Birth in Portugal
Pregnancy, birth & post-partum
I am working on a tool to support families navigating pregnancy, birth and postpartum in Portugal - Coming up this Fall 2022!
Pregnancy, birth and post-partum are highly intuitive, and intuition, I believe, tends to unfold effortlessly from a place of safeness. Safeness requires unique needs to be fulfilled for each individual woman and family. These highly intuitive life stages are usually accompanied by a degree of vulnerability, where questions and concerns appear.
Since my teenage years that the topics around women’s physiology were a recurrent interest of mine. Motivated to support my community with updated information and ease around birth, I decidedly further developed my knowledge in the topics of pregnancy, birth and postpartum - both guided by myself as well as with dedicated courses and training. Specifically, in March 2022 I took the course Physiological Birth by the Australian midwife and professor Dr. Rachel Reed, in 2020 I attended the presential birth doula training in Sesimbra taught by doula and author Sandra Oliveira from Bionascimento and successfully completed the DONA International Approved Introduction to Childbirth for Doulas, the Birth Doula Workshop and Breastfeeding for Birth Doula Class. In 2021, motivated to take the first step into learning about the abilities of water in bodywork, I took part of the online gathering organised by WaterDoulas.
Consultancy
Parenthood in Portugal
I offer one-to-one sessions and help families to make educated choices that allows them to navigate pregnancy, birth, postpartum and the first years as parents in Portugal. This is an adequate option for both families that landed here and want to build their supporting network as well as Portuguese families that were abroad and are coming back to Portugal, or even to multicultural families even when one of the partners is Portuguese. It is extremely rewarding to attend to families that are looking to dive into this experience with awareness.
Growing a family is vulnerable and raw. Parenting in a new country without a supporting network while facing cultural and language barriers can become challenging and daunting. Building your village in a new country is critical to foster a healthy parenting experience. My intention is to create a safe space where families of any background, living in or moving to Portugal can get the information they need about the health and social security systems, learn the main cultural aspects and get the tools and resources they need to build their own network of professional, practical and emotional support to experience parenthood with grace and joy.
Community
Playgroup for caregivers and babies 0-3y
Birth in Portugal and Bioaventuras partner up to co-create the weekly playgroup Bebés Natura: a safe space where mothers/fathers/caregivers and their babies (0-3y) share a morning with like-minded people.
It is outdoors (most times) - we believe Nature is the ideal environment for being and bonding. Parents and caregivers come from various nationalities and backgrounds. We discuss many topics and often share resources and experiences from post-partum challenges, babywearing, introducing solid foods to your baby, baby signs, as well as gentle parenting, natural play, alternative schooling, and more.
If this is something you or a loved one in your network is looking for, you can find the link for the form here and we will soon get in touch.
Me and Flávia from Bioaventuras got to know each other 4 years ago in a playgroup and have been friends since then - such a privilege it has been to witness our babies growing together. Since 2021 we partnered up to co-create this space and are contributing to community building in a growing multicultural (often isolated) family world.
To host our weekly playgroup we invited Julie Daujat, a mom of a beautiful 2 year old. Julie was born and raised in France and moved to Portugal around 3 years ago. She is an archeologist and a rock climber with a deep connection to Mother Earth and the feminine. She is knowledgeable and generous, a blessing to have her holding this space.
Natural Family Planning
coming up this Fall 2022
I am following training to become a certified natural family planning teacher. I am aiming to become certified and be available for clients by Fall 2022.
The double-check method also known as symptothermal, allows you to identify your fertile window for each menstrual cycle. A woman is typically fertile five to six days per cycle (men are always fertile). By mapping your fertile window, you can use this information and manage your fertility with awareness: whether you want to conceive, space or limit pregnancy. This method is science-proofed, it implies a learning curve but when properly applied it has a success rate of 99.6% (Frank-Herrmann et al., 2007).
If you simply want to learn your fertility signs or monitor your menstrual health, learning this method is critical and can be useful to your specific case. The menstrual cycle is a monthly/periodic health checkup from the body: it shows in various ways when the body is in or out of balance. By plotting your menstrual cycle, you can pinpoint and/or monitor optimal or suboptimal health and take charge of your choices.
I was first introduced to natural fertility in 2017, got a basal body temperature (BBT) thermometer and started charting with the double-check method. I felt motivated to teach it to my community and I realized that this meaningful interest of mine accompanies me since my pre-teenage years when I would write and draw my own booklets about puberty, female and male reproductive systems and hormonal physiology. Coincidently, and through the years, women do often reach towards me to search for guidance in their journey to fertility management. The goal is to support women and couples in their journey toward body and menstrual and awareness: to make conscious fertility choices that are suitable to each women’s/families’ individual cases and as complement to assist achieving optimal health.
