The Portal of Birth: A Journey Between Worlds

There is a moment in birth when the world stops. The veil thins. The past, present, and future fold into each other, and we step into something timeless.

This is the portal of birth.

In every culture, for thousands of years, women have known this. They have gathered in circles, whispered prayers, sung songs to guide new souls into the world. They have honoured birth as the threshold it is—not a medical event, but a rite of passage.

But so much of this has been forgotten. Birth has been taken from the hands of women, stripped of its sacredness. And yet, the power remains. It lives in our bodies, in our breath, in the stories of those who came before us.

I know this, not just because I have studied it, but because I have lived it.

More on my birth story another time, but when I gave birth to Florence, I was alone for nearly all of it. My body moved from 5cm to 10cm in less than an hour. My partner only just made it in time for Florence coming earthside. I didn’t have a doula. I didn’t have anyone around me that I knew.

It was just me, Florence, and the rhythm of the universe moving through me.

They say a woman leaves her body to collect her baby from the other side. But what is less spoken of is how she must first enter the underworld. She must shed, release, surrender—fears, resistance, layers of self that can no longer stay. The death of the maiden, the birth of the mother.

I had remembered the teachings of my mentors—the way the subconscious rises as the body transitions, how birth unearths the deepest layers of our psyche. And it did.

And yet, even as I dissolved into that vast, endless space, a part of me remained—watching, witnessing, tethered between worlds.

Since then, I have understood why birth has been called a ceremony, an initiation, a portal. It is all of these things. It is the place where we meet our edge and cross it. It is the moment we let go and become something new.

This is why I do the work I do.

At Florence and the Moon, some of my offerings are about preparing birth—not just as an event, but as a journey between worlds. Because birth is not just about bringing life earthside—it is about stepping into the deepest truth of who we are.

If you feel called to prepare for the portal—or if you’re postpartum and wish to close it with deep intention—you can explore my offerings here.