Some Ideas for Planning a Mother Blessing Helen, who has been involved in 4 Mother Blessing and helped to plan others, found the things that everyone seemed to enjoy the most were: The bead ceremony. This is a nice way to get EVERYONE, not just those who can actually make it to the event, involved. In one case I managed to get hold of the email addresses of a friend who had friends and family scattered all over Australia and the world. Most of them sent in a bead and a note, which meant so much to the mother as she read them. It gives a really nice feeling for the mother to be to feel that she’s surrounded by so much love from those around her, with a physical reminder of their presence to have with them at their birth. The cord ceremony – Binding everyone’s wrists with a single cord of red wool or some other yarn. Everyone then keeps the string around their wrists until they hear that the birth is happening – then they all cut the cord as a symbol of unity. Plus the cord is a nice way to remind others to be thinking of the prospective mother. Flowers and/or Henna – A crown of flowers made for the mother always makes her feel special, and henna [body art, typically on the belly and/or hands] (if you can get someone who does it) is always good fun for the mother and other guests. There are loads of traditions associated with “mother” henna. Massage – Always bliss for a pregnant mama. Head, shoulder, hand and foot massage (maybe not hand if she’s getting henna done!) needs no explanation. All these things are done to make the mother feel nurtured, protected, surrounded by love, and supported. The final one that isn’t so much a blessingway thing but it is sooooooooooo important. The Meal Roster! Getting everyone who comes to commit to making one, maybe two dinners on a particular day for the family. The idea is to try to cover two weeks at least where the new parents won’t have to worry about at least one meal of the day! Bella threw a Mother Blessing for her sister for her last pregnancy. “We all brought a meal to put in her freezer and a bead for her to make into a necklace (actually she made it into a mobile that she attached to her birth pool). We all gathered at one point and as we gave her our bead we told her why we had picked what we had for her. Then we held onto a ball of red yarn and threw it back and forth around a circle to each other and as we threw the yarn we said to the mother what we wanted for her, for her birth. Before we let go of the yarn we wrapped it once around our wrists. At the end we cut the yarn around our wrists and threaded onto it a small red bead my sister gave us and tied them on our wrists. We kept our bracelets on until after the birth. After that we gave her a foot and hand rub and shoulder massage. We also painted her belly with henna – it was gorgeous!” Gabrielle has attended several Mother Blessings. “Some beautiful experiences i’ve shared at blessingways are the sharing of birth stories around the circle – positive stories of the journey of the women in the circle, as well as crafting blanket patchwork pieces for the mother to use with her new baby, singing sacred circle songs, meditations, bellydancing… another thing women can do is introduce themselves with their maternal line of ancestors, for example, I am Gabrielle, daughter of Catherine, granddaughter of Patricia, great granddaughter of etc etc… it’s a nice way to honour those women who have gone before us.”
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 21:22:38 +0000
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