Spring arrives, teaching resurfaces, my writing muscle stretches and grows.

Despite the grey and windy weather as I write to you this morning, Spring has arrived, bringing with it brighter days, changeable weather and plenty of blooms. I’ve been head down in writing my next book recently, which has meant little headspace for other writing projects. But it has been wonderful to be fully consumed in a project, alongside currently facilitating my Pregnancy & Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training.

They say if you want something done, ask a busy person. And while I actually kind of hate this phrase, there is some truth to the nature of gathering momentum and cultivating energy from a creative and nourishing piece of work. For me anyway, writing and work is a muscle that needs strengthening and mobilising, much like how we would work with the tissues of the body in a yoga āsana.

So while the bulk of my work at the moment looks like coalescing nearly 10 years of teaching and training Pregnancy Yoga into a written manuscript, other things have been bubbling away and I’m excited to share them with you. I have a new class, a new workshop and some writing on my experience with perinatal wellbeing and mental health to share with you.

I have been a regular attendee, and now Peer Supporter at the Motherkind Café, a perinatal wellbeing and mental health peer-support group based in Oxford. One of their amazing coordinators asked me to write about my experience of how the Café has helped me and I was more than happy to share.

I’ve sorely missed teaching regular classes recently, and after an inspiring conversation with a dear colleague last week, I’ve decided to go for it. You can join me for Monday Perinatal Yoga Lunch Club from Monday 16 March 12:00-12:45 London Time, online via zoom. I’m really excited to be back on the mat and continuing to serve my wonderful community at all different stages of life.

Read the full description and book here.

I’m also honoured to be teaching an online workshop for Unfold for Teachers in April. Join me on Sunday 26 April 4pm BST/8am PDT/11am EDT for a focus on Cultivating Inclusion, Care and Nourishment in Our Teaching. The workshop cost is 49EUR, which works out to around £42 (ish) for lifetime access to the recording.

If you have ever wondered if your teaching is reaching the students who need it most, or are wanting to explore ways to cultivate community and build relationships, all while deeply nourishing those around you, I hope you will find strategies and solutions here.

The workshop will also be available as part of a bundle focussed on Inclusive & Holistic Space Holding.

Read more & Get your spot here

That’s all the teaching and class news I have for you at the moment, it would be lovely to see you there as I start to take on more teaching opportunities again. I hope wherever you are, Spring is treating you gently, and you can take a moment to read on about my experience of perinatal wellbeing and mental health.

All my love,

Harriet x

I first went along to Motherkind Café when my daughter was three months old. Reflecting on my postpartum experience now, I think mine had been fairly typical up to that point. I had spent the first six weeks in a fog of shifting hormones, sleepless nights, feeding confusion, intense heart-exploding love, and days of feeling trapped, frustrated that I ‘should’ be somehow doing more.

I loved my baby more than I could have ever possibly imagined (still do, that love only grows), but I found early postpartum isolating and often lonely. I had a hungry baby who more or less only contact-napped, which meant I spent what felt like months on the sofa with her attached to my breast. I was beginning to understand that I was going through a profound shift in identity, but felt like I lacked the time and space to process and explore who I was becoming. Most of my friends had given birth to their first babies during the lockdown era, so whilst they absolutely understood what I was going through, they had moved onto a different stage of parenting. I was craving community, connection and understanding.

Essentially, I was a bundle of extreme fatigue, boundless love, joy, confusion and frustration. I was also navigating the delicate balance of my own mental health. During pregnancy I’d experienced a relapse in my c-PTSD (Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) after over a decade of managing it well, which saw me the most unwell I had been in a long time. Having recovered enough in time to give birth feeling both strong and resilient, the vulnerability and fragility of early postpartum was an intense shift for me to process.

Whilst I managed to remain well, some days were incredibly hard, and I knew I needed to find a space where I could connect with other mothers, connect over shared experience and decompress a little.

I was aware of Motherkind Café during my pregnancy, it had been set up by a friend of a friend, but never made it whilst I was still pregnant. I went along on my first Friday morning, not really knowing what to expect. From the outside, the Café looks like any other baby group: there are playmats and toys laid out on the floor, being played with by babies and toddlers of a variety of ages and stages of development. But inside I was overjoyed to discover a group of women talking openly and generously about the realities of motherhood and how they were feeling about their mental wellbeing. The peer supporters welcomed me with a smile, a cup of tea, and a series of gentle introductions. They were a group who appropriately cooed over my baby but then turned their real focus to me. “How has your week been?” is the question most often asked to open that week’s conversation. An invitation without judgement or expectation for you to share how you are, what’s been going well, and where the challenges have been.

Everything I shared, the joy/difficulty of contact naps, the interrupted nighttime sleep, the changes in my identity, worries about work, jealousy of how I perceived my husband’s freedom compared to mine, and more - was met with understanding, validation, and connection. Extra support and signposting was offered where appropriate (for example, to Oxfordshire Breastfeeding Support, another truly special organisation), but mostly the peer supporters did an incredible job of holding space for me to be however I was that day (and sometimes holding my baby so I got to do a wee in peace).

I’ve shared this with them before, but the peer supporters at Motherkind made the most incredible difference to me in my first year of motherhood. They truly normalised so much of what I was experiencing as a new mother, with kindness, integrity and respect. They were able to share honestly about their own experiences and past struggles, and to see them thriving and living and being wonderful humans truly helped me to understand the temporariness of the baby years.

It was an honour to be asked to join their ranks, and I have loved the opportunity to contribute to a space that I found so valuable to me (and continue to find relief, community and support within). I can only urge any mother: however big or small you feel your worries are, you will be welcomed at Motherkind. Sharing your worries lightens the load, and to paraphrase Leonard Cohen, the cracks are how the light gets in. I have laughed and cried at the Cafe, seen my own baby grow alongside other visitors, and felt myself settle into my skin as a new mother. I will be eternally grateful to have been welcomed into such a caring and supportive space, and only hope that I offer that same welcome to every mother who walks through the door.