It asks us to trust our bodies, navigate the unknown, find our voices, and surrender to a process we cannot entirely control.
My approach to holistic birth preparation extends beyond understanding labor and its stages. Together, we explore the physical, emotional, and practical dimensions of birth, while making space for the deeper transformation into motherhood.
We learn about the body and its remarkable physiology. We explore fears, beliefs, and expectations. We practice communicating needs and making informed decisions. We prepare partners and chosen support people to offer meaningful support. And we look beyond birth itself, toward recovery, nourishment, and the early days of life with a newborn.
FIVE DIMENSIONS OF CARE
Birth preparation is more than learning what happens during labor. It is understanding your body, exploring your inner world, preparing for the choices ahead, gathering meaningful support, and making space for the life that follows.
THE VESSEL — THE BODY
The physiology, wisdom, and changing body that carries you through pregnancy, birth, and recovery.
THE INNER CAVE — THE INNER WORLD
Your beliefs, emotions, inherited stories, fears, intuition, and evolving sense of self.
THE THRESHOLD — BIRTH
Understanding labor, exploring your choices, and preparing for the many ways birth may unfold.
THE HEARTH — YOUR SUPPORT
The people, environment, practical preparations, and care that surround you through birth and postpartum.
THE SPIRAL — BECOMING
Integrating your birth experience, healing, and navigating the transformation into motherhood.
THE JOURNEY INWARD
The Ten Moons: Your Birth Preparation Journey
The Ten Moons offer a flexible framework for birth and postpartum preparation, shaped around your needs, priorities, and the time we have together.
Every woman arrives with her own experiences, questions, and hopes. Our work is never one-size-fits-all.
Before we prepare for birth, I want to understand the woman preparing to give birth.
Where are you in your pregnancy? How are you feeling about the changes unfolding? What are you looking forward to, and what feels uncertain?
This is where we begin to build a relationship rooted in trust, openness, and understanding.
What We Explore
Your pregnancy experience, expectations, questions, and concerns.
Your personal history, priorities, and hopes for birth.
The physical and emotional changes of pregnancy.
Upcoming prenatal milestones, screenings, and appointments.
Questions to bring to your care providers.
What You Carry Forward
A clearer understanding of your needs, the preparation ahead, and a supportive relationship in which your voice matters.
MOON II
THE WOMEN BEFORE US
The stories we inherit. The stories we choose to carry.
Long before we experience birth ourselves, we begin forming beliefs about it.
Through our mothers, grandmothers, communities, cultures, and the stories we hear, we inherit ideas about what it means to be a woman, to give birth, and to become a mother.
Some of these stories strengthen us. Others may deserve to be questioned.
What We Explore
Your maternal lineage and the birth stories of women before you.
Beliefs about pain, strength, sacrifice, and motherhood.
Cultural and family expectations.
How inherited experiences may shape your own expectations.
Reflection exercises, including The Women Before Us.
Relevant pregnancy milestones, testing, and educational resources.
What You Carry Forward
Greater awareness of the stories shaping your expectations, and the freedom to decide which beliefs you wish to carry into your own experience.
MOON III
TRUSTING THE BODY
Coming home to yourself.
Pregnancy asks us to experience our bodies in entirely new ways.
But our relationship with our bodies begins long before pregnancy. We carry years of experiences, expectations, insecurities, and beliefs about what our bodies can and cannot do.
Here, we make space to explore that relationship, understand the extraordinary changes taking place, and begin building a deeper sense of connection and trust.
What We Explore
The physiology of pregnancy and how your body adapts to support you and your growing baby.
Body image, self-perception, and your relationship with your changing body.
The stories and experiences that have shaped how you see yourself.
Instinct, intuition, bodily autonomy, and your relationship with control.
The connection between emotional safety, the nervous system, and your physical experience.
Reflective practices, including My Body, My Story.
What You Carry Forward
A deeper understanding of your changing body, greater awareness of the beliefs shaping your relationship with it, and an opportunity to cultivate trust in yourself and your body's capabilities.
MOON IV
ENVISIONING THE THRESHOLD
Giving shape to your hopes.
Before we begin making a birth plan, I want to ask a different question.
How do you want to feel when you give birth?
Safe? Free? Supported? Powerful? Undisturbed?
Understanding what matters to you helps us begin imagining the environment, relationships, and care that may support your experience.
What We Explore
Your hopes and intentions for birth.
What helps you feel safe, respected, and supported.
The physiology of labor and the hormones involved.
The stages of labor and how birth unfolds.
Your preferred birth environment.
An ideal-birth drawing or visualization exercise.
Beginning to identify your birth preferences.
What You Carry Forward
A clearer vision of what matters most to you, an understanding of the physiological birth process, and the beginnings of your birth preferences.
MOON V
MEETING THE SHADOWS
Making room for what we fear.
Preparation is not about convincing ourselves that nothing difficult will happen.
It is about making room for our fears, understanding our options, and developing the knowledge to navigate uncertainty.
There is no need to pretend that every part of birth feels beautiful or empowering.
We can make space for all of it.
What We Explore
Your fears surrounding labor, pain, safety, and loss of control.
Concerns about tearing, complications, interventions, or unexpected outcomes.
Vaginal and Cesarean birth pathways.
Common medical interventions and their potential benefits, risks, and alternatives.
Informed consent and informed refusal.
Communicating with your medical team.
Exploring possible scenarios and preparing questions.
What You Carry Forward
A better understanding of your options, language for expressing your needs, and practical tools for participating in decisions about your care.
MOON VI
PREPARING FOR THE PASSAGE
Learning to move with labor.
Birth is both an extraordinary physiological process and an intensely personal experience.
Here, we turn our understanding into practical preparation.
We explore what happens during labor, how you might respond to its intensity, and the different ways your body and support team can work together.
What We Explore
Labor physiology in greater depth.
Recognizing labor patterns and progression.
Movement, positioning, and comfort measures.
Breathing, relaxation, touch, and counterpressure.
Coping with intensity, fatigue, and unpredictability.
Pain relief options and medical interventions.
Breastfeeding and early infant-feeding preparation.
What You Carry Forward
Practical comfort techniques, a clearer understanding of labor, and a range of options to draw upon as your needs change.
MOON VII
GATHERING THE CIRCLE
The people who hold you.
Birth may be deeply personal, but it was never meant to be experienced without support.
The people surrounding a birthing woman matter. Their presence, words, understanding, and ability to respect her needs can shape how safe and supported she feels.
Here, we turn our attention to the people who will walk beside you through birth and the early days of motherhood.
What We Explore
Identifying the people who help you feel safe, respected, and supported.
Your partner's or chosen support person's role during labor.
Making space for their questions, expectations, and concerns.
Practicing hands-on comfort measures, movement, positioning, and supportive touch.
Communication, advocacy, and protecting your preferences during birth.
Writing, reviewing, and finalizing your birth preferences.
Identifying who can support your recovery, nourishment, household needs, and emotional wellbeing after birth.
Establishing boundaries and communicating your needs to family and visitors.
What You Carry Forward
A clearer understanding of the support you need, a more prepared birth partner or support person, and a practical plan for the people who will surround you during birth and postpartum.
MOON VIII
AT THE THRESHOLD
Making space for birth to begin.
As birth approaches, our focus shifts toward readiness.
Not the kind that demands every detail be controlled, but the kind that comes from knowing what matters, understanding your options, and having practical support in place.
We gather what is needed and make room for what cannot be predicted.
What We Explore
Recognizing early labor and knowing when to reach out.
Final questions, preferences, and practical preparations.
Hospital bags, birth supplies, and home readiness.
Newborn essentials, registry questions, and pediatrician planning.
What to expect immediately after birth.
Physical recovery and postpartum needs.
Emotional changes after birth and when to seek additional support.
Feeding, nourishment, rest, visitors, and boundaries.
Building a realistic postpartum support plan.
What You Carry Forward
A practical plan for birth and homecoming, clearer expectations for early postpartum, and an understanding of where to turn when additional support is needed.
MOON IX
A BIRTH STORY
Honoring what unfolded.
Every birth has a story.
Sometimes it unfolds as imagined. Sometimes it takes an entirely unexpected path. Often, there are parts that take time to understand.
Whatever your experience, your story deserves to be heard.
What We Explore
Your birth experience, told in your own words.
Moments that felt meaningful, powerful, surprising, or difficult.
Questions or feelings that remain.
Your physical recovery and immediate needs.
Feeding and early newborn experiences.
Your emotional wellbeing and available support.
What You Carry Forward
Space to reflect on and begin integrating your experience, along with a clearer understanding of your recovery needs and available resources.
MOON X
BECOMING
The woman on the other side.
When a baby is born, so much attention turns toward the new life that has arrived.
But there is another person who deserves to be seen.
The woman who gave birth.
Your body has carried you through an extraordinary experience. Your relationships may be shifting. Your days, your priorities, and even your sense of self may feel unfamiliar.
Some parts of motherhood may feel instinctive. Others may take time. You may feel joy, grief, tenderness, uncertainty, or many things at once.
There is room for all of it.
What We Explore
Your physical recovery, healing, and relationship with your postpartum body.
The emotional and psychological transition into motherhood.
Identity, expectations, and the parts of yourself you want to preserve or rediscover.
Feeding, rest, nourishment, and the realities of caring for a newborn.
Changes in partnership, intimacy, family relationships, and boundaries.
Your emotional wellbeing and recognizing when additional support may be needed.
The resources, relationships, and practical support that can sustain you in the months ahead.
What You Carry Forward
Space to recognize and honor your own needs, greater understanding of the changes you're navigating, and a clearer sense of the support available as you continue finding your way through motherhood.
YOUR CARE, YOUR JOURNEY
There is more than one way to begin.
The Ten Moons represent the foundation of my approach, but the way we move through them is shaped by you.
Some women begin their preparation early in pregnancy, allowing us time to explore each layer in depth. Others find their way here later, bringing different priorities, questions, and needs.
Our work together is thoughtfully tailored to your circumstances, the support you're seeking, and the time we have before birth.
I offer different ways to experience this care, each designed to provide meaningful preparation and support through your journey.
