61. Revillaging: Maternal, Cultural, and Planetary Wellness are One - Rachelle Garcia Seliga

We cannot talk about collective health, planetary health, or the health of future generations, without talking about the health of mothers. As Rachelle says, “The dysfunction and disharmony within our human environments is manifesting through the vulnerable bodies of postpartum women. In fact it is through the bodies of mothers that humanity is being alerted to the urgency of our collective need for change.”

IN THE INTRO:

The reaction to my previous episode on parenting without a village

IN THE INTERVIEW:

Our culture is set up to fail new families/parents, and pathologizing the postpartum period overlooks the fact that it’s our social structures that are the cause of the immense emotional and psychological pain most postpartum mothers feel
Mama- it’s not your fault
New moms lose up to 700 hours of sleep during the first postpartum year
The baseline of normal is that human babies need care 24/7 (your baby is not “high needs”), what’s not normal is living in isolated nuclear families
Postpartum care cannot happen without community, and community is the one thing we are all lacking
Why it’s so hard, when it’s what we all deeply crave, to recreate the community living of our ancestors/how the colonial mindset keeps us mired in separation and distrust
The pelvis as the seat of trauma for most every woman, and how we can begin to heal that
How we feel in our pelvis is how we feel in our life- the connection between mental and pelvic health
Intergenerational trauma and clearing the “bad medicine” that was embedded in the bodies of our female ancestors and passed down to us
Anchoring in what we actually believe about ourselves, our bodies, this life
Women are, and deeply feel, unsafe in our culture
The incredible responsibility of raising girls (and boys tho!) in this culture, and how Rachelle and I navigate talking to them about the realities of patriarchy in an age appropriate way
Teaching our kids to respect their inner authority first and foremost
Reproductive and environmental justice are one and the same
It’s time to grow up and do the work- our primary responsibility as adults on this planet at this time is to caretake life
One simple way we can create community and support the parents of little ones
If we can’t be resourced horizontally (by the folks around us), we can be resourced vertically (by our well ancestors) and by the land
The sacrifices we make as mothers are a holy offering to life itself