Ceremonies mark a rite of passage and bring together family and community in a circle of love, support and celebration. Jennifer crafts professional and heart-felt ceremonies that celebrate your unique story and takes care to individually write your ceremony in consultation with you. Her skilled background ensures that your ceremony will be delivered with confidence, compassion, beauty and reverence.

Blessing the Boobies

On Friday I attended an impromptu Blessingway for a friend who is at the end of her breastfeeding journey. She has birthed three sons, one in each major stage of development: one at highschool, one in primary school, and a cute little fellow who is now in the process of self-weaning after three beautiful years of breastfeeding. It has been an experience that she has enjoyed as much as her children and not surprisingly the end of this journey of breastfeeding has brought a sense of loss at the thought of not being able to share those special moments with her 'baby' any more. It is a feeling I understand well - both my eldest self-weaned after two years of breastfeeding and it happened so easily for them that for a while I felt quite redundant in the relationship! Sure, I was all very excited that it was not a traumatic process for them, I was proud to see them exerting their new-found independence - but what about me?! I had really enjoyed the journey too.  Breastfeeding was a time to snuggle and cuddle, to stroke and whisper to my babies, to drink in their beauty and offer them good nourishment. I wasn't quite sure what I was left with when the breastfeeding moments were no longer occuring - and it became clear to me that my little ones were no longer infants. That realisation really hit my heart with sadness.

When this period comes to end we need to reshape our relationship with our little ones, but first it IS important to spend the time acknowledging how special that period has been, for it ends too quickly! Friday's blessingway was a simple gathering of friends, bringing food and kind words to celebrate the cycle of womanhood. We read hand-written blessings and delightful poems, including a hilarious one written in the style of Dr Suess, which starts like this:


Would you nurse her in the park?

Would you nurse him in the dark?

Would you nurse him with a Boppy?

And when your boobs are feeling floppy?

I laughed so much!

Another friend spoke of the new relationship she has with her children now they are older, and the close friends they have become, the fun they have together. It was a beautiful morning of sharing.

It was a sacred morning to bless our friend, her boobies, and the wonderful work they have done together, but I think that whether you have breastfed or not, the time when you realise your baby has taken their last bottle, or when your last baby has moved out of infancy is as relevant a time to celebrate the end of an era in motherhood with a blessingway.

Actually, we don't really need a reason :)