Anthroposophical Midwife, Sacred Birth Guardian & Integrative Nutritionist.
Hi, I’m Suzan
I am an experienced Anthroposophical Midwife, Healing Birth Practitioner and Integrative Nutritionist. The foundation of my practice and presence in birth work is through the recognition that our bodies respond to innate intelligence and intuitive wisdom. While womb held, deep cellular communication constantly flows between the mother and baby.
Birth well-being necessitates whole-self wellness practices from a place of knowledge, and evidence-based sharing. The unique life passage of preconception to parenting crosses several powerful and sacred thresholds.
My intention as a sacred wise woman is to change the current model of scare-care to one of women held knowledge with active participation. The offered model is founded upon an outdated patriarchal system that dismembers procreativity to body parts and mental states. Distrust of the safe flow of body intelligence has increasingly entered the psyche of women, creating fear in their capacity to navigate pregnancy, labour, birth and early postpartum.
By comparison, the feminised version is reverently respectful of the pregnant, birthing, mothering woman/person.
SHE knows to start by building and strengthening the maternal field of safety and trust. SHE knows that using science as a gauge of health limits the multidimensional aspects that are the weave of well-being.
SHE knows empowerment within her rises when she accesses her natural evolutionary knowing.
It is time to reclaim connection to our innate body wisdom, using aligned physical, emotional, mental and soul-led knowledge, skills and support.
My practice teaches and supports health and well-being practices to (re)ignite awareness and activate normal physiological and healthy responses. These natural states of mind-body-spirit communication between mother and baby will always aim to navigate the path of least stress and resistance.
Conversely, distrust and fear along with other disruptors, activate strong self-protection responses including adrenaline and cortisol release, resulting in flight, fright, freeze and fawning. These are the principal contributors to dysregulation that leads to loss of flow in our physiological balance.
The sacred spirit within the birth rite of passage, transitions women/birth people across a threshold to enter a profound space between life on earth and beyond. Between conception and birth, a soul enters the body in creation, as women/birth-givers upgrade their human experience. Bringing awareness and assisting women/birth people to journey the edgy space of uncertainty between two worlds is the field of work I specialise in.
Anthroposophical midwifery sits betwixt researched evidence and the magic of embedded life intelligence & wisdom steeped in intuition. These methodologies are known to dedicated practitioners as being deeply important in ensuring safety and empowerment. Knowledge in its fullest extent, must be freely available for women/people to access from conception to matrescence; the passage to mother/parenthood.
From three decades of midwifery practice in close contact with women/people and their families, I have accumulated vast experience, skills and knowledge in birth lore, knowledge that is sacred to the female interweave of her/their somatic-psycho-social self/selves.
I offer full birth wisdom-keeper support in person and online from pre-conception to early parenting `{`matrescence`}`. I hold space for women/people to experience and share their passage with growing knowledge and empowerment practices that guide the woman/person and partners in a healthy and autonomous manner.
I also offer post-birth healing through deep listening and connection. I offer full focus in the unpacking of events and actions and help find pathways to release distress and low level trauma.
Nature and connection are integral to my practice, opening the feminine wildish-ness within this unpredictable journey. As a balanced feminist, I believe in connecting with our inner instinctive selves, away from societal demands, programming and expectations. Guidance is offered as needed. Holding space and sharing the tools for you to navigate this passage in deep connection with your baby, from the heart space, with gut instinct and wise brain understanding are integral to my practical.
IT IS POWERFUL WORK TO EMBRACE WELLBEING AND CHANGE WHAT IS NEEDED FOR DEEP HEALTH.
MOTHERHOOD IS BUILT UPON A JOURNEY OF SELF-DETERMINATION
MY JOURNEY
I am a mother to four now fully grown, independent humans. I’m an intrepid traveller who has spent long periods living in Latin America and travelling in Europe. I am a long-distance walker and I love hiking in mountainous regions. The ocean is my other happy place for me, being in the water is powerful and peaceful.
In my early twenties, I travelled, worked and cycled through parts of Europe alone. My two first careers were pioneering positions for females in male-dominated professions. When my first two children were young, I studied midwifery and the year after I qualified my twins were born. I returned to work when they were a few months old.
As a registered midwife I worked in urban and remote locations with thousands of pregnant, birthing and newly postnatal mothers in Aotearoa/New Zealand. My vast and varied knowledgebase and experience stems from years of community practice in clinics and women's homes, assisiting births at home, in a tepee, in ambulances on the side of the road, in rural birth centres and large hospitals. I have received into my hands, babies born cephalic, breech and twins. I have helped women whose babies who had passed before they were born or lived a short while. My practice offered woman-centred care, according to what we agreed was safe and important to them, following eastern, western, and indigenous preferences. For a time, I also practiced in busy hospitals.
Ensuring the pregnancy to parenting transformation is a positive experience is key to my work with birth-givers. My goal is to help empower and extend birthing people to do and be the best they can for themselves and their baby from conception. I am passionate in my belief that birth-givers who are respected and treated with integrity, who receive evidence-based knowledge with one-on-one care, will prepare themselves the best they can for their immeasurable role as mothers.
In 2019, I studied with the Integrative Institute of Nutrition, New York, to become a certified Holistic Health and Nutritional Coach. This approach promotes wellness in all parts of our lives, broadly overviewed it feeds and balances us in our entirety, in relationships, with stress management techniques, spiritual practices, physical activity and, in this field of work it encompasses preparation for birth, from a healthy mind-body-soul perspective. The power dynamic of holism is a complete view of wellbeing, where everything is integral to oneself.
While travelling in Latin America, I developed a deep interest in traditional practices, listening to and observing first-hand health strengths, strategies, and challenges specific to pregnancy, birth culture, and the postpartum. Subsequently, I returned to tertiary study. Understanding human behaviour, cultures, and societal skills is essential to embracing each unique person’s pregnancy to parenting choices.