couldn’t think straight, I was no longer in my head with all my fancy thoughts, but flesh and blood, completely embodied and present with this painful experience.
Since then my bleeds have gotten much milder as I have learnt to embrace my blood and my body’s cyclical rhythm, but it was a powerful initiation into my female body and womanhood. It was a call to look after myself and tend to my needs!
As a FAM (fertility awareness method) fan how do you share womb wisdom with your clients?
I teach women to become body literate, by educating them on how their bodies work. This means that women learn how to analyse their blood, cervical mucus and temperature to establish if they are healthy and fertile or not, at any given time in their cycle. Women can then use this womb wisdom to avoid or achieve pregnancy naturally - a powerful tool to reclaim trust in your own body! Fertility Awareness Method is quite masculine in its energy - you collect and observe data. However, I love to combine this skill with Menstrual Cycle Awareness, which is a much more feminine practice where you tune into how you feel throughout the cycle.
By using these two tools the women I work with, strike a balance that supports their fertility, by avoiding synthetic hormones, whilst also looking after their emotional and spiritual wellbeing. Practically, this looks like charting the cycle, doing womb meditations and visualisations, and exploring each woman’s Red Thread - her storyline from her first menstruation to the current day. There is so much wisdom and juicy experiences in these practices to uncover!
It would be wonderful if you could share your top three tips for menstruators to reconnect with their womb wisdom?
Blood rituals! Gathering your blood and connecting with it in a ritualistic way (you can check out how to via my BLOOD highlight on Instagram) is a great way of starting afresh, setting intentions, and peeling off the layers of shame that most of us carry about our wombs, blood and cycles.
Listening to and following what you need during your bleed. What is your womb deeply calling for you to do - Rest? A quiet walk? Lying in fresh clean sheets? A hot bath? Connecting with a loved one?
Learn how to track and chart your cycle (from a FAM or MCA perspective, or both)! It is powerful knowing yourself in this way; you will feel deeply connected to your cycle,, and discover a trust and confidence that will ahem bleed into all other areas of your life. You might even freebirth your baby🥳
Thank you so much for being here in the chat womb with me. ♥️ I really appreciate your time and energy.
Before you go, please let readers know how they can get in touch with you.
Find me @cycleswithc on Instagram or subscribe to my Substack also called Cycles with C - I love to chat and connect, don’t hesitate to reach out!
Warmly
Hannah
CEO @ Womb Wisdom
Comentários