How would you describe what you do Rebecca?
I support families in strengthening their bonds and igniting community within and outside the home. Celebrating and honoring the diversity of each family's vast birth and postpartum experiences is at the heart of how I serve. I serve families along their mighty journey of parenthood with a variety of group gatherings as a yoga and mindfulness guide, support group facilitator, and behavior support coach.
Expectant parents can access their inner wisdom via my Sacred Space workshops, and expectant and new parents can attend Our Village weekly meet-ups for gentle yoga, mindfulness, and community. Additionally, parents with toddlers can attend Together We Move weekly bonding and movement sessions together, as well as my Lunch N' Learn offering which includes a tots playgroup and parenthood education. In addition to these group offerings, I meet with parents with toddlers and young children to provide behavior support and foster a positive home environment and relationship.
How did you start on this path?
After birthing my son in 2013, I became fixated on birth and motherhood. What an amazing and difficult transition. No one had prepared me and my family. At least not enough. How could I help others in need? I took great pleasure in attending a Labor Doula Intensive with Janine Maitri of Sierra Childbirth Institute as she opened my eyes to the world of home birth.
Birth can be a rite-of-passage, incredibly empowering, freeing, liberating, amazing, and oh so beautiful. Now I know this firsthand. My experience birthing my daughter in 2016 made it clear to me that my future career would be within the birth field, and specifically in postpartum work. I have learned through professional training and personal experience that each mother has a choice in birth intentions and also a choice in her postpartum experience as well.
My background is in Psychology as I earned my Masters degree in 2008 and practiced as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst for many years helping hundreds of families to teach their children with special needs reach their full potential. Little ones learned to speak for the first time, hug for the first time, or simply make eye contact and smile for the first time when in early childhood intervention.
I implemented comprehensive learning programs for a variety of children and primarily worked with parents to teach them how to successfully teach their children. I gave my heart and soul to this work, yet my interests widened as I brought my firstborn into the world.
My firstborn came into the world when I was strong-willed, fiercely independent to a fault, and didn't allow for vulnerability in my life or show signs of weakness to others or ask for support. It turns out I can't do it all yet I thought I could then. Difficult and trying times followed and I experienced periods of postpartum anxiety and postpartum depression, as well as intense periods of intrusive thoughts and severe breastfeeding pain.
Postpartum was not ideal as I didn't welcome help openly. It was an intense struggle and opened my heart and my eyes in so many ways. Fast forward to my second babe, in which I planned a homebirth, planned for appropriate postpartum care via family and a postpartum doula, and welcomed and accepted help. I allowed my body to rest in that I lived in bed with my baby for 2 weeks postpartum. This experience felt amazing, alive, and so restorative. The way it can be. This affected my postpartum journey - my symptoms were greatly reduced and I felt freer and more connected with my baby. I want others to experience how rich of an experience birth and mamahood can be, and for those that did not have an ideal birth or transition into motherhood, I've been there too. Ideal does not always occur and this is how we grow and learn. I desire to support each mama to reach her full potential.
I established Dahlia Mama Perinatal Wellness in 2018 after bringing my own sweet ones into the world and have been supporting families along their parenthood transition since this time. Becoming Us called to me as Elly spoke not just of the mother, yet of the whole family unit. I dove into her program in 2018 and took many breaks along the way as part of my own personal healing journey and to do the inner work, and to raise my own babes and work on my family unit.
What do you enjoy about using the Becoming Us approach?
Elly Taylor's work is critically important and being properly prepared for the transition into parenthood can assist partnerships in thriving and create healthier attachments in the family unit for years to come, changing generational patterns. I just love the adult attachment work and how bringing a baby into one's family is an opportunity for establishing a more secure attachment with one another.
What do you think are the main benefits for parents?
Becoming Us preparation and support allows the family to experience parenthood and their relationship more positively, and create a closer bond with baby. Establishing a strong family foundation and open, compassionate communication is so critical during this transformational period. By having realistic expectations and open dialogue, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders can be reduced, and a family can thrive during this time.
Are there any challenges with doing Becoming Us work?
Families still don't know what they don't know. The challenge is to approach parents-to-be in the community with a loving heart and to build trust and relationship. This opens the door to families being receptive to a parenthood preparation course.
Do you have a favourite part of your Becoming Us training?
I believe developing healthy coping strategies to stress is a key component in the Becoming Us training, as well as reflecting upon assertiveness skills in relationship communication. There are so many amazing components, these just being a few
What other professional approaches have you found helpful?
I have trained with Sierra Childbirth Institute with the lovely Janine Maitri, through Cornerstone Doula Trainings with Juli Tilsner, as well as with Kerry Ingram of Community Supported Postpartum. Additionally, I hold a 200 hour yoga teacher training via Heart & Bones Yoga and have trained at a Registered Prenatal Yoga School with Hannah Muse to support expectant and postpartum mamas in movement.
I hold my Masters degree in Psychology and have an extensive background in working with families in an intimate capacity. I find that being trained as a birth and postpartum doula, as well as in community postpartum work allows me to fully see the mother as a whole being and understand the depth of her experience. Bringing yoga and movement into my work allows for another avenue of healing, as well as staying curious about the heart and mind via mindfulness practices.
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
I took away so much heart-centred knowledge throughout the Becoming Us course, and am pleased to bring this profound work to my community.
To learn more about Rebecca and her parenthood support, check out her website: Dahlia Mama