Dear Reader,

Here at Bryn y Blodau (WellMama HQ in Cymru, Wales) the sun is riding the days low in the sky, and the dark of the moon and light of the stars are guiding the long dark nights of dreaming... I am deeply grateful for the opportunity this midwinter to retreat, to rest, release and renew... 2025 has been a full year for all of us here at WellMama, with a shedding of old skins and sliding into new forms...

WellMama Collective is celebrating many successful initiatives, projects and events and grateful for our connections and collaborations with other wisdom weavers in 2025. Our partnership with Ruth Ehrhardt and True Midwifery continues to thrive, with regular monthly Study Spirals, the Silent Birthkeeper one-year immersion and other ongoing study options like Birth First Aid and Basic Needs of Babies (also available for self-study).

Throughout the year, the Wellmama Collective (with Samara, Tariqua and Caia as directors) collaborated to run Wellbeing Wednesdays, Community Care for unpaid carers, our Summer Birth Camp and many more. We are about to embark on two new online journeys: one with the Creative Care Collective and another with 13 Moons 2026 (see details below).

We're currently preparing our Annual Report and look forward to sharing this with our supporters soon as well, as a way of reflecting and celebrating how far we've come since beginnings of WellMama! We are feeling honoured to have walked alongside several hundred women and families both in person and online over these last 13 years!

As the seasons turn, we will continue weaving these threads, nurturing the worldwide web of mothers, midwives, doulas and Birthkeepers, serving the sanctity of birth with reverence and respect for the mothers, babies, fathers and families nurtured through our projects, programs and events.

Deep Dreaming to you, these long nights of midwinter,

Samara x

As we move closer to the Winter Solstice, I find myself deeply grateful for the quiet strength of this community. This season invites us to slow, to soften, to nest closer to the fire and the soil to honour the dark as a place of rest, dreaming, and deep remembering.

It is a true gift to walk this path alongside WellMama a community rooted in care, diversity, and relationship. Collaboration here feels alive and intentional, woven with trust, listening, and shared purpose. As one of WellMama’s directors, I want to offer my heartfelt thanks to each of you for the support, presence, and commitment that make this work possible. It is an honour to be part of a team that holds space with such tenderness and integrity.

Through Tariqua Rooted, I am also sharing an invitation into a learning journey that is still open for registration until Monday, 5th January 2026: Creative Care Collective: Tending the Roots of Community, a six-month Journey of Creativity, Belonging and Collective Care, a call to those feeling ready to step into deeper remembering, ancestral connection, and embodied wisdom. Full information, booking and course programme here. If your heart feels a quiet Yes, you are warmly welcome to join this, or reach out to info@tariquarooted.org, if you have any questions!

May this season hold you gently. May we rest into the dark, gather warmth, and dream what is waiting to be born.

With gratitude and care,

Tariqua 🌿

Closing this year of the snake, rooting into the darkness with an awareness of the 9-year cycle we are also ending, the shedding of the skin, deeply listening and feeling it all, a stillness among the changes and movement, taking a deep bow of grief, humble gratitude and grace in my heart for humanity’s collective and individual journey’s and to the holding that WellMama offers to keep calling in the wisdom, to keep coming back to earth, to nature and to trust.

So much is taking place and though I am very much immersed in the underground setting foundations I feel the nourishment of the seeds for next year soaking into my roots and look forward to sharing and connecting through online circles and events to step through these next thresholds in togetherness, the year of the horse is coming!!!

Look out for info and dates of the first Sistrins Circle ⭕️ of the year!

All my love, the painful and the peaceful, ☺️

Caia

Other upcoming WellMama and True Midwifery offerings:

The 13 Moons Journey 2026

This is our last call for Early Bird spaces on our next 13 Moons Journey! The circle is forming with a beautiful group of women from all over the world - will you be joining us?

This new journey will start with our first online gathering on February 25th. Don’t hesitate to reach out via email or DM on our Instagram with your wonderings, questions or excitement of this journey. Be welcome ❤️

We've slightly extended the Early Bird pricing to be available until Solstice (Saturday 20th at midnight)!

Holding the Bones

Ongoing WellMama Community Care Survey

We’d love to hear from more of you about your experiences and journeys with us over this past year!

Receiving a diversity of feedback from different age groups and backgrounds really helps us grow, learn, and create spaces that truly serve community well-being. It also helps us in preparing our annual 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. Thank you for being part of this journey with us! 💚

Our 2026 dates at a glance:

⭐ Creative Care Collective: Tending the Roots of Community starting January 12th - enrolment open

⭐ Ritual & Ceremony module at Da a Luz, Orgiva (Spain) January 26th to 28th

⭐ Holding the Bones retreat, The Temple @ Da a Luz Oasis, January 31st and February 1st

to book retreat contact Marianna on +31 6 21 26 08 19

to book optional Womb Sweat Lodge (Sat 31st) contact Sol @ The Red House, +34 662 108 924

⭐ 13 Moons Journey 2026 starting February 25th - Early Bird enrolment until Dec 20th

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

⭐ Monthly Sistrins and WellMama Community Care circles - dates t.b.a. here

With love and many blessings to you for the start of this new sun cycle,

The WellMama Collective

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Peace on Earth starts with Birth

Michel Odent (1930 - 2025)