The Midsummer Pregnancy Retreat
20th-23rd of June 2024
near Totnes, Devon
Whether you have experienced pregnancy before or this is your first time, you are so welcome here.
Our nourishing and transformative retreat will create space for you to deeply relax and connect, and to prepare for the Motherhood journey.
Join us in the lush countryside of South Devon in two beautifully converted barns on 7 acres of land. An oasis of rest, nourishment and inspiration.
Relax, feel calmer and at peace...
...with Jade’s Pregnancy Yoga and deeply soothing Yoga Nidra. Release any tension and stress with Havening and other nervous system reset tools.
Connect...
...with other mums to be and enjoy being in community, sharing meals, chats and activities like singing with Helen or making your vision board for your birth or mothering journey. You will have the opportunity to carry on connecting with this amazing community of mothers after the retreat.
Eat...
...balanced and delicious hearty food to nourish you and baby.
Prepare...
...with Olivia’s Matrescence coaching, exploring the question on so many mum’s minds:
'How do we integrate our instinctual need to love, care, protect and do the best for our child, with our need for autonomy and personal fulfilment?’
...and come out with a plan, your Matrescence plan.
Receive...
...massages to make your body sing and your skin tingle with delight...See the beauty of you and have memories of this special time captured during your photoshoot.t
Support
If you need extra support during the retreat, 1-1 counselling sessions will be available with the option to connect prior and post-retreat in person or by zoom on request.
"What an incredible experience... how motherhood was brought into my consciousness for the first time in a way that I hadn't connected with it before."
~ Tamsin
After the Retreat
You will be part of a circle of mothers you can choose to carry on sharing your mothering journey with.
There is also the opportunity to join our ongoing mothering support group which will be meeting fortnightly.
Come!
We are looking forward to welcoming you.
"Working with Olivia since the On Becoming a Mother Pregnancy Retreat has been the most incredible support throughout my pregnancy, the birth of my son and early postpartum weeks. Her love, care and attentiveness to our journey is impossible to describe in such few words. Her skills as a coach are so intuitive, and so full of wisdom from the years of experience she has as a mother and Doula helping other mothers."
~ Elise
Gorgeous setting, Gorgeous food
We are being hosted by Eden Rise....
“A place for inspiration, celebration and gratitude where visitors can reconnect to the earth and receive nourishment of body, heart and spirit.”
Meals are seasonal, largely plant based and organic dishes, specifically designed to nourish you through your pregnancy, for a more resilient birth and post-natal period.
Our menu is created by nutritionist Florence Seck and prepared by our caring cook El Herndlhofer.
Full Schedule
All activities are optional
At any point during the retreat, but especially during the free time sessions, you can wander around the stunning 7 acres of land surrounding the centre, enjoy a relaxing massage/treatment. In the evening, weather permitting, you will be able to enjoy a relaxing drink by the fire.
THURSDAY
4pm: Arrival, tea and snack
4.30:: Welcoming circle, introductions and practicalities
6.15 pm Supper
7.45 Restorative Yoga and Yoga Nidra
FRIDAY
Buffet Breakfast.
9.30-12.30 Creative Coaching circle with Olivia
Tea break at 11am.
1pm Lunch
Free time/River paddle/Walk /Massages/treatments/photoshoots
4pm: Restorative Yoga
6.15 pm: Supper
7.45 Fireside singing/Massages
SATURDAY
Breakfast
9.30 Creative Coaching circle with Olivia
Tea break at 11am.
1pm Lunch
Free time/Foraging Walk /Massages/treatments/photoshoots
4pm: Creative session : Vision Board
6.15 pm: Supper
7.45 Social / Play time/ Free dance!!
SUNDAY
Breakfast
9.30 Final Creative Coaching circle with Olivia
1pm Lunch
Tidying our beautiful space and gentle clean together
Packing our belongings.
3pm Labyrinth Walk followed by Closing circle
4.15 pm: Returning home, feeling nourished and excited about our life.
Pricing
£445 in shared accommodation
Early Bird discount: £395
Up to 1st June 2024.
A deposit of £100 secures your place.
Instalment plans are available,
inc.Paypal pay in 3, see below.
There are 4 low-cost places available.
Please get in touch with Olivia to apply.
This 4-day event includes all in-person activities, a variety of accommodations within beautifully converted barns, and delicious meals (most special diets can be catered for).
Single rooms available for £40 extra.
Massages, treatments, counselling and photoshoots are an additional cost.
Please see 'view gallery' above for images of the accommodation.
Contact us to check availability, book your place or get more information.
If you are paying for the retreat over 3 monthly instalments, you can do so via PayPal pay in 3. Please follow the button below to set up your payment plan via PayPal, where you can select 'pay in 3' at checkout.
"Being in a retreat with Olivia or able to join one of her masterclasses is a privilege and a blessing.
Olivia as a deep sense of connection and is able to grow and hold the space for effective communication in such a gentle way that you feel drawn to share and let go of what has been holding you.
Her knowledge in birthing, motherhood, parenting and relationships opens doors for parents to be honest and raw, connecting to their inner self and to their values.
Her kindness and non judgemental manner enables a flow of conversations that connects everyone around her."
~ Angela
The Retreat Team
Olivia Seck
Inspired coach, eternal student and teacher of woman wisdom, mother of 4 and birth practitioner and trainer, Olivia has supported women and families for over 2 decades, especially through transitions such as pregnancy, birth, and motherhood.
Having recently retired from her birth work, Olivia now focuses mainly on her practice as a matrescence coach. She still offers healing birth trauma sessions as this is still something she is deeply committed to.
In 2011, she founded and still co-runs Radiant Mama (formerly the Totnes Holistic Birth Hub) a Devon project that offers info, emotional and practical support, classes, holistic therapies within a community of like-minded parents – all on a donation basis.
Being a woman and a mother has been a deep exploration in her personal and professional life.
Her intention now is to share what she has learned and offer her presence and the tools she has gathered along the way, in service to women, families and a more peaceful and loving world.
Jade Franklin
Studying yoga and meditation in London, Israel, Spain and India, I have come across many wonderful teachers who have been hugely influential. About seven years ago, responding to an overwhelming pull to share the teachings of yoga and meditation, I started to train to teach.
I completed Yoga Teacher Training (200hrs) in Goa (India), receiving a traditional Hatha education from Atmarekha (of the Ramakrishna mission) as well as studying Ashtanga Vinyasa and Vinyasa Flow with Veronica Aria and Yin Yoga with Anushree Singh. I am registered with Yoga Alliance International.
I trained as an occupational therapist, making mindfulness the centre of my studies and placements in several London mental health settings. Of all the approaches to meditation that I have explored, I have found Insight Meditation (elements of which are today called mindfulness) to be the most powerful and applicable to daily life. I teach what I have learnt in an accessible and practical way.
After several years experimenting with different styles of yoga, I came to love the creative freedom and physical benefit that Vinyasa Flow can offer. In my classes I like to combine this with a meditation practice that is both explicit at the beginning and end of class, but also woven throughout the practice.
Esther Watson
I absolutely love working as a counsellor. I feel it aligns with my core values and my life's purpose.
I love to hold space for what is alive in us. I have a deep trust in the healing potential of bringing compassionate awareness to the different parts that live within our beings.
My experience is that by having these parts witnessed and validated we are able to integrate them into the whole. Through this process of loving integration, we can develop an empowered sense of self. From this position we can become more embodied and able to live our potential.
Using a combination of Person Centred Therapy, CBT and Gestalt Therapy, I will hold a heart centred space to explore whatever you feel moved to bring.
Helen Yeomans
Helen Yeomans is the founder of Glorious Chorus. She writes and/or arranges all the songs that the choir sings and runs workshops around the UK and abroad teaching her award-winning compositions.
Helen is a mother of 4. Her dream when she discovered the joy of singing in her late 30’s was to bring it to her mother friends as soon as her youngest was at playgroup. Thus was born Thula Mama – a weekly group of mums and babies who meet and sing together with Helen. She teaches a wide variety of songs in harmony from lullabies to gospel. Thula Mama itself is a beautiful South African lullaby. https://helenyeomans.co.uk/thula-mama/
What sets Helen apart is being able to bring out the best in all singers – from the professional to the absolute beginner.
Her ability to infuse groups with her passion and humour is a joy to witness.
Helen will be leading the Saturday evening session, outside by the fire, weather permitting or in our lovely Albion hall.
Expect a lot of fun and joy, and to be moved.
El Herndlhofer
El is passionate about exploring food as a practice of shared wellbeing, and its power as an enhancing force for community and connection.
El has been cooking on retreats for several years, and enjoys the ritual aspects of preparing food with care and love, and sharing in the pleasures and abundance of nourishing and delicious food. For them, food and medicine are vital pathways into tending human connection to the land, and restoring ancestral knowledge and practices.
Working with the seasonal shifts and the plants gifted by the land, El is guided by these relationships in their creativity and cooking. After all, the land offers that which supports and sustains our beings most as the seasons unfold! This ongoing process is a great source of joy, wonder and gratitude for El, and they adore sharing such treasures with others.
During the retreat, El will be weaving wild food into the menu as offered by the land at Eden Rise. There will be the opportunity to dive into an exploration of nettle together, from identifying, gathering nettle, to processing and eating them. We will and explore the gifts of this incredible plant ally, particularly in the context of nourishing your bodies throughout pregnancy.