It’s 11 am, Mamacita wakes up and put on her 25 years old flower prints robe. She prepares her women morning tea: raspberry leaves, clover flowers, corn silk and elderflower while listening to the Mul Mantra of Snatam Kaur, a Kundalini yoga classic. Then, she makes her coffee in her dad’s old coffee pot, being very careful to drink every sip of it and clean it and dry it… Morning ritual is over; the day can start.
Mamacita has help give birth to more than 2000 babies in Arkansas, France, Spain and Portugal. Since a few years, friends and family are bagging her to stop but her answer is always the same: No. This grandmother, not like any other, is very stubborn. « If I stop, I die » she said with her bright bleu wet eyes. Wherever a baby is calling, Mamacita goes. When we met, she was waiting for a new born in Ajezur, south Portugal, a few days after the birth, she was already on the road again, heading up to the cold mountains of the north and to a rainbow community in the middle of nowhere. You should see what she is traveling with: ‘pool in the box’ an inflatable swimming pool, a small library with some of the best books about water birth, her midwife equipment, her knitting stuff to make baby hats, clothes and a huge bag of medicinal plants. Mamacita’s mission is to prepare the couple (and the children) for home birth: « I don’t say much to the woman, we have it all inside, they just need to connect to our ancestors. I teach the man, they are the one that do not know… ».
What fascinated me with Mamacita is her trust in life force and her devotion. After each birth, she writes the baby’s birth story.
TOP 10 Mamacita
1/ Drink Raspberry leaf 2/ Don’t stop your life if you are sport person or a flying acrobat - don’t stop! Just keep doing it until you can’t do it anymore, usually around 7 or 8 months. 3/ Learn some kind of yoga or meditation technique, it will keep your body in good shape and give you good breathing & relaxation basics. 4/ Increase your sexual relationship to keep the vagina and uterus muscle toned which will help you in delivery. 5/ The first 4 months, increase your vitamin E B and Iron – don’t take it in vitamins because your body will use too much energy to break the vitamin down, it’s wearing out your body so try to get it through your food. 6/ Swimming is so important when you are pregnant, especially the last 3 months, if you can go every week it’s great for you and for your baby. 7/ Find out how you were born to prepare for childbirth, if you are born with C-section then you will have a lot of work to do. 8/ If you have children already, learn that they can be involved in the birth no matter how old they are - have your children there if you are not in the hospital! 9/ Do the Blessing Way ceremony with your Doula to prepare the birth and the post natal network- after pregnancy YOU WILL NEED HELP, don’t rely on the father to do everything, the baby need undivided attention. 10/ Consider having your baby in water.