The Rooted Womb

11/07/2025

Preparing for a Physiological Birth: Rooted, Nourished, and Sovereign

(from the Sacred Roots Birth Prep Course: Resources by The Rooted Womb)

Birth is not something to control—it’s something to surrender to.
When your body, mind, and intuition are prepared, birth flows with power, rhythm, and ease.

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🔻 Cultivate Nervous System Regulation & Deep Intuition

Birth is primal. Your nervous system and intuition are your compass.
If you’re in fear or tension, your body resists the process.

Practice:
• Breathwork and low vocal toning — relaxes cervix and pelvic floor
• Somatic release — shaking, dancing, movement, bodywork
• Deep listening — tuning into your body’s signals daily

When you are rooted in your body’s wisdom, no outside voice can shake you.

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🔻 Rewrite the Narrative & Unlearn Conditioning

We’ve been conditioned to believe birth is something to manage or be rescued from.
In truth, it is an instinctive, physiological rite of passage—your body was made for this.

Courses for Reclamation:
• The Freebirth Society – The Complete Guide to Freebirth
A full spectrum course that reclaims birth as sacred and physiological.
($350 payment plans available)
thefreebirthsociety.com

• Indie Birth – 13 Moons: Epic Education for the Birthing Year (Pay-What-You-Can)
A 50+ hour program exploring pregnancy, labor, postpartum, physiology, and sovereignty.
indiebirth.org/13moons

• Hypnobabies – Hypnobirthing Home Study / Online Course
A comprehensive, evidence-based hypnosis course that rewires fear into relaxation and calm.
hypnobabies.com

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🔻 Essential Books & Authors

Foundational Texts:
• Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage – Rachel Reed
• Portal: The Art of Choosing Or****ic Birth – Yolanda Norris Clark
• Birth as an American Rite of Passage – Robbie E. Davis-Floyd
(Anthropological classic on how U.S. birth mirrors our technocratic culture.)
• Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering – Dr Sarah Buckley
• The Oxytocin Factor – Kerstin Uvnäs-Moberg
• Birth in Four Cultures – Brigitte Jordan
• Birth and Breastfeeding – Michel Odent
• Womb Wisdom – Anaiya Sophia Bertrand
• The Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year – Susun W**d
• Or****ic Birth – Elizabeth Davis & Debra Pascali-Bonaro
• Birthing from Within – Pam England
• After the Baby’s Birth – Robin Lim
• Childbirth Wisdom: From the World’s Oldest Societies – Judith Goldsmith

Academic & Research Resources:
• Downe, S. – Promoting Normal Birth
• Dahan, O. – Birthing Consciousness
• Raymond, J.G. – Women as Wombs
• Zaphiriou-Zarifi, H. – The Rupture of the Sacred
• Boucher, D. – Birthing in Sovereignty
• Saxell, L. – The Physiology of Undisturbed Birth

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🔻 Podcasts Worth Listening To

• The Freebirth Society Podcast – Emilee Saldaya
Listen on Spotify

• Taking Back Birth – Maryn Green (Indie Birth)
Freebirth stories, physiological wisdom, sovereignty

• The Holistic OBGYN Podcast – Dr Nathan Riley
Conscious medicine, sovereignty, and birth physiology

• Born Free Method: The Podcast – Integrative perinatal awareness

• Blissful Birth – Yolanda Norris Clark & Kelly Brogan
Listen on Spotify

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🔻 Films & Documentaries

• Birth as We Know It – Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova
• Or****ic Birth: The Best-Kept Secret – Debra Pascali-Bonaro
• These Are My Hours – Intimate real-time homebirth
• Why Not Home? – Medical professionals choosing homebirth
• Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and the Farm Midwives
• In Utero – Prenatal experiences and lifelong consciousness

Video Libraries:
• Freebirth Society Video Library – Real sovereign births
• Indie Birth Birth Stories – Raw and unassisted births
• Nurture Nature (YouTube) – Gentle homebirths
• Lotus Birth: The Water Birth Documentary – Cord non-severance
• Sacred Birth: A Documentary – Ritual and cultural birth wisdom

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🔻 Nourish Your Body for Strength & Resilience

What you eat builds the foundation of your hormones, tissues, and stamina.

Focus On:
• Mineral-rich foods (bone broths, organ meats, sea salt)
• Healthy fats (tallow, butter, coconut oil)
• Protein with every meal for blood sugar balance
• Traditional nutrition resources: Weston A. Price Foundation

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🔻 Align Your Body: Biomechanics, Fascia & Flow

Tight fascia or imbalanced posture can slow birth.
Support your body:
• Daily walking & stretching
• Myofascial release and yoga
• Upright and instinctual positions in labor

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🔻 Womb Work, Cycle Literacy & Feminine Health

• Wild Power – Alexandra Pope & Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer
• Menstruality Medicine Circle – Red School
• Inner Seasons of the Menstrual Cycle – Red School Blog
• Vaginal Steaming for Labor Prep – Steamy Chick Institute
– Beneficial at 38 weeks + for labor preparation and postpartum healing
– Supports hormonal balance and uterine clearing

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🔻 Scientific Research & Evidence-Based Links

• Cochrane Review: Planned Home Births vs Hospital Births
• Buckley, S. – Hormonal Blueprint of Labor (PDF Download)
• Wickham, S. – In Your Own Time
• Dr Nathan Riley – Instagram Reels on Steaming

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🔻 Baby Sleep: The Biological Norm

Across the world, babies sleep beside their mothers. The modern practice of sleep-training and isolation is a recent Western experiment.

Articles & Research:
• “Why Human Babies Should Not Sleep Alone” – Neuroanthropology
• Dr James McKenna – Cosleeping Around the World
• SAGE Journal – Placental Mammals & Infant Needs
• Oxford Academic – Physiological Regulation & Breastfeeding
• NIH – Bedsharing & SIDS Risk Review
• BBC Future – Unusual Ways Western Parents Raise Children

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🔻 Community & Inner Grounding

Birth is not just a physical act—it’s an initiation.
Surround yourself with those who trust the body and protect your sacred space.
Remember: You are the expert on your own birth.

🔻 Breastfeeding: Nourish, Bond, Protect

Breastfeeding is not just feeding—it’s a profound act of physiology, bonding, immunity and maternal wellbeing.
Key benefits:
• For baby: optimal nutrition, immune protection, digestive ease.
• For you: hormone regulation, uterine contraction support, reduced risk of certain cancers.
• For dyad: the skin-to-skin closeness supports nervous system regulation and connection.

Practical supports:
• ▶ Find a La Leche League leader: La Leche League International
• ▶ Breastfeeding resource library: USBreastfeeding.org
• ▶ Guidance on returning to work, storage & pumping: Nutrition.gov – Breastfeeding

Embed into your birth prep story:
• Start visualizing feeding as part of the birth continuum—your baby flows into you, you hang gently in their presence.
• Gather your lactation support early (peer, IBCLC, groups).
• Protect your body & nervous system in the postpartum so the breast-feed journey is honoured and held.

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🔻 On Male Circumcision: Autonomy, Integrity & Evidence

In the context of birth, body sovereignty, and maternal/family care, the topic of non-therapeutic male circumcision intersects with ethics, bodily autonomy and the medicalization of infants.

Voices & research to explore:
• ▶ Intact America – advocacy group highlighting harms of infant male circumcision, bodily integrity issues. intactamerica.org
• ▶ “Evidence and Ethics on: Circumcision” – explores that claimed health benefits are minor, the risks/harms outweigh them for non-medically indicated procedures. evidencebasedbirth.com
• ▶ Guardian article: “Foreskin reclaimers: the ‘intactivists’ fighting infant male circumcision” – narratives from men who feel their bodily integrity was compromised.

11/07/2025

A compilation for the descent… this Season brings death of old selves and a time to go inward, into the darkness only to be rebirthed come spring .. Let it feel heavy, let it be light, let it Be . And so it is 🧙‍♀️💜🔻

11/07/2025

A compilation for the descent… this Season brings death of old selves and a time to go inward, into the darkness only to be rebirthed come spring .. Let it feel heavy, let it be light, let it Be . And so it is 🧙‍♀️💜🔻

11/07/2025

Let’s talk about what’s often left out of the conversation.

When we talk about breastfeeding, we’re not just talking about a feeding choice, we’re talking about a biological process with measurable health outcomes.

Every major health organization, including the WHO, AAP, and CDC, recognizes that not breastfeeding is linked to higher rates of illness and disease. This doesn’t mean formula is “bad.” It means that human milk contains living, active components that formula simply can’t replicate… immune cells, antibodies, hormones, enzymes, and stem cells that protect and program your baby’s body in ways science is still discovering.

🧠 Breast milk is preventative medicine. It’s designed to reduce the risk of:
-Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
-Ear infections
-Obesity and diabetes
-Asthma, allergies, and lung infections
-Childhood cancers and chronic diseases
-Diarrhea and infection-related hospitalizations

These are not scare tactics, they’re public health facts. When mothers are supported, educated, and given the time and tools to breastfeed, these outcomes improve across entire populations.

Breastfeeding advocacy isn’t anti-formula,
it’s pro-science, pro-support, and pro-mother. 💛

11/05/2025

“Every human being begins as a mystery and a message. And just like in the great myths, the first chapters—our origin stories—have immense power. These early stories set the tone for how we relate to ourselves, others, and the world. Do we feel safe? Seen? Wanted? Connected? These aren’t just emotional questions. They are the foundation of health, creativity, resilience, and purpose. This is why we must begin the work of healing before conception. Our origin stories matter. And it is in the sacred window of preconception and pregnancy that we can plant seeds of genius—or unconsciously repeat cycles of trauma.” – Joseph Jacques

Our stories began before birth, written in the emotional and energetic landscape of the womb. Emerging research in prenatal psychology and epigenetics reveals that our earliest experiences shape how we relate to ourselves, others, and the world.

Healing, then, must begin before conception—at the level of story and soul. Keep reading “Birthing Humanity: The Power of Story Before Life Begins” by Joseph Jacques now: https://pathwaystofamilywellness.org/childrens-health-wellness/birthing-humanity-the-power-of-story-before-life-begins.html

11/05/2025

Come into a practice with me and breathe for a min… read poem , let settle, feel what’s arising, notice, breathe ….

This poem is answering the question ‘what to do’ when you are lost, offering a road map to being found. The powerful practice of stopping, pausing, opening to what’s around you with respect rather than letting the internal chatter take center stage. Good advice for these days, I think…
(Synopses below)
💜🧙🏼‍♀️🔻🕉☀️🧘‍♀️🌓🤱🏼🪴🍄🌻💜
“Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

David Wagoner

“This poem in its original form is often recited by the poet David White. Speaking about its depth he says

“This is a poem on the matter of ‘waking up’ and saving our lives. The poem is in the form of a story given by an old native American elder. A story handed down from generation to generation. The kind of story an elder would tell to a young girl or boy whose own life somehow depended on the question – ‘what do I do when I am lost in the forest?’

This poem has three qualities implicit in it …three qualities which we might use when approaching the depth of meaning. The first is this tremendous silence – tangible…that what is asked for by the elder is silence

The second quality is an ‘Attention ‘ that is asked for…a tremendous attention on the world…such that one is asked to go out of ones ordinary everyday view of the world.

And the third quality is that the question itself is turned on it’s head. The question ‘what do I do when I..
I am lost in the forest’ is not the question at all …the elder says ‘you don’t even know who you are…

the forest will tell you who you are.

We can see this in our state of consciousness we can see it in very practical terms also…when we look deeply and we learn the ways and the truth of the ‘forest’ then wherever we are we are at home…that’s the practical level and on the consciousness level it’s an asking to give out…”forget yourself to find yourself” To forget ourselves does not mean to abandon ourselves it means to drop all the ideas about “I am this and I am like this.”
This is a stranglehold that we cant find our true freedom. When we feel lost we panic and grasp onto anything that is there that makes us momentarily feel secure.

We practice this poem as the elders still encourage us to do ….

Stand Still…

stand still the trees ahead and

bushes beside you are not lost

Wherever you are is called here 🔻🧙‍♀️🐉🌓♑️🔆..

11/05/2025

11/01/2025

“Giving conscious birth is a woman’s vision quest par excellence” 🔻 “prenatal yoga sexualizes spirituality and spiritualizes fertility” Yoni Shakti- Uma Dinsmore Tulli

A reminder that researchers looking at the effectiveness of prenatal yoga on delivery outcomes undertook a meta-analysis with interesting results.

They, “identified that yoga improved vaginal delivery, decreased premature delivery and birth weight of newborns, shorten the labor duration.” (Rong et al 2020).

A note about the birth weight finding before anyone asks. This doesn’t mean that the babies were compromised or didn’t grow well. The average weight of the babies in the yoga and non-yoga groups was within normal limits and the researchers seem to be suggesting that this might mean that women who did yoga in these studies had babies who were less likely to be affected by gestational diabetes, but this needs more research.

The authors concluded that, “Prenatal yoga is an effective complementary medicine to improve delivery outcomes and not to increase the risk of fetus, which is worth recommending to pregnant women.”

Not all of the studies involved in this meta-analysis were of high quality, but it’s great that this gives us some evidence and a better idea of what we need to look at in future research.

You can see the original research at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1744388119308503

We share research for those who like to stay up-to-date with birth-related research and thinking. If you’re a midwife, birth worker or pregnancy yoga teacher who would like to delve deeper into studies, get updated on what’s new and become better at understanding research, join Dr Sara Wickham for an online course. Details at https://app.ruzuku.com/courses/69379/about
-Yoni Shakti
-illustrations

11/01/2025

“Giving conscious birth is a woman’s vision quest par excellence” 🔻 “prenatal yoga sexualizes spirituality and spiritualizes fertility” Yoni Shakti- Uma Dinsmore Tully

A reminder that researchers looking at the effectiveness of prenatal yoga on delivery outcomes undertook a meta-analysis with interesting results.

They, “identified that yoga improved vaginal delivery, decreased premature delivery and birth weight of newborns, shorten the labor duration.” (Rong et al 2020).

A note about the birth weight finding before anyone asks. This doesn’t mean that the babies were compromised or didn’t grow well. The average weight of the babies in the yoga and non-yoga groups was within normal limits and the researchers seem to be suggesting that this might mean that women who did yoga in these studies had babies who were less likely to be affected by gestational diabetes, but this needs more research.

The authors concluded that, “Prenatal yoga is an effective complementary medicine to improve delivery outcomes and not to increase the risk of fetus, which is worth recommending to pregnant women.”

Not all of the studies involved in this meta-analysis were of high quality, but it’s great that this gives us some evidence and a better idea of what we need to look at in future research.

You can see the original research at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1744388119308503

We share research for those who like to stay up-to-date with birth-related research and thinking. If you’re a midwife, birth worker or pregnancy yoga teacher who would like to delve deeper into studies, get updated on what’s new and become better at understanding research, join Dr Sara Wickham for an online course. Details at https://app.ruzuku.com/courses/69379/about
-Yoni Shakti
-illustrations

10/31/2025

🌖🌗🌘🌑🌒🌓🌔
Even though chaos is all around, we wax and wane, pause, and flow into rhythm ☯️ our nervous system pendulates between expansion and contraction, organizing, moving from that which is chaotic into order, aligning with the rhythm of our organism, the rhythm of the universe —-
beginning our festivities this day, All Hallows’ Eve, when the veil is thin and everything is like magic 🕸🔮
—tea time tomorrow for Dia De Los Mu***os, all of you filthy Saints will be in our hearts, heading into All Souls’ Day may your cups be filled up with life and love and cherish the ones that no longer share this physical realm 🌀🔻💜

And so it be dear ones 🕉

“Samhain, Samhain, let the ritual begin
We call upon our sacred ancestors to come in
Samhain, Samhain, we call upon our kin
We call upon our dear departed loved ones to come in

The veil between the worlds is thin
Our hearts reach cross the sea of time
To bring our loved ones in
Samhain, Samhain, we honor all our kin
We honor those who’ve gone before
As the Great Wheel turns again”
~ Lisa Thiel