Closing Ceremony

A song dedicated to all in their sacred window after birth. 

The seed of love is planted, buried deep within the divine.

The sacred body nourishes the baby of stars and earth.

The body carries, births and welcomes this baby.

The beautiful vessel now rests, cocooned amongst community love.

Cared for, honored after her sweet surrender.

Now we call sisters to the ceremony, to hold this mother dear.

In thanks to body, soul and spirit, we celebrate you!

Strong courageous mama, we laugh, we sing, we pray, 

Sweet tears to bring us tenderness and connection today. 

Here we touch your sacred body, beautiful and in tune.

We bring your bones inward again,

To kindle your inner flame. 

From wide open to gentle closing: 

As a baby is born, the surrender of this process opens us up wide to the world around us.

As parents we have just journeyed up to stars to fetch our precious child. 

A woman in particular has just opened her body, heart and mind in such a huge way, she needs time to land again. Being close to baby. Being held and nourished after birth is so vitally important, something our sisters of the past deeply understood. 

The first weeks of postpartum is a time of creating a second womb. 

A time to slowly come back into the body and close and ground again. 

As a doula and midwife, I have always felt the importance of being supported to just be after birth. 

I think the root of this understanding comes from my own experience of having 3 children and the observation over many years of birth work. 

If a woman can be supported to be present in those first 4-6 weeks after birth it is magic for her, her baby and all of those around her. It fortifies her and her family for many years to come. 

Honoring: 

Closing the bones is known to have originated out of Central America, I have been blessed to have witnessed many cultures' practices to mark the end of the sacred weeks after birth. 

Ceremonies are so important, a moment in time to mark and honor processes in one’s life.  They give us a sense of meaning and belonging. 

Transition spaces can be challenging and to bring awareness to transitions is a beautiful gift we can bring to ourselves and our communities. 

Unique expression:

Closing ceremonies, I believe can be done in many different ways, we can all bring our authentic, unique selves to this space.

For me in my practice, I treat the whole of the first 42 days after birth as a slow closing, culminating in a closing ceremony at 6 weeks post birth. 

Each time I visit, over the first few weeks, I do a belly rub with warm oils and a binding. I rub the mothers feet, and gently accompany her as she expresses her feelings and thoughts around the birth. I take her steaming teas and hug her closely as she gets used to caring for her baby and coming back from the journey of fetching her baby. 

The flavour of these days is rest, be nourished and surrounded by love. 

At 6 weeks just before engagement with the larger world starts again, we honor this sacred 6 weeks with a final closing ceremony. She is welcomed to have whoever she feels is right to have around, it is completely led by her magnificent intuition as to what is right for her. 

Fathers are deeply moved by this ceremony too and it is wonderful to have them join in whichever way that flows.

After a connection and reflection round, we lay the mother down. I always like to ask her if she has special clothes she would like to use for this, perhaps from a grandmother, sister, aunt, mother or friend. 

We choose special oil blends just for her and massage her. 

Crystals, flowers and music that feel apt for this ceremony are brought, used and thanked. 

And then we wrap her from her feet to her head. Slowly, gently, lovingly we hold her and acknowledge the beautiful work she has done, is doing and will continue to do as a mother. When she is fully wrapped up, we sing a song, breath deeply and bless her body. When she is ready to emerge from being closed, we unwrap her. What follows are often tears, joy, celebration and awe. 

The feeling of courage is felt strongly after such ceremonies. I think these points of deep connection with self and community are so deeply medicinal for us. 

It is an honor to be part of these connecting practices, weaving threads of love and strength with women and their families. 

I have been approached by mothers who have birthed years ago who feel they need a closing ceremony and this is just as powerful to go back and honor birth or becoming parents years later. I have done this for parents who have adopted their baby and for mothers who have lost a baby. This honoring is powerful and my wish is that we all remember to mark these turning points, these moments, these cycles in our lives. It is so simple to create wonder and love for ourselves and our loved ones. These moments create wholeness and healing and this healing ripples out into our beautiful world.