I was living in Boulder, Colorado with my teenage daughter, working in the field of nutrition, nourishment, and energetic healing when I began to dream about becoming a midwife. At the time, I had loosely stepped into the world of postpartum care by preparing nourishing and yummy foods for new parents and was honoured to witness the profound beauty of mother and baby during this sacred time. This was in 2009, and by 2011 my daughter and I made our way to Australia where I began my training.

​

I quickly learned that to acquire the skills and mentorship aligned with a truly holistic paradigm of midwifery care, I would need to seek out alternative experiences to develop my craft. I travelled to Bali, Indonesia to learn from the midwives and families there and have continued to pursue a non-conventional path which includes the integration of skills from various disciplines such as breathwork, mindful somatic therapy and trauma-informed care, prenatal and perinatal psychology, energetic healing, nutrition and nourishment, bodywork and more.

 

Pregnancy and birth are the work of deep yin transformation and embodiment; it is not a ‘doing’ but an immersive experience, a powerful rite of passage. At the heart of my approach is ‘how’ we come into relationship with each other and how we create a conscious container of safety and trust for the deeply vulnerable yet powerful process that is the birth of new life.

​

The work of creation, of growing and birthing new life into the world, is no less than a miracle, an organic process with its’ own pace, rhythm, and timing. Each one of us arrives here wide open as fully embodied consciousness in a tiny and vulnerable human form. From the earliest moments of arriving in the womb we are conditioned by our mothers’ relationship to her body, environment and how she feels about life. We are conditioned by our culture, our environment, and our families of origin. When we gaze into the eyes of a newborn baby, we are reminded of the openness, wisdom and softness that lies at the heart of each one of us. This remembrance can help to re-calibrate and navigate the terrain of pregnancy from embodied presence, to grow our capacity to meet what arises within us without running, shutting down, or tuning out.

​

This deeper work is an opportunity to open, to soften and ground in a container of receptivity, to bond deeply with your baby well before birth and to embody a greater experience of empowered presence; a wonderful place to welcome your baby from.

 

At the same time, there can be a large amount of information to navigate, and decisions to make regards the experiences you and your baby choose to have. I support an embodied approach to decision-making, which acknowledges the value of evidence-based information from multiple sources whilst equally valuing the mother-baby’s natural pace, process, and intuition, as necessary elements for aligned and in-formed choices to be made. I see all babies as conscious participants and encourage parents to bond, talk, and connect with their little one throughout.

​

I am currently working for MAMA (Midwives and Mothers Australia).

Find me here: https://midwivesandmothers.com.au/blog/author/lindseystirling/