Caitlin Gard Midwife

22/10/2026

Must be divine intervention 🫠

20/10/2026

Another step further for my vision of a whole woman, whole continuum practice.

My midwifery degree never taught me anything about preconception health and family planning through body awareness methods.
And it never taught me how to support the hormonal health of the female body.

I wanted something really comprehensive and this was HUGE.
13 months of continuous chipping away.
During which time I grew a baby, birthed a baby, packed up a house and moved interstate.
It's been a big year.

Stay tuned... there's more to come.

15/10/2026

Six weeks isn't even how long it takes to find your feet.

Your body has grown and birthed a baby in ten (ish) months.
This requires every resource you have.

And then your body is recovering. Healing.
Often from a place of nutritional depletion, altered digestion, nervous system dysregulation and sleep deprivation.

It takes over a year to rebuild, replenish and recover.
Sometimes longer.
You might be breastfeeding which asks more of your body.

Six weeks is when you get discharged from your maternity care.
But this is not when healing is completed, not for any woman.
Let's start normalising thinking of postpartum as 1-2 years (even though we know postpartum is forever ❤️)

adelaidemums

09/10/2026

Adelaide, bookings for The Held Mother are officially open.

I have planned this offering for a very long time.

It is the culmination of years of providing postpartum care, further training and mentorship, and my own experiences of postpartum.

What if you had a midwife who came to you and provided personalised midwifery care as well as nourishment, body tending and traditional postpartum practices?

Someone who could assess your healing and your baby, assist with breastfeeding, support your transition as a mother and notice when something isn't quite right...

And also bring you nourishing food, prepare herbs for you, bind your belly, offer castor oil packs and womb moxa, care for your baby while you shower, and take care of some of the little things around your home.

Care centred around you and exactly what you need.

The Held Mother is eight home visits, two hours each, across your first six weeks postpartum.

All in the comfort of your own home.

Weaving together experienced midwifery care with nourishment, practical support and traditional postpartum practices.

The first 40 days shape the next 40 years.

Let's honour this time as the pivotal window it is.

I am now welcoming bookings for The Held Mother from December onwards.

I intentionally care for only a small number of women at a time so I can devote the time and energy this work deserves, so I encourage you to reach out during pregnancy to confirm availability and reserve care around your due month.

Visit the link in my bio to explore The Held Mother and enquire about care.

Or comment HELD below and I'll send the link to your DMs 🤍

Private Midwife Homebirth, Shared Care & Holistic Postpartum Care Adelaide, SA,

07/10/2026

Why 8 visits over 6 weeks?

Because what you need in the first week will be different to what you need later on!

Those first few days might be all about breastfeeding, bleeding, early healing, working out what's normal for a newborn and just finding your feet.

A month later might be more about your pelvic floor, your baby's development, your partner going back to work and navigating the emotions that are surfacing.

Some care models discharge you after one or two weeks, when you've just been holding on through the whirlwind of new motherhood and haven't even had the capacity to know what questions to ask.

Continuity of care is so important in postpartum too.

I get to know you and better understand how I can support you.

Some visits might involve a lot of clinical midwifery care. Others might be more about nourishment, self-care, rest, processing your birth or just having someone take a couple of things off your plate.

Usually, it's a combination.

You shouldn't be discharged from care just as things are settling.

So I've designed my holistic postpartum care package around 6 weeks, 8 visits, 2 hours each.

With the flexibility to add more visits as you need.

My DMs are open if you'd like to chat more

06/10/2026

02/10/2026

Something for you to share with your friends and family so they know how to be helpful 🙌

30/09/2026

Buy the pram.
Choose the cot.
Set up the nursery.
Do what brings you joy.

But don't let those preparations be all you do.
Don't forget to ask the important questions.

29/09/2026

Who is supporting you?
And who is supporting your partner?

Your partner can't be your entire village.

They can cook, clean, bring you water, change nappies, do feeds, protect your rest, support you emotionally and physically.

But they are also a brand new parent.

They might too be learning, sleep deprived, caring for other children, keeping the house running smoothly.

Eventually they might need to go back to work.

When you're making your postpartum plan remember to also ask 'who is supporting the whole family?'

27/09/2026

Warmth is one of the most consistent themes you'll find when you look at postpartum care across different cultures.

Birth is a huge physical, emotional and spiritual event. In the months that follow your body is healing while also replenishing, establishing lactation, navigating hormonal shifts and sleep deprivation and a whole lot more.

So why would we just be able to carry on as normal?

Traditional postpartum practices have always known that women require a different level of care in this time.

For me, holistic postpartum care means understanding the physiology behind postpartum, knowing the individual woman in front of me, using my clinical education and drawing on traditional knowledge.

This is how we give the body what it needs to do the enormous job of postpartum recovery.