January, 2012

This beautiful Monday morning I am grateful for revelations. Revelations of self, to me, are incredibly necessary – especially as a parent. I have learned that it is extremely important to continue working on my own “issues” – and I have a ton – in order to try and understand and continue to nurture my own children.
I am blessed to have found people that will hold emotional space for me as I work through and question myself. I have been coached, “therapied,” evaluated and assessed by professionals, but the best healing has come in the form of good friends, a wonderful sister and a patient understanding husband.
This Monday I am grateful for/that/to:

1.) The internal nudgings of discontent that I have learned to honour.
2.) Understanding that everything does not have to be perfect.
3.) Failing is heaven. It teaches me the ways that something does not work …and that is all.
4.) Having space for feelings to grow.
5.) Knowing that if I feel crappy it is okay to feel crappy!
6.) I have the awareness that no one can offend me. Only I am capable of that.
7.) You can never stop uncovering your own truths.
8.) People come into our lives for exactly the right reasons: there is a purpose in everyone we meet.
9.) No one needs to teach you a lesson. You will learn what you need, in your own time and at your own pace.
10.) Plenty of people will meet you where you are…and help you move to where you need to go. Or not.
11.) You can never believe everything you think.
12.) Your lens…for viewing life, understanding yourself, your children and your reality will develop and evolve. The lens you grew up viewing yourself through is not yours. See yourself as you truly are.

Please share with us your revelations…as big, small or otherwise as you care to share! We learn from you and we really do want to know.

With much love,
Carol xoxo

Category : Blog

Come out to this information session to find out how a doula can enhance your birth experience. Meet a couple of the Babies Naturally doulas, ask questions about how a doula can help with pre and postpartum care, and talk to two couples about their experience hiring a doula.

Hire a doula at the info session and receive $50 off your fee. All attendees will receive a special gift bag.

Email shannon@babiesnaturally.ca to register.

Next class date to be announced.

FREE

Held at our Kilworth office

Category : Classes

This balmy rainy Monday, I am grateful for the “little things.”

I am grateful for the warmish winter we are experiencing.

I am grateful for the trust in my life. (a big thing, really).

I am grateful for the flannel sheets that I discovered this winter.

I am grateful for the perfect combination of coconut milk, almond butter, whey free protein powder and flax seed….blended with ice.

I am grateful for the time to write. I need to get thoughts out of my head onto paper in front of me in order to make sense of them. Generally, they are not accurate, these thoughts of mine.

I am grateful for commitment. Truly.

I am grateful for all that is unpredictable. There is magic in that.

I am truly grateful for all of the little people in my life.

On this gray Monday, please share with us here in this space what you are grateful for. We really do want to know.

With much love,
Carol xoxo

Category : Blog

This Monday I am grateful for the group of women that are in my life:

My daughters are the most important women in my life. Both of them (almost 19 and almost 21) are a source of constant inspiration to me. Their intelligence, wit, empathy and ability to love each other, their Dad, their brother and myself brings me to my knees. They are best friends to each other – confidantes, champions of each other. They call each other out, too, and hold each other accountable for their actions.

My sisters are the only other human beings that share the same blood with me. Fight – we used to… agree on everything? We don’t. Hold the same views on life? Not at all. Love each other? Absolutely.

My own mum taught me the value of unmedicated births, midwives, traditions to be passed down, books and gave me two little sisters. Do we parent the same way? Not at all. Do we do the best we can with the tools we have as mums? For sure. How she didn’t kill at least one of the three of us as we were growing up, I do not know.

My very best female friend has held me up through horrible periods in my life, trusted me implicitly with her babies,let me hold her as she gave birth, loved me like a sister and told me to smarten up when I needed it. She always has my back and my best interests at heart.

My business partner is one of the most loving, articulate, transparent women I know. She protects me, tells me when to hold the line, pushes me to accept reality and tempers my crazy heart driven Pisces nature when I need grounding.

My “team girls” in soccer provide me with humour, sweat, an outlet to vent and a spirit that is contagious. I have grown really close to some of them and call them close friends…all because we like to kick balls!

The women I have met through my work have been my greatest teachers. Some of them have become wonderful and close friends. I hold a piece of each of their experiences within me and treasure the lessons learned. I believe they have all been brought into my life to teach me exactly what I have needed to learn.

The life force of women astounds me. The resiliency, the strength, the ability to grow and learn is nothing short of miraculous. Please share with us the importance of other women in your life…we really do want to know. Our giveaway winner will be picked by Sweet Baby G hats…check back on Friday for our announcement!

With much love,
Carol xoxo

Category : Blog

Why are we so afraid to say the wrong thing? What constitutes the “wrong” thing anyway?

I’m surrounded by wonderful women all the time. I have a strong support system, a good social circle, a loving group of friends. I like to think that I am worthy of these blessings because I, too, am a good friend and provide strong support to those around me. And yet sometimes, I say and do the wrong thing.

When my sister died, people did and said stupid, hurtful things to both me and my mom. But what hurt the most was the people that did and said nothing. The worst was when someone mom knew well saw her walking across an empty foyer, then turned and walked the other way. They were so scared to say the wrong thing that they literally ran away.

I can hear you saying “I would never do that”. But really, we do it every day. How many times have you asked someone “how are you?” without really listening to their response? Or, when someone says “I’m sad because….”, how many times have you said “I’m sorry”, but never followed up? If someone has made themselves vulnerable to you and actually outright asked you for help, have you responded? Did you help them? Make them a meal? Babysit their kids? Really make an effort?

Every time I say the wrong thing, or do the wrong thing, it haunts me. It’s not the kindest thing I can do to myself, but I have a catalog in my mind of all the hurts I’ve inflicted by accident. But the flip side of that is that at least I tried. Even if it was the wrong thing, or the wrong time, at least I put myself in the moment and tried to reach out to someone. I know that every time I made a mistake, it wasn’t because I was purposely trying to hurt someone. In fact, quite the opposite.

See, I’m not perfect. No one is. All we can be is perfectly there for someone. To give it the perfect try. Because maybe what you want to say isn’t the wrong thing. Maybe all someone needs to know is that you cared enough to try.

All around us, people are struggling. Struggling with the grind of motherhood. Fighting illness. Experiencing marital discord. Grieving loss. I’m tired of hearing hypocritical comments from people like “I care” coupled with “I’m too busy”. Don’t worry about saying the wrong thing. The wrong thing is to not say anything. To not reach out. To not try.

So today, be the woman you want to model for others. Be the friend you expect to have. And definitely, go ahead and make mistakes. The best life lessons are the ones that come from the attempts.

With much love,
Shannon

Category : Blog

On this beautiful Monday I am grateful for the process of birth and am grateful to those whom take it upon themselves to be Guardians of Birth. For me, a Guardian of Birth safeguards, protects and helps facilitate nature’s greatest engineering feat- the delivery of a new soul earthside. The mechanism of the whole process remains a mystery to all of us, truly, and I believe that those who are Guardians of Birth respect this and do not try to deconstruct that which we can never know.

The medicalization of birth has taken us, as women,( and as a society) away from that which is known deep within our cells. We are equipped to do what millions have done for thousands of years – bring forth life. I believe, that along the way, we have tried to know too much about birth. In this journey of deconstruction we have lost the very elements of the attachment to the most important facet of birth. Trust. Birth is a normal, physiologic process. We have, in many ways, had to medicalize it. We have become so sedentary, so inactive in both mind and body – that our downfalls have led us to give over our experiences to the “professionals” and in turn demystify the quantum piece that reveals itself in the process of normal birth.

Anecdotally we understand the elation of normal birth. Hundreds of women have told me over the last two decades of that elation – and no two experiences are ever the same. What these women do have in common is the feeling of being there, of the awareness of the process, of the trust they had in their bodies and their babies. Even babies that come forth precipitously without the “perfect team” there to catch them are generally, 95% of the time (to quote a very wise midwife) absolutely fine and need no help at all, and their mothers can attest that they were not worried about their babies or themselves in these situations.

What does it take for us to trust our bodies, our babies and the process? Is it a specific technique, a hypnosis, a certain class or breathing pattern to facilitate a perfect state? I myself do not believe it is. I believe it is in taking responsibility. We must take responsibility in making sure we are healthy. We must, as women be the Guardians of Birth ourselves. Our bodies must be healthy and not abused by the wrong foods when we are pregnant. We must stay healthy by moving, opening our bodies up to activity to facilitate the best possible environment for our babies to grow in. Our wombs must be hospitable, safe places for our babies to inhabit. We need to nurture our psyches by listening only to good birth stories. A good birth story is one that is owned by the mother. She has processed what happened in the story, taken ownership for her shortcomings, but most importantly has learned from it and heals from it during the processing.

Giving birth back to families is imperative. We must take the medicalization of it and normalize it once again. I fully acknowledge that we do need intervention and active management of birth in some cases and am very grateful for the practitioners who are able to facilitate these processes. Escaping the common belief that birth is a situation we need to be delivered from by a medical process is where things must change. Yes, pre-existing medical conditions deem that in some cases birth needs to be fully medically supervised and managed. Yes, bad nutrition, inactivity and a lack of good prenatal care would deem the need for intervention and increase the risk of a non desired outcome. For a normal healthy individual, however, the spontaneous, progressive onset of labour in a supported, quiet, safe environment will in itself- in most cases- safeguard the process and the mystery of birth.

The mystery of birth and the normal process of it can not be facilitated without regard for the baby. We talk about the passenger, the passenger and the path of labour and for most women the major concern is the pain of the whole process. And being delivered from that pain. What if we were to take ourselves out of the equation and see birth from the perspective of the baby? What if we fully understood our anatomy and what was happening in our bodies? How could we come to accept this pain with a purpose and allow our bodies to do as they must? In normal, healthy physiologic birth, in a supported environment, with women – we can deliver ourselves from our own pain. We birth our pain as we trust in the process. We are our own guardians. Safeguarding ourselves, our babies and our own processes will allow us to be guardians of birth, “keepers of the babies” as the Mayans call it. We need to respect the experience and the mystery of birth and to keep it sacred. I have been blessed to witness the process in its most sacred form and see new souls come earthside hundreds of times and it never fails to amaze me. It will never get old because every time it is very unique and very, very powerful. Every time I walk away suspended in the mystery of what I do not know about what just happened, grateful beyond measure.

With much love,
Carol xoxo

Category : Blog

New Class For Couples!!!

Has your life changed since the kids?
Has your relationship changed?
Do you find it hard to communicate as a couple?
Would you like to get your relationship back on track?

Come out to this innovative class and learn how to do just that by understanding what each other needs in your new role as parents, how to communicate more effectively and know that you are not in this alone by sharing with other parents.

Each class includes one on one couple coaching in home at a convenient time for you, set up by your instructors after the class.

Class Fee – $100 (per couple)

Next class date to be announced.

Email carol@babiesnaturally.ca to register.

Category : Classes

Utilize your foundation from Calm Mum and peel back a few more layers. Gain a deeper understanding of what is “setting you off” or causing you to face new challenges in your parenting journey. Learn how to script specific responses to your challenges with parenting.

This course will help you understand how to respond to your child in many different scenarios and increase your confidence in day to day situations as well as crises. Calm yourself and your family!

Taught by Carol Peat

Class Fee: $75

Next class date to be announced.

At Our Kilworth Clinic

Email carol@babiesnaturally.ca to register.

Category : Classes

A new calendar year, a new outlook, a chance for a new perspective? An attitude of gratitude is what I want to live in daily. Perspective is relative, outlooks are relative — our response to every day determines how we view our lives. How will you choose to live every day? Will you respond or react to the every day happenings in 2012? Can you find something to be grateful for every day?

I am grateful for/to/because:
1.) Someone very special showed up yesterday.
2.) I shared a lovely, intimate dinner with my family yesterday, the first day of the year.
3.) The world really is your oyster.
4.) Leather bound journals make for fantastic dreamcatchers.
5.) For me, it feels like we have skipped two months of winter…
6.) Every day we have choices and such freedom!
7.) There is freshness in forward thinking, movement and planning.
8.) We are assembling a cavalry.
9.) I can see changes in the world of birth.
10.) Growth happens every single day, all around us, all of the time.
11.) Meditation has become a daily practice for me.
12.) Breath and breathing can change my state of being in seconds.

What are grateful for this new year? Please share with us here, on our blog….we really do want to know.

With much love,
Carol xo

Category : Blog