Embracing Ceremony
Image: Tais Rose
Never underestimate the power of ceremony as protest, as knowledge source, as groundwork, as dreaming, as faith, as rebirth, as resistance, as eternal love.
— Aimee Aroha
Many of us have lost to touch with the ceremonial practices, knowledge and tradition around holding women and people who birth. And like much of womens work and care work, ceremoney and ritual that centres women, birthing people and babies is undervalued.
When I think of ceremony, I think about intimate community, my ancestors, motherlines, loving rituals, a sacred juncture, witnessing, a container for story and remembering, an opportunity for deeper connection with myself and with others.
Ceremony has long been and integral part of our rites of passage as humans - honouring birth, adolescence, relationship, family building, community and death. And while the well known ones like birthdays and weddings, funerals and graduation, remain embeded in our society - ceremonies and rituals that centre women and birthing people, have become less customary.
One such rite of passage that deserves ritual and ceremony is birth. Birth shifts us from one phase of life to another. It is a cracking open of the soul and the body, an expansion and contraction, grief entwined with joy. Ceremony provides an opportunity to honor this rite of passage. Pay homage to the shifts, to be seen and cared for in ways that hold reverence for our transformation. To make sense of our expereinces. It is not woo woo or fluffy or just for certain types of people and certain types of births.
Ceremony is what you want it to be, what you create, and what you are needing in that moment - it recognises and reflects back the immense work that you have done to get here. The work that is still to come. Thresholds and shifts that you alone define. It is for all birthing people. It is necessary, it is normal, and it is ancient.
I offer personalised closing ceremonies for mothers and birthing people, to honor their experience after birth. Reach out here if you’d like to enquire about what this could look like for you.
08.07.2025
