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Pregnancy

I'm writing this all by myself without any Ai, so if there are some mistakes (english is not my native language, I'm French-Israeli!) so you'll forgive me, thanks!


The title should have been something like "natural pregnancy" or how to live your pregnancy to its fullest, enjoy it, connect to it... Anyway, here are my best tools from my own experience, my references, my inspirations... As always, don't hesitate to share yours in the comments below, and to make yours anything that is here.


-With love and mindfulness, Julia.



Tools that helped me physically during my pregnancy:


  • Nux vomica homeopathy for nausea during the first trimester. It goes together with sleeping tones, eating small meals, not eating white flour/sugar/refined food/diary, only nourishing organic food, lots of proteins and iron food, and drinking as much as I could.

  • Olive oil for the belly / boobs / tights, to support the skin that stretches, olive oil is most mosturizing oil of all but of course it is less marketed. After bath for a good absorption is best. I loved my doula's product based on olive oil, I used that every evening after showering, check it here.

  • Mexican Rebozo: having my husband shaking me gently with it when I felt too heavy eased my pain and most importantly helped creating space for baby. I was on the ground on all fours, the rebozo around my belly, then each of my thighs, and he would take each part of the rebozo and go gently side to side shaking me... You can order yours here and ask for guidance there too!


  • A water bottle to check that I drink enough, and adding some raspberry leaves and ortica drops in my water (20 drops in 1L). My doula Erika made those drops for me, but I’m sure you can find and buy some maybe on iherb!


  • Tahini and prunes: those were my two cravings and I don't think it is so personnal, it is simply my body telling me what I need. Tahini is gold, it has calcium like no other food (not even milk)


  • Iron easy dips: blend together cashews, parsley, garlic (optional), lemon, tahini (optional), salt. Parsley has a lot of iron! Eat with some whole flour bread in the morning together with some omelette for proteins, delicious! Pregnancy is not about eating more, it is about eating better quality food!


  • Vitamins, and taking them well every day at the same time (trying so at least!). Some blends make some women feel bad, like the one gynecologist usually give in Israel. In France I use to take "Gynefam supra grossesse", they are really great. Many women in Belle Aviv Facebook group recommended in Israel the Altman one. The idea is to have folic acid (to start 3 months if possible before the pregnancy, then stop if you're not yet pregnant and start again as you get pregnant), iron, omega 3, all types of vitamins B, Vitamin D, iodine, magnesium, zinc... Super important for your health (you are creating a baby!) and for baby's development (especially its brain).


For more tips about nutrition, I advise you to go check Ilana Hart's website.

Here is a replay of her free webinar "Nutrition Secrets every pregnant woman should know". And here a PDF with some cool recipes she amde for our pregnant women retreat:


  • Prevent haemorrhoids by washing yourself with cold water (and not using toilet paper).


  • Drinking infusions that improve your digestion (chamomile for instance), avoid caffeine and theine. And if you are constipated then a little coffee exceptionally is a great option (or hot prunes / apples, or if you are into it you can create some aloe verra homemade suppository).


  • Physio ball to sit properly whenever you eat, work, whatever you do actually. Your knees should always be below your hips, that's the rule! The ball allows you to move and have flexibility in the area of the pelvic floor, it's much more comfortable, and playful! Also for labour, you can use it to stretch out your legs…


  • Little folded blanket to sit on in the car, in the corner of the seat just to lift your buttocks and have your knees lower than your hips, trying to have your back as straight as possible. Keeping good position throughout pregnancy = more space for baby = easier birth. Also, my mum advised me trying not to be more than half an hour in the car without doing a break and walking a little, that's not a science based thing but trust me, there's something about it!


  • Pillows, and pregnancy pillow to sleep, always have an extra pillow between your legs to support the pelvic floor new alignement, and under the belly is always more comfy. I also used to play with the blanket and roll it between legs and under the belly. Sometimes I liked the pregnancy pillow, sometimes I hated it, depends each night! There are so many of them, but it's all kind of the same at the end of the day.


  • My own way of the Yoga sun salutation: I would inhale sending my arms to the sky, then exhale to the famous downward-facing dog, trying to stretch my calves (this makes space for baby and avoid sciatica). Then I would simply go on all fours and breathe out rolling my back nose facing my belly and then inhale arching my back and looking up to the sky, and I would repeat that a few times, allowing myself to move around as well whatever feels good and keep breathing. This takes literally 2-3 minutes a day, but it changes everything! It makes space for baby and prepare your body for birth. The more your do especially towards the end, the better. No need to be a yoga expert or go to some expensive classes (or the worse for me look at some youtube video and actually hurt myself as no teacher is checking on me).


  • Not pushing myself, and be close to nature. Those women on social media doing crazy sports as they are pregnant - ok it is super impressive, but not for me! To me, singing to my baby, dancing in my living room with my partner like no one is watching, taking (not too) hot showers, that was my style of pregnancy. Just walking every day, that was my sport. Meditating, stretching, laughing, walking barefoot in nature as often as possible (skin on the feet is one of the most absorbing), taking some energy of the sun, not putting any product on my skin (no nail polish, no cream...).


By the way, all those things (rebozo, how to sit, the physio ball, the yoga style positions and breathing...) are explained in some other ways in the spinning babies famous online course. It's cheap, I did it, I don't recommend it so much... The books I've mentioned below, and the hypnobirthing KGH are much better preparation according to me. It is still a really cool reference to check week by week what is going on in your body, check it here.


  • Lymphatic drainage on the legs: I started during my second trimester and had 2/3 of them every month, I think that was the most helpful thing for heavy legs feeling and swelling. That is where I did it: em'briya, it was at home and it was so convenient. Be careful to take a pregnancy aware practitioner cause there are some points (on the calves / feet) that can induce labor.


  • osteopathy if you have back pain / sciatica. Can also check it out with em'briya


  • Acupuncture: I think I had only 4 sessions in total towards my second trimester to support my blood.


  • La Trame: this is actually my practice, and I'm the only practitioner in Israel, so I took the opportunity when I was in France to do a session with my teacher. I did it the first trimester, as soon as I knew I was pregnant. It allows to release as much as possible (as much as your body is ready to) emotions and traumas that would be stuck there (can be trans-generational ones that you are not even conscious about) and to feel anew, realigned, to welcome this new soul with all the love it deserves. To book with me check here or check on La Trame official website to see all practitioners worldwide.


Other tools for the birth process:


  • The "oxytocin bath": it is important for me to say here - birth is something very... animal, instinctive. The more mindful you are in your daily life, the more conscious you are in this very intense process. I'll do another post about birth itself, but my point here is to say: to have a beautiful easy birth, you need the "oxytocin" hormone. Many people talk about this - and it is super ultra extra mega important to understand properly for yourself what makes your oxytocin rise. It is the hormone of love, your baby came in from love, and will come out from love too! This hormone is what will make you have a beautiful birth, not the adrenaline, which is the hormone that will come instead if you don't have oxytocin (because in nature there's no emptiness, so if you are not actively intending for something good, something else you may don’t want will be there instead - if not oxytocin then adrenaline, if not positive thoughts of gratitude and imagining good scenarios, then thoughts of fear and “what if” anxious images). Some women think the hormones they give you at the hospital is oxytocin but it is not, it’s Pitocin which is a synthetic one, and of course it does not have all the great effects of oxytocin. Oxytocin will make your contractions start and be powerful, efficient. Oxytocin is also what makes you relax, feel good and loved, they are created from this actually. Thanks to the natural process your body will also produce then endorphin (natural and strongest pain relief that exists on earth, much more than the morphin we created). Oxytocin will also make you heal with the retraction of the uterus after birth together with all the breastfeeding process. Oxytocin is also what will make you really bond with your baby and feel so much love... The biggest high you'll ever feel! Oxytocin is as the origin of ALL of this! No pitocin can imitate this, this synthetic hormone is just sending information to the brain to have the contractions, but without all of the other information, this unnatural inducing method (and there are so many natural ones but that will be in the article about birth) is very intense for the body and the baby that may have not be ready for this. Anyway, this oxytocin thing is INCREDIBLE and guess what... You can train yourself throughout your pregnancy to create more oxytocin so you'll have plenty of it and know how to produce it for the D-day. It is quite simple and fun to do actually: it is very sensory, so make a list with each of your senses what makes you feel good: which smell (orange, lavender), taste, types of food and drinks, colors, shapes, flowers, partners moves, dances, hugs, textures and colors of clothes, candles, lighting, music, songs, create a playlist... And have that set up, with your full consciousness, everyday or as often as possible, especially towards and during birth. I had an alarm on my phone saying "oxytocin bath" and I would put some music and dance or hug with my partner, or simply by looking at each other in the eyes without moving. If I was by myself it was about having good thoughts, self-love ones... You know you are training your oxytocin when you feel wrapped in love, you feel safe, so full of gratitude, at peace... Such a cool feeling ha? Imagine giving birth like this instead of the picture we have of it in our minds from movies, being afraid, screaming from pain, in a hospital (not the most romantic set up unless you prepared and create it there bringing some nice lighting, music, food, people, smell...). If you are with adrenaline instead, fight or fly mode, your body will not open, you are all tense, and this does not help for an easy birth. And this mode can come quickly - suddenly another nurse, a stranger, enters the room and check some things on you... The body reacts even very subtely, and that's enough to make it feel not safe and slower the processus of birth. Animals go into hidden dark spaces, they isolate themselves to give birth and feel safe. It is our instinctive, animal body that takes over during labor. In labor land, you know what are your needs and you are ready to do everything to "get the job done." Feeling safe is key for an easy labor, and feeling safe means different set up for each one of us. Some will feel safe at home, others in a hospital, some with their partners, some with their mothers... You need to practice that "feeling safe," to know how it feels and looks like and train it. You are litterally opening yourself in every realms, physically, spiritually, and this is the most vulnerable position you'll ever be in together with your little newborn, so feeling safe is truly something you want to train. Whatever the set up will be (because birth is always unexpected and never goes as we plan it will be), you know you will be and feel safe because the key components will always be with you (your knowledge so you can answer for yourself and not let anyone do anything you don't understand or don't want, you have yourself, your faith in yourself, in this life, in Hashem's planning). And even if you don't have time on the d-day to play this nice playlist you've prepared, somehow it's already within you, you created stocks of oxytocin during your pregnancy, and with that mindset anything can happen.


For instance my own oxytocin triggers that I practiced all along pregnancy and helped me during labor:

  • press our foreheads together with my partner. This place is a portal to the neshama, some call it the 3rd eye. Touching with one foreheads, or someone kissing that place, is a big sign of feeling safe and loved. Being in that position for some time, as long as we want, losing track of time, connecting, bonding, letting go... During labor, after an intense wave, this made me release, cry, laugh, and be ready for the real big ones to come

  • sweet orange essential oil on a little cotton

  • Specific songs and rhythms. Here were my playlists, feel free to get inspired from mine: Calm Birth / Baby Dance

  • Balancing movement side to side with my hands on my belly and whispering love words or humming.


  • Preparing a birth plan is great in that sense - no matter what happens you know your desires will be taken in consideration. Below is a copy of mine, feel free to get some inspiration from it. In all that uncertainty, it gives a sense of control even if at the end it all comes from Hashem. At least you can say "I did my part, I did my research, I wrote my intentions, now it's in your hands." That's what we call "hishtadlut", doing our very best, taking full responsibilities for our lives, doing as much as we can, but knowing that at the end of it, the results belongs to Hashem.


  • Understanding the muscles of the uterus to work with it and not against it. In the hypnobirthing book I talk about below, they explain it this way:

    "the uterus is a powerful bag of muscles, possibly the strongest muscles in the body [...] We think of labour as the process of the baby moving out into the world, but most of labour is the process of the cervix softening, thinning and opening to facilitate the birth of your baby. [...] During pregnancy, the body of the uterus must remain relaxed and able to stretch in order to accomodate the growing baby, while the cervix must remain firm in order to keep the baby in. In labour, these two functions are reversed. The muscles of the body of the uterus start to work and draw up, and the muscles of the cervix relax and start to open. The two types of muscle work in harmony, each with a different function, as long as the labouring woman is calm and relaxed as nature intended. In the first stage of labour, during surges, the vertical muscles draw up. The circular muscles relax and are drawns back in response. The cervix thins and opens. You can see the abdomen rising during a surge. I call it the 'up' stage of labour because that is what the muscles are doing. [...] it is perfectly logical because all the muscles in the body work in pairs. If you want to do something as simple as bending your arm, the biceps muscle contracts and the triceps muscle releases. [...] they work as a pair, which is just as well, because then you have a mechanism for getting back to normal afterwards. [...] after birth the muscles of the cervix contract and the muscles further up release. All the other muscles in the body are usually comfortable doing the job they are designed to do, but the only muscles that are generally considered to be painful are the muscles of the uterus. [...] If you have pain in your muscles it is generally because you have undertaken some unusual and strenuous exercise. If you suddenly went for a 30km hike, the muscles in your legs would be painful the next day. [...] But nobody ever had labour pains the next day [...] as the upper muscles of the uterus work to draw up, if the muscles of the cervix remain tense and do not release, there is a battle between the two sets of very powerful muscles. This means that each surge is more uncomfortable, less efficient and longer, there are more of them, and labour is longer. [...] because the muscles are working against each other, they tend to restric the mother's blood supply. Blood carries oxygen [...] If an athlete's muscles are deprived of oxygen they collapse with cramp. In addition, the oxygen carried in the mother's blood is the oxygen which goes through the plancenta to the baby [...] as the upper muscles of the uterus work to draw up, if the muscles of the cervix gently release with each surge, then each surge is more comfortable, more efficient and shorter, there are fewer of them and labour is shorter. It's very, very simple, and very, very logical."


  • Breathing images to practice on for the d-day. The hypnobirthing have beautiful ones according to first or second stage of labour (to support those movements of the uterus muscles), such as blowing bubbles for first stage (for the 'up' movement) and then images like snow flakes or sunset for the second stage. The most important is to remember not to be tense and to breathe out, "exhale out" the baby. And to remember doing so during the real time labour, it's better if you had practiced before. Nothing crazy. Just a small space with the mouth exhaling intensely your air and it naturally does the work as your body also has expulstion reflexes. No "PUSH" like in movies, this could even arm you. And even if you feel like pushing actually (the feeling can even be of havin a big poop!), breath!!


  • Visualisation about baby position and of a flower opening. Those are hypnobirthing really cool tools to encourage baby to be on the right position (you can also help yourself with a drawing like this one below). The flower visualisation is the same idea of yourself opening, the same movement. You can have pictures or buy yourself flowers and keep that idea, that feeling in mind as slowly you get into labor land.


Flowers in the morning before, then the flowers when my labour started.


  • Go to the Mikveh - I actually did not have time for that, but it is a tradition just before birth! Also a blessing of fertility for the woman going to the mikveh after you.


  • Rehearsing to feel pain as a sensation: if I had a physical sensation saying "oh this is painful" I actually stopped, noticing I used the word "pain," and tried to see it more as a sensation, to evaluate it, to see where I feel it. Changing the word pain to sensation of discomfort is already a great step. Then, not resisting the sensation, not tensing my body, but breathing it through.


  • Know how to "enter the pain," going through it. Mindfulness meditations help with that, learning to go inwards, to release the mind and not try to escape the pain by tensing your face and stop breathing but in the contrary, relaxing all the muscles, welcoming it with the mind, even feeling grateful for it. I remember myself yelling "thank you Hashem" when it was the most painful. Surrendering to the pain, that's the secret. Vocalizing can help a lot at that moment. A great releasing "AAAaaahhhh" if you know what I mean! The throat and the uterus are like mirroring organs. When you open your voice, you also open down there for the baby to go through. So do not hesitate to use your voice as loud as you want!


  • TENS unit, you just rent it, service is amazing. It's a set of 4 electrodes that ease the pain, truly amazing... If in Israel, check all the info here. The kit will arrive at the mother in week 37 along with a detailed digital training set that includes a video and operating instructions. Make sure you contact them in time in advance.


  • craniosacral techniques by an osteopath for the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) to be reset, release the adrenaline and be calm to enter the labor land and oxytocin. I did it with Lirane from Em'briya. As I felt one day and a half before my actual birth the mucus plug was expelled and I was full of adrenaline as I knew it was coming soon! I did not have any waves, "contractions," yet though. Lirane came at my place to make this cranial massage to me, and I never felt so relaxed in my life, I remember having this image of rain drops falling on me, and me welcoming them with open arms. No longer than 2 hours later my first contraction arrived. It felt like a period pain, which was not so painful, together with my uterus muscles contracting upwards in my belly. If the adrenaline before led me to quickly arrange, organize, clean up, now I was completely opening, softening, surrendering to the experience, which is exactly what you need for a healthy natural birth.


  • Arnica Montana 30C Homeopathic Medicine for Relief from Muscle Pain to support the body as soon as labour starts, take the single dose one under the tongue. Looks like this.


  • perineal massages (can be done by partner!), after a nice hot shower, with some oil such as almond. Step by step guide here. I started on week 37 but I wish I started actually before, week 35 I'd say. It prevents from tearing.



Tools that helped me emotionally, mentally and spiritually during the pregnancy:


  • Morning mindfulness meditation or prayer to connect and recenter to myself and my baby, or should I say to prevent feeling disconnected, as it happens to all of us as we work, continue having our lives, conversations, sometime arguments, and it may seem easy to forget we’re not alone here feeling those emotions… And time truly flies, so make sure you take some minutes everyday to connect to this soul that is in you! In Judaism, we say that during pregnancy babies know all the Torah, and when they are born an angel come to them and make them forget “Shhhh” placing a finger on their lips (that’s the mark between the nose and mouth we all have). So connecting to your baby is also connecting to the secrets of the universe, to HaShem!


  • Be impeccable with your word: use words that sound softer, nicer, more adequate and gentle when you speak about your pregnancy and birth. For example instead of "contractions", I used "waves." As I surf, this word really resonated with me, and it really feels like that. And those Braxton Hicks "fake contractions," I called them "imunim" which means "trainings" in Hebrew, because this is really what your body does, it is not fake, it is practicing. The power of thoughts is incredible and so impactful for your pregnancy and birth experience, and your thought is build from the words you chose to speak.

    • Here more examples of positive birthing words: Delivery > Birht ; labour stalls > take a rest for a while ; pain > sensation, discomfort ; contraction > surge, wave ; relax > soften ; try (just don't use that word it creates stress and pre-supposes failure) ; what is your due date? > how many weeks you are pregnant? ; avoid all the words "just" "only" "should" "must" "could happen" ; "high risk” > may need extra help that is here ready to be gently given ; "low risk" > normal and healthy.


  • Cards with positive affirmations on my bedside table. That's a great hypnobirthing concept, they have those cards with KGH hypnobirthing book, but you can also create your own cards! You can say them out loud everyday, put them around your house or desk at work… Make sure to also have them with you during labour!



  • Journaling: I bought myself a beautiful journal with the intention of anchoring my thoughts, emotions, and also bzh'm share with my baby in the future. We shared this journal with my husband and wrote together in it time to time, whenever we felt like it. I glued there some ultrasounds pics, some pictures of us, some drawings, some stickers... And two weeks after the pregnancy I also wrote there the labor and giving birth process. I continued in another journal the motherhood journey.


  • Creating yourself a bubble of positivity: when you become pregnant and start telling people, they usually say things that may come from a kind place, but does not sound kind at all. They may even ask question you don't feel like answering. For me, the question "when is your due date?" was the most triggering (I explain why on next point). Prepare yourself some ready-made answers. Understand you don't owe anything to anyone. Also, eating good food is also for the mind and soul: I didn't watch any movie if not only some that I already knew and where very funny to me (because they bring up all kind of emotions that your baby can feel, also it disconnect you from reality and you don’t want that during that sacred time), I also disconnected almost completely from social media and news, and I did my best to chose wisely the people I wanted to see, the conversation I wanted to have, the places I wanted to go to, the vibes I wanted to surround myself with. There is no concession here, the priority is you and baby!


  • Not having a due date: Having a due date is just a reference for your doctor - you in your consciousness, the due date is the baby's birthday! It is unknown, somewhere between the 37th and 42/43/44 weeks... A cool advice I heard is to tell people that ask one week later than your real due date so you never feel you are late. How your baby can be late, it is not born yet and we already put stress on him! And on the contrary, birth that happened before the due date are not in advanced if the baby is fully formed and ready to show up in this world, so you should be prepared for that too emotionally. Being pregnant is not about being in control, in general being in control is an illusion. It is about letting go and welcoming the process. Also, if someone ask you what is your due date, you can also simply answer which week you're in, explaining women usually give birth between their 37th to 42nd week.


  •  Announcing that I’m pregnant: during the first trimester, women usually don’t tell anyone about their pregnancy, because before the first ultrasound things are still unsure. But actually whatever happens, you want your closed ones to be aware, to take care of you… So let’s stop with all that superstition and at least tell our very closed ones, it feels super helpful and nice to have someone that knows and can support you during that challenging time of the first trimester. In Jewish tradition, we actually wait for the 5th month to announce it properly. As you announce it, you’ll see your belly showing up even more, it feels so nice not to hide it!


  • Letting go, embracing uncertainty, having faith: there are so many choices to be made as you become pregnant, many people will ask "in which hospital you decided to give birth?" or "where are you planning to give birth?" It is very rare though that everything will go as planned, just ask women that gave birth, it never goes as planned! Though you want to be as responsible as you can be. Letting go does not mean you are not taking your responsabilities seriously to give this baby the safety and love it needs. It simply means to welcome anything that may happen, even if it does not go as planned. If people are obssessed about the giving birth part, the whole process of the pregnancy is actually magical and you shouldn't be thinking about the giving birth part all along. In our society we learned to be afraid of it, that it should be painful etc. But actually things can be very different when you prepare for it, for instance through hypnobirthing. I remember for the birth setting, I had no idea if I wanted a homebirth or go to the hospital, there were pluses and minuses to each option, and my baby's wellness (more pluses with a homebirth) and security (more pluses at the hospital) were both my priorities... So I told Hashem - I've learned and prepared for both options, now I let go, because I know it wont be anyway the way I expect it to be. I let go of all my expectations, I only pray to be healthy with my baby, all the rest I surrender to you, and in that flexibility I know everything is gonna be alright.


  • Hitbodedut, going for a walk in nature and talking to Hashem as a friend that knows everything, talking out loud.


  • Praying: if tehilim are your things there are specific ones you can recite. Somehow towards labor I didn't feel like reading tehilim but reading prayers in French, things that I usually never do, I hate translation for the sacred texts, but here I was and I went with the flow, adding my own prayers my own words to it, saying to Hashem simply in French "I love You, Thank you"... So feel free to make this practice your own as well, and to support yourself with prayer books only if you feel like it. Hashem's hear a pregnant woman in every languages, especially the language of the heart. A pregnant woman is a queen "malca" מלכה. In this acronym we have the Mem letter for Moach (mind), Lamed for Lev (heart), Kuf for Kaved (liver) and Hey for Hashem. It corresponds to the 3 levels of the soul, Neshama, Ruah and Nefesh. Ruah, meaning also the "wind," is at the place of the heart. It is the bridge between the spiritual and material realms. During the labor itself, it is this face of Hashem that comes through us to birth our baby, Ruach Elokim, the one described in Bereshit just before "and there was light," the "wind" that is floating above the primordial waters.


  • Disconnecting properly during shabbat: I started to go deeper in my shabbat practice during pregnancy, also to put the right bases already in my home for my baby to arrive. Not using my phone at all, having it all ready, having nice conversation with my partner, playing some games, making love, going for a walk, reading a book... And when shabbat ends, with Havdalah, to create a beautiful Melaveh Malka, putting some music and dancing like no one is watching! I really had a thing with that song "ihiye beseder"!!


  • Understanding it is all from Hashem is what helped me the most. It is all a miracle, the timing, the process, and if Hashem gives you the responsability of taking care of a neshama, then trust the process. In this generation, Hashem has put into our reality tools such as monitors and ultrasounds - use them wisely, don't be passively doing like others, own your pregnancy, know what information you are coming to know when you go to your gynecologist, know your choices before saying "yes" to anything out of fear. May all your choices be out of deep understanding and good intuition. It is said in judaism that birth is a space-time realm in which Hashem comes by Himself, He does not send any angel at his place, He comes personally. That is why we say in Hebrew Leida לידה which can also be read as next to Hashem ליד - ה׳. I made a painting of this and had a little place of symbolic objects and positive affirmations on a table to call in oxytocin and remember to have faith.



  • Learning, reading, asking my question... Feeling the I know makes me feel in power, responsible, and less in fear.


  • Having specific places to look for answers instead of scrolling all over the internet or asking some Ai. I had two books (see below) that were my main companions, my doula, my midwife, my gynecologist, my husband and myself, and that's it! Dr. Google and all the women groups that gives you more fear than information, no thank you.


  • Having a doula. Mine was Erika Anaya and I recommended her warmly with all my heart, especially if you are into pool-birthing or homebirthing.


  • Talking openly with my partner, without jugement, feeling we are a team here.


  • Not taking things too seriously, never forget to laugh, at least once a day!


  • Creating a lullaby that I song every night to my baby to be born. As I was walking next to the see I invented a little melody, in the morning I would sing to my belly the Modeh Ani prayer with that melody, and in the night after the shower as I put some oil on my belly I would simply be humming it. It was delicious moments for myself, of bonding with my baby to be, and now I still sing it to my newborn, I think she remembers because it calms her down, it is so cute to see.


  • Talking out loud to my baby, telling everything that is happening. Telling it when you get upset that this is not about him/her. Telling it what you are doing and how it is going to feel like, for instance before an ultrasound. Telling which person is touching your belly... Telling it every night (and visualizing it in your mind in the same time) the right position to be on "chin to chest, hands on the heart, head down, your back side to my belly side,... see picture above), after a few days it sounds like a mantra already, that's a powerful hypnobirthing tool. Als


  • Practice Self love - because you can only love as much as you love yourself. If you have self-criticism, you will have it to your lovely kids one day too, judgements, and hard stuff that are not helping them to grow... Self-love is to love yourself without any conditions, fully, physically as well, just as Hashem created you and decided this world cannot be without you in it. You are Hashem's creation and you are so sacred, you deserve the very best of this world, respect, love, kindness... And as you are treating your own self this way, so will you do with your partner and your baby. Loving unconditionally is first something to work on with ourselves.


  • Trust my baby and my body fully, they know the way. I love to think also that this is a first rock to the relationship with my baby, that I trust her, her capacity, and that we can do this together.


  • Taking a beautiful picture of me pregnant, some have sessions with professional photographer, my husband actually took our camera and we had fun to do it by ourselves, which was very romantic and fun. It made me feel sexy, beautiful, sacred, seen, playful, proud of my body, of myself... I really recommend!


  • Watching women birthing videos to familiarize myself with the act. I don't know why but at the beginning I was so afraid, discussed a little too, to watch it, and I even found myself crying by watching the videos... Our society took us so far away from those magical divine passages, death and birth, the uncertainty... It scares us, but in other cultures those moments are so sacred and celebrated... Even in Judaism we have lost so much of our traditions, for instance the placenta burrial ceremony that I talk about in another post. How we imagine birth because of how the society showed it to us is so different from what it could be. Birth is achieving your highest potential, being the closest you'll ever be to the Creator, opening your heart to infinite love as you could never have imagined before... It is truly a portal. Portal = overcoming some pain (and I insist it's about pain or being uncomfortable, it is not suffering, which is very different thing) = spiritual elevation. This is how it works! If you want to avoid the pain, you won't gain the spiritual elevation, this power, woman power, so intense, so empowering, of giving birth, of feeling you did that so you can do anything else in this life, this high is from unmedicated natural birth letting the body do what is knows, just as it is written in our Torah. Of course a birth is a birth, and thank Gd we live in a world with good hospitals if something happens Gd forbid. C-section is a birth. But giving birth naturally, your consciousness is here and you become aware of your power. Everything comes from Hashem, however the form of the birth, the most important at the end of the day is to have a healthy mum and baby, THAT'S IT!


Here some videos about natural birth or pool birth that I liked seeing:







And here is a post about my own homebirth (link coming soon)


  • Babyshower! That was really fun, especially to connect to the womanhood energy. We think of woman energy as soft and gentle, but during labor I felt the very opposite - my doula's energy was very active, fire, strong, and my husband was soft, gentle, reconforting. So the babyshower, just before needing so much intense and powerful energy for the labor, is amazing! Light up a lot of candles to bring in this fire energy. In Judaism tradition, a baby shower is actually an Hafrashat Challah. We all bake challot together, talk, laugh. You can even have a rabbanit come and make a Dvar Torah. Here's my recipe!




The books I have used and highly recommend:


  1. Natural Birth Secrets: An Insider's Guide on How to Give Birth Holistically, Healthfully, and Safely, and Love the Experience! by Anne Margolis https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Birth-Secrets-Holistically-Healthfully/dp/1648713165

I met Anne Margolis in Israel at her daughter's place some years ago, it was one of my first sound healing session and I knew that the day I'll be pregnant I'd want her advices. Her book when I ordered it seemed so huge but I read the parts that was interesting to me and it helped me so so much, to understand, to put words on my feelings, to find natural remedies, to live the process fully and enjoy it. She also has online courses, if you would prefer that format you can check out her website: www.homesweethomebirth.com


  1. The Hypnobirthing™ Book by Katharine Graves https://www.kghypnobirthing.com/shop/books/the-hypnobirthing-book

If you want to learn about hypnobirthing this is THE reference. Katharine Graves is the founder of KGHypnobirthing – the original UK Hypnobirthing – and of The Hypnobirthing Association. She also trained as a doula with Michel Odent, if you know the name, you know how leading in that field they are!


And some Jewish books I have heard of but didn't read myself yet (but they look very cool, bzhm for my next pregnancy I'll read them!) :


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