About Rosie
I am a mother to 2 boys (May 2017 and November 2020), a spouse to a wonderful, limit-breaking gentle-man, and I love having a dog as part of our family life.
I am a postpartum care provider. A birth story medicine keeper. A Reiki master. A Blueprint connector. An entrepreneur.
I am here to tend to the Sacred in all, most optimally through witnessing.
I am a disciple of Life.
I was born and raised in The Netherlands, but found out at the age of 3 that the mountains are my home. Yet, I had to wait till I graduated high school to make this a reality. I first moved to Switzerland, then England, back to The Netherlands, and eventually I found my way to Canada after graduating with a Bachelor in BA including a 6-month internship in Haida Gwaii, BC. My sister moved there a few years prior (and still lives there with her family). I started off in the Okanagan, then quickly met my spouse, and he became my home base. I have been a Squamish resident since 2011. Many winters, a tiny town named Blue River was also home, and this was a wonderful year-round safe haven from the Covid awkwardness I felt in bigger towns and cities like Squamish. And lucky for me/us; my parents made their way to Peachland BC as permanent residents of Canada in recent years as they loved visiting me there when I moved to Canada.
In 2016 my spouse and I found out we were expecting a child, and the pregnancy was wonderful. It set me off on a journey of many things. One thing that stood out for me was the term ‘community standard’ that our midwives often mentioned in appointments. Community standard for example is to birth in a hospital setting by choice, but I had done my research and found that birthing at home had better outcomes for both mother and child. I was convinced that I could have an unmedicated home birth, since I was active, healthy, and had a good pain tolerance. I also was convinced that this would best set up my baby for life. However, a 24-hour back labour birth (where the baby isn’t positioned ideally, resulting in massive pain in the back) ended up including a transfer to the hospital after 18 hours, and quickly included an epidural, Pitocin, vacuum, forceps, episiotomy and one round of Penicilin for me while birthing. After a 24-hour mandatory stay at the hospital, with amazing care and breastfeeding support, we were sent off on our way. During the birth, the vacuum had been mistakenly applied to one of my labia and so recovery took on a whole other trajectory for me. I sat on one of those airplane neck pillows for 2 months straight. My hips didn’t feel connected for that same period of time. I feel lucky this all didn’t result in PPD (Postpartum Depression), and I feel the support of friends visiting us, and bringing us meals, had a big part in this.
In 2020 we found out we were expecting a second baby! With an older child turning 3 during the pregnancy, this was a harder pregnancy for me. I was tired a lot as growing one child in the body, and another outside both with my body and my parenting. I had to give up nursing the older child because of that lack of energy, and I just couldn’t lay down and close my eyes as much as I would have preferred, even with a super supportive spouse. There were no health complications to mention, though, so again a good pregnancy experience. Where as towards the end of my first pregnancy I found out I was NOT at all in alignment with my midwife, and I felt horrible when she showed up at our home, I now found the midwife of my DREAMS. She fully supported my notion that I could do an unmedicated home birth, and she was convinced from the start of us working together that this would be a quick and beautiful birth. I can say that it makes all the difference in the world to have someone full-heartedly support and believe in one’s vision.
I had done my work after the first birth to reconcile the outcome of the birth of our oldest child, and to repair the physical damage that had occurred to both of us. Yet, of course, the closer I got to the end of the pregnancy, the more doubt came up on a daily basis. I had to work hard on staying confident in my vision, and repeated my mantra of ACT - acceptance, curiosity and trust - many times over. Baby ended up being close to 2 weeks overdue, so I had loooots of opportunity to work out many emotions that arose during this time. Until one day I sent my spouse and oldest son out for a water run (we were staying in a friends house close to the Kamloops hospital, as Blue River is a 2.5 hour drive away, and Kamloops water is gross). The contractions started to come on, and were pretty consistent, and I danced and swayed my way through this. Once the boys were back, I hopped in bed, working my way through the now active labour, and the midwife luckily showed up quickly. It was 35 minutes of active labour, followed by 10 minutes of pushing, and without intervention or any tearing, a healthy second baby boy arrived! I was on a birth-high for 2 days straight and just couldn’t sleep from my excitement!
On our way home to Blue River, we picked up our Blue Heeler dog who had stayed at a daycare for our stay in Kamloops. During my second pregnancy she was diagnosed with cancer. Her second surgery in combination with medication seemed to maybe offer her a second chance at life. After I returned she relapsed bad, though, and a third surgery revealed her cancer was now terminal. By the time I was 3 months postpartum, her care turned into palliative care. As I was very much in tune and hypervigilant with a young baby, the night care often fell on my shoulders. This included multiple times a night carrying a dog now weighing 50lb from water retention down stairs so she could pee (she drank 6 times her normal amount of water due to the medication). This wasn’t ideal under normal circumstances, and especially not while still feeling postpartum. As this was the middle of the covid pandemic, our support people ended up not coming to stay with us, which I realized in hindsight was very hard on me. Therefore, even though the birth was ideal, the year postpartum was actually harder for me mentally than the first time around.
In addition, a guilt started creeping up in me. Why was I able to hold my vision of an unmedicated, uninterrupted home birth for one child, but not the other? How much was my role in this? I feel this guilt impacted my parenting, besides the changing dynamics of time and energy invested in our oldest simply by the presence of a second child. It was a difficult time, luckily often also showing beautiful gems of wisdom and joy.
I’d say my most insightful findings for healing the guilt have been the book Beyond the Birth Plan by Rhea Dempsey, where I found clear answers as to what happened the first birth. It helped me see what my role was in that experience, and why it was so different the second time around. The other helpful finding was an email exchange with Pam England of Birth Story Medicine, but it didn’t make sense until I read Dempsey’s book. I think my story resonated with England’s journey many years prior, where she helped me reframe that perhaps I don’t need healing from the first birth, but that the birth was the healing I needed. That healing including listening to my inner voice, and trusting that wisdom, as well as setting up better boundaries in my life resulted in a normal physiological birth. While I now fully understand why I had these 2 birth experiences, I am still working on the question why each son had an opposing experience. It seems like more clarity on this is showing up as well, but not clear enough to confidently share here.
During the first 6 years of this parenting journey, I read many books and listened to many podcasts, webinars and interviews on many different topics:
Child and brain development ~ greatly influenced by “Rest, Play, Grow - Making sense of preschoolers (or anyone who acts like one)” by Deborah MacNamara, as well as the works of Janet Lansbury, Sarah Ockwell Smith, and Ashleigh Warner
Nutrition ~ greatly influenced by “Deep Nutrition” by Catherine Shanahan as well as Weston A. Price’s work and the Weston A. Price foundation
Trauma with origins in childhood ~ greatly influenced by the works of Gordon Neufeld, Gabor Mate, Bessel van der Kolk, and Peter Levine
Mental health including depression and loneliness greatly influenced by Kelly Brogan’s books as well as by “Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World” by Vivek H. Murthy
Emotions and their function (guidance towards integrity) greatly influenced by the works of Brene Brown, Gabor Mate, Rachelle Garcia Seliga and others
and more.
Based on what I learned and applied to my own pregnancy, birth and postpartum experiences, I became passionate about the importance of the first 2 months postpartum for the decades long increased wellness of the mother and baby. How their wellness positively and significantly impacts the wellness of the rest of the family, community, humanity, and life on Earth itself. It also made me fiery about the importance of community, for it offers co-regulation of our nervous system, validation, safety, and more. Lastly, I believe so much in birth story medicine where needed, so these mothers can let the traumatic framing go and spend their energy towards having a thriving life.
I have never felt as passionate about anything as motherhood, other than perhaps about reflecting on I show up as a human being. As a family, we value having me at home with the children during the years prior to school. With our youngest now 2, the return to earning an income is approaching. I decided my new professional passion is towards helping other mothers to thrive in their parenting, and in being a human being. This is where Innate Traditions Postpartum Care Practitioner came into my life. It came highly recommended by a friend, who we hired as a doula for our first birth. It covered everything I had researched so far in much more depth, and then some more. It also helped me start this business, even though I majored in entrepreneurship. My university degree covered all the macro aspects of running a business, whereas Rachelle Garcia Seliga gave good practical advice on a micro level, so I actually understood where to start while also honouring the needs of our family, and my own needs.
Before becoming a mother, I started studying Master Dhyan Vimal’s work in 2011, and ongoing journey. Once I was introduced to his Mastery Meditation in 2010, I did quite a few of his courses facilitated by amazing senior students. Eventually I met Master in New York City in an informal setting, and while pregnant with our oldest son I did a 10-day retreat in Sri Lanka. When our oldest was about 18 months old, we both spent an afternoon with Master in Vancouver. I wouldn’t be anywhere on this journey if is wasn’t for his work, guidance, as well as holding of me and my family. I wouldn’t be half the mother I am today without the insights he gave about who I Truthfully am, and where I have room for growth.
My Reiki Master training (completed in 2016) with Erica Otto of Violet Quartz Wellness in Squamish has helped me immensely to provide the healing space I intend for every interaction. Both my Reiki and Ray Castellino work have helped me validate my innate knowing that we are always connected to our original Blueprint in each and every moment, and that we are always held by something More/Bigger.
In 2016 I completed a Five Elements Retreat with Pacific Essences, learning about plant energy medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine from Sabina Pettitt. Later that year I certified as an Energy Medicine® Practitioner.
I’ve also completed the Houses of Healing (The Lionheart Foundation, in 2015) and the Path of Freedom (Prison Mindfulness Institute, in 2016) programs, after becoming inspired to teach mindfulness in prisons while watching the documentary The Dhamma Brothers (2008). I never managed to use these programs in a prison setting so far, due to distance and logistics. I would still love to one day honour this dream, and perhaps now I can focus on mothers in prisons.
And, finally, of course I wouldn’t be who I am today, if it wasn’t for my parents, sister, dear friends, and other significant people and cultural influences that I’ve been influenced by along the way of my Earth School journey. I am blessed with a childhood that resulted in many happy memories, serving as a solid foundation for all that life has offered since.
I respectfully acknowledge that I live, work and play as an uninvited guest on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) people.
If you made it this far, thank you for being so interested in my journey! I am sure I could provide so much more here, but maybe that’ll be something that comes up in an in-person interaction.
PS the photo is with our Aussiedoodle Daphne, who was added to the family in 2022. :) She can be found hopping about with flopping and flying big ears, putting smiles on everyone’s faces.