Nurturing Postpartum: A year of community connection

Working with our community in 2024

As we wind down from 2024 I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge how awesome it has been working with our community more this year.

Dani and I have been making a conscious effort to connect more with our community through hosting free & low cost events this year.

We have run workshops on:

• Combating brain fog in perimenopause (Dani)
• Supporting our immune system naturally (both of us)
• Preventing cognitive decline (Dani)
• Postpartum Nutrition (me)

Some of these events have been run in our clinic, while others have been at Croydon library and with local businesses.

Postpartum Nutrition talks

Over the past three years of running Katie Blakely Wellness, I have had a strong interest in Postpartum health. What I have recognised over this time is that it can be really hard for Mums to prioritize their own health – for a number of reasons. This is why I decided to run these workshops:

• Empowering mums with knowledge about what’s happening in their bodies
• To help Mums understand their nutritional requirements – postpartum is the time of life where nutritional requirements are at their absolute highest (and it’s more complicated than simply eating more food)
• To talk about common experiences that Mums experience in the early postpartum years
• To make all of this accessible within my community
• To connect with Mums

I couldn’t have imagined how rewarding this would be.

Over the 5 postpartum talks that I ran this year I was able to connect with such amazing women.

Women in business –

• Erin, Casey & Chloe at The Parents Hub
• Jennifer from Little Petals Wellbeing
• Rachael from Move for Mums
• Lani from The Mother Runner Club (okay – we haven’t run a talk together yet, but it is coming!)

Amazing Mums through all stages of motherhood – with our youngest workshop attendee being 2 weeks old, and some Mums attending these workshops having teenagers!

What have I loved about running these community workshops?

Such amazing conversations have come up. I’ve heard about:

• how Mums are managing having teenagers and a baby (something that will be my reality in the next few years)
• the struggles of understanding what’s happening in your body & why it looks different
• the experiences Mums have had with their pelvic floor postpartum (some really positive and some Mums needing extra support)
• the challenges of breastfeeding a baby with digestive struggles
• how powerful having a sense of community is
• how grateful Mums are to have a space especially for discussion and focus on them

Running these workshops has also really cemented a sense of community for me in the local area around Katie Blakely Wellness which has been really lovely.

Each workshop was so different – our first one with Move for Mums was a far more structured presentation, teaching Mums about how to nourish their bodies while staying active postpartum. After this, my workshops slowly became more and more mother-led, which felt like a really lovely & appropriate transition.

What’s coming next?

I’ll be putting together a bit of a calendar for next year once Term 1 is back up and running – so if you are in the Croydon community and would like to run an event together, whether you’re a local business, or a Mum wanting me to come and visit her Mother’s group please email me: hello@katieblakely.com.au

Additionally, 2024 marked the launch of the Sacred Mother Membership – which is a space to bring together everything that we cultivated this year. It is an online platform where monthly content is shared to support Mums right through preconception care, into pregnancy, postpartum & motherhood. There is a collection of resources available for Mums & Mums to be to access, and once a month there is the opportunity to jump onto a live Zoom call and ask me, a qualified Naturopath, all of your questions. You can join Sacred Mother here.

More than just one on one:

We know that one on one consultations simply aren’t right for everyone, and that’s why we are in the process of putting together some really great resources for those of you who would prefer to learn from webinars, do self-paced online courses or join a monthly membership. Please keep an eye on our Health Hub to see what we have available. By joining the mailing list we will also let you know when new resources are uploaded.