BLESSINGWAY: A HOW-TO

A Blessingway is just that, a blessing.  It’s an opportunity for women to gather together and bless their pregnant friend before she delivers her baby.  It is a celebration of womanhood, motherhood and sisterhood.  It is a time to share love and good thoughts, and to pamper the mom-to-be.  Blessingway’s are the best.

For an easy guide to hosting a blessingway, read on:

1.  For starters, Food.  All good get-togethers in my house start with yummy treats.  I did try to find a good balance between nourishing food and sweets, the sweets were just more fun to photograph than the veggies.

I still can’t get over how good Harmon’s bruschetta is!!  I love bruschetta and this has been a big hit at the last few parties I\’ve taken it to.

2.  A Bead Circle.  On the invitation I included a request for every woman to bring a bead to represent them, and one to represent each of their children.  One of the girls wondered why for each of her children, and I explained that each child of yours have represents a birth of yours.  The bead circle was a great way to start after everyone had been chatting and munching on treats.  We all went around and shared a positive thought about birth, motherhood or womanhood-and talked about our own birth experiences.  It was a beautiful moment as friends to get excited for Staci and her upcoming birth and newborn baby.  There was a lot of laughter and a lot of tears.

Staci strung her beads on a necklace that she can wear when she’s in labor and be reminded of our kind words and good energy towards birth.

3.  Sisterhood Bracelets.  After Staci made her necklace we each made our bracelets.  The bracelets were simple with one or 2 charms.  They represent unity and they’re to be worn by us when she goes into labor to show support for her.

4. Birth Affirmations.  Kim found a bunch of coloring book style birth affirmations for us to decorate and hang as bunting in the birth room as words of encouragement during labor.  Pinterest is full of amazing designs and options when it comes to birth affirmations and having them up on the wall during labor is a sweet reminder.

5.  Belly Henna.  We completely failed at henna.  Ideally henna is a relaxing and fun activity to do with the expecting mother as a pampering ritual.  I had no idea how to mix the stuff, and not wanting to go home empty-bellied, we used a sharpie to decorate her belly (I\’m pretty sure that move would 100% get us kicked out of the hippie club, oh well).  It was still fun and relaxing, and an opportunity to pamper Staci.

I loved this entire experience, and each of the women there loved it as well.  I can’t recommend a blessingway enough-every pregnant mama deserves a blessingway!