cottage inside offers space and guidance for the inner and outer practice of caring for ourselves and others during the year of conception and beyond
here you’ll find a living form for the everyday tradition of tending to our bodies, hearts and minds, receiving the magic, and navigating the chaos during a precious transition in the human experience
The doula
Cottage Inside is the dream and prayer of Morgan Lynn, a Zen student and certified Birth and Postpartum Doula trained in the Ayurvedic tradition. An avid home cook, Morgan grows much of the food for her kitchen in her Runyon Canyon garden, following the principles of the Biodynamic French Intensive Method.
“Over nearly a decade at the sides of women and their families as they have transitioned into parenthood, and as I have simultaneously tended the garden, bearing witness to the cyclical nature of ever-renewing fertility, one thing rings true in my doula practice:
The key to optimizing outcomes in a woman’s experience of her birth transition lies in the continuity of intentional care throughout the full cycle of fertility, conception, pregnancy, labor, birth, postpartum, and back to fertility again.
A good gardener knows that the vibrancy of life in her garden is always the reflection of the soil from which it grows, and all the conditions in play along the path to bloom and fruit. In the garden, there is no separation.
This is my offering to you - a detailed and complete resource for an interconnected practice for parent and baby, throughout the year of conception and beyond.”
the process:
01
FERTILITY: BALANCE+CULTIVATE (3 months or longer). Before conception and for anyone, regardless of whether we plan to conceive in the future or not, this phase is all about removing stressors that inhibit us from flourishing fully and nourishing ourselves on all levels in order to “prepare the field” for conception. (This is the only stage in the conception year where cleansing practices might be appropriate.) Here we pack in nutrients through living foods, move our bodies, steep ourselves in the natural world and cultivate threads of connection to our friends, family and the All. This is also the time to come to know our own bodies, cycles, and signs of optimal fertility, to write out visions for our birth and postpartum plans, to begin allocating resources and making preparations for a conception and pregnancy to come.
02
PREGNANCY | LABOR | BIRTH: TEND+NURTURE (+/- 40 weeks). At conception, we also conceive ourselves as parents. Pregnancy can be a long practice in parenting first ourselves and each other before we are called to nurture our babies. In this stage we practice a deep observation of rapid change, nourishing our bodies and minds through small everyday rituals: making the tea, preparing our meals, taking our walks. Noticing that today is not the same as yesterday, being with arising thoughts, seeing our partners, communicating with our growing babies, building trust and intimacy in our closest circle of friends, family and care providers ahead of the great surrender of labor. Here we do a deep dive into the physiology of the mammalian mother-baby dyad so that we may prepare for a positive birth experience within the chosen birth plan and set the stage for optimal conditions for bonding with baby at the onset of the early postpartum time.
03
POSTPARTUM: REST+RENEW (6 - 12 weeks). The postpartum period is a time of supported rest, for bonding with the new baby, for replenishing nutrients and honoring ourselves through food and intentional self-care practices after the great work of growing and birthing new life. The postpartum system requires quite particular conditions as we regulate back to our fertility states and this is often a time of heightened vulnerability. Love, warmth, patience and being cared for by others are deeply felt during this precious transition for the whole family.
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