Kate shares some of her journey as a mother.

We move around, so I gave birth in lots of different places and settings.

I had lots to learn about being a mum, as we all do, and each of us are given our set of circumstances in which to do that.

My first circumstance was back to front: grieving for a child instead of having one to care for. I had all the love, and support around me.

The second circumstance was one filled with some level of elation and joy, of course tempered by what we’d lost, but again: lots of love and support.

The third one was more complex. This time a girl, but not the girl we had lost, and my husband working far away; coming for 2 week periods every 6 weeks but it feeling like lifetimes with a toddler and a new born.

I remember, the busy-ness, the overwhelm, which came with caring for two, particularly in the period when I was alone and I was having to leave the house at the crack of dawn because my son would start to climb the walls by 7.30am.

I wasn’t lonely per se - I don’t tend to feel that lonely - but I know now what I lacked was other women to share that experience.

Admittedly, I was in another country so perhaps sisterhood was harder to find as I wasn’t naturally networked in. I did find two lovely mums, who I continue to share the motherhood journey with today, all be it from a distance, but my mum was far away and I didn’t have aunties and sisters around, so there was a sense of loneliness and lack, and there was a desire for something more, though I couldn’t have named it.

I’ve since sat in circles of women, and been part of communities of women, supporting one another, caring for one another. What that might have been like to have when my children were small, what that is like to have now my children are big. But we build what we need it when we need it, and we reach for what we need, when we reach for it.

The Cherished Mother is one such community of women; sharing themselves and their mothering journey; being witnessed and held and loved.

You might think: how can that be possible when we’re not in the same room, or the same country together? I can assure you it is. It can be something so special to feel you have an intimate sisterhood, seeing and loving you.

We have made the TCM Way 6 weeks long for very specific reasons:

•⁠ ⁠we know as busy mums it’s hard to commit long term to things - not impossible - but it can be hard;

•⁠ ⁠we also know it’s sometimes good to test our toe in the water without too much financial commitment attached or too much time attached.

•⁠ ⁠what we tend to find is that women who journey in the 6 weeks, go on to journey in our longer programmes but TCM Way is the simplest way touch us, touch the Cherished Mother, and experience how our circle can support you.

With all love Kate