...Dream Seeds of Spring

Dear Reader,

As we greet the Imbolc Full moon, the seeds of Spring are beginning to stir... Nestled within the fertile darkness, they are singing softly, calling forth a quiet cultivation of our dreams for WellMama over the coming year...

Over the winter, we (myself, Tariqua and Caia as WellMama directors) have been receiving some fantastic support from BA4Good to work on our Volunteering process, Funding strategy and Impact report. In this way, we are creating a more solid foundation for our offerings in the year(s) to come: WellMama will continue to deliver a unique blend of education, wellbeing practices, and community-based support designed to bridge gaps in state maternity care systems and promote lifelong maternal health. Our services are inclusive, culturally sensitive, and rooted in traditional knowledge skills and understanding, while aligned with modern and contemporary health care priorities.

With this support from BA4Good and potential access to funding, our offerings are going to serve hundreds more women and families, focusing on those who experience barriers to safe, holistic maternity care, to ensure continuity of care for mothers and families who may fall through the gaps in mainstream provision.

Another one of the developments that we're particularly excited about is to expand our WellMama work to Scotland (where Tariqua is based) and additional rural hubs. 💙

We look forward to sharing our Impact Report soon, as a way of reflecting and celebrating how far we've come since the beginnings of WellMama!

Deep currents of source waters flowing, bare bones of land showing

Grandmother winter spreads her cloak across the land

Solar return in the snowy stillness of midwinter

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I was honoured and very much enjoyed offering live-in postpartum support for a family in January, who recently welcomed their first child (and who're also on the 13 Moons Journey with us ❤️).

By the time you're reading these lines, I will be at Da a Luz in Spain, offering a Ritual & Ceremony module, as well as the "Holding the Bones" Retreat and Sweat Lodge over these Imbolc days - such a joy to be invited there again!

Much love,

Samara x

With deep gratitude, I'd like to share that Tariqua Rooted has officially kicked off our online course, Tending the Roots of Community: Creative Care Collective. This six-month creative journey opened with our first gathering around the fire. In the first hour, we called in our ancestors those who walked before us inviting their wisdom, guidance, and steady presence to support the path unfolding ahead. In the second hour, we were gently guided into a deep meditation, allowing mind, body, and spirit to truly arrive. A space of deep rest opened one where compassion, acceptance, and tenderness were welcomed without needing to fix or name anything at all. Our second workshop invited a different kind of intimacy. We gathered in pyjamas and comfy clothing, in and around our beds, to explore our bedtime stories through guided writing. We reflected on the stories we carry at the end of our day the ones we hold as we process our lived experiences, the narratives that soothe us, trouble us, or ask to be witnessed before sleep. It was soft, honest, and deeply human. ✨️💚 The ticket link for this event is currently closed, but if you're feeling a calling to join this journey, you're invited to contact Tariqua directly.

Alongside this work, Tariqua Rooted is honoured to be mentoring and offering Supervision for Birthworkers and other practitioners whose work is often held in solitude. This is not about performance or productivity, but about having a place to land, a shared circle where experience, care, and wisdom can be held collectively. From this intention, we will be opening a monthly Supervision Circle, a space to be together, to learn from one another, and to gently explore particular situations or cases that may feel heavy or complex. These gatherings are rooted in reflection, shared listening, and collective care, a reminder that none of us are meant to hold this work alone. If you feel called to be part of this circle, please reach out by email to info@tariquarooted.org. ✨️💚

As one of the directors, alongside the rest of our deeply committed team, I also want to acknowledge the quiet, steady work happening behind the scenes to root Wellmama into a more sustainable CIC. There is so much care being poured into honouring the foundations, so it can continue to grow, stabilise, and serve the community with integrity. We look forward to sharing more of this journey, and the future unfolding for Wellmama CIC.

I hold immense gratitude for being part of this collective and for walking alongside so many of you in the offerings and spaces held by both Wellmama and Tariqua Rooted.

With warmth and care,

Tariqua xxx

Other upcoming WellMama and True Midwifery offerings:

The 13 Moons Journey 2026

There are still some spaces available in this circle that is forming, to start this new journey together with our first online gathering on February 25th!

This offering may be for you, if you feel the call to explore conception, pregnancy, labour, birth, and postpartum in a connected and holistic way...

If you are currently pregnant, or wish to be, and you would like to learn more about the miraculous process unfurling within you, and deeply connect with yourself, your unborn child, and your birth partner...

If you had a birth experience that left you wounded or scarred, that has needed, or needs, deep tending… and now you long to create a different environment and conditions for your next birth...

If you would like a holistic map and foundation of knowledge and practices around the continuum of the childbearing years...

If you desire to explore and embody the knowledge, skills and understanding to tend to yourself, and growing family with innate wisdom, love and tenderness...

Maybe you are a Midwife, Doula, Birthkeeper, a Women's health practitioner or Community Leader and wish to expand, nurture and support your practice and be part of a worldwide web of wisdom weavers & community cultivators?

Don’t hesitate to reach out via email or DM on our Instagram with your wonderings, questions or excitement of this journey. Be welcome ❤️

Holding the Bones

🌺 True Midwifery Study Spiral:

Breast Massage: Meeting the Heart Through Self Touch with Hannah Grace

Thursday, Feb 26th | 11am–2pm SAST
​Book here​

These monthly Spirals are a safe space for birth keepers from around the world to gather, share, study, discuss and learn in a non-judgemental and oxytocin-rich space.

In this experiential workshop, Hannah Grace invites participants to meet their breasts and heart energy through the gentle practice of non-agenda self touch. The session begins with grounding the mind — exploring breast anatomy, immune function, and the significance of heart support through the lenses of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the chakra system. The second part anchors the body in hands-on practice, guided through a slow, intentional journey of touch. Conducted off-camera, each invitation honours personal boundaries and intuitive guidance. This practice becomes an act of self-devotion, cultivating mutual trust, receptivity, and deeper connection with the wisdom of the body.

Birth First Aid - March intake open!

This course by Ruth Ehrhardt is grounded in traditional midwifery, modern first aid, and deep reverence for physiological birth.

A non-judgemental, home birth–friendly learning space for birthkeepers from around the world to come together, share wisdom, and prepare for the unexpected.

Gain practical tools, deepen your confidence, and learn to respond with calm and care when mother or baby need attention.

👉 Sign up here:​
​https://true-midwifery1.teachable.com/p/birth-first-aid6

Ongoing WellMama Community Care Survey

Receiving a diversity of feedback from different age groups and backgrounds really helps us in preparing our Impact report and securing future grants and funding opportunities, so that our WellMama offerings can benefit even more people in-person and online. That's why we invite you all to take a few minutes to fill in this short survey - whether you're a past participant of our events and you can share a story about your experience, or your a new subscriber and you can tell us what you would be most interested in.

We’d love to hear from more of you about your experiences and journeys with us over this past year! Thank you for being part of this journey with us! 💚

Our 2026 events at a glance:

⭐ Creative Care Collective: Tending the Roots of Community - started Jan 12th

⭐ 13 Moons Journey 2026 starting February 25th - enrolment open

⭐ Holding the Bones one-day event February 15th in Totnes - booking open

⭐ Traditional birth companion preparation course, in-person, 8th to 10th of May '26 (waiting list open)

⭐ WellMama Birth Summer Camp, in-person: 24th to 30th July '26 (waiting list open)

⭐ Postpartum Traditions in-person weekend at Bryn y Blodau, Wales: Summer '26 (waiting list open)

⭐ B.O.O.B. breastfeeding support circle: online, starting Spring '26 (waiting list open)

⭐ Regular WellMama Community Care and Sensual Sistrins circles (waiting list open)

With love and gentle excitement for what's to come,

The WellMama Collective

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Peace on Earth starts with Birth

Michel Odent (1930 - 2025)