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Bree Downes

  • Home
  • Doula Birth Support
    • Doula Packages
    • Doula FAQ
    • Doula Back Up Team
    • VBAC
  • Photography
    • Photography Prices
    • Gallery
  • Birth Classes
    • Private Classes
    • Group Workshops
  • Henna Adornment
  • Mother Blessings
  • About
    • My Birth Story
    • Testimonials
    • Why the Kookaburra feather?
  • Contact
Bree Downes
  • Home
  • Doula Birth Support
    • Doula Packages
    • Doula FAQ
    • Doula Back Up Team
    • VBAC
  • Photography
    • Photography Prices
    • Gallery
  • Birth Classes
    • Private Classes
    • Group Workshops
  • Henna Adornment
  • Mother Blessings
  • About
    • My Birth Story
    • Testimonials
    • Why the Kookaburra feather?
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Doula Birth Support
    • Doula Packages
    • Doula FAQ
    • Doula Back Up Team
    • VBAC
  • Photography
    • Photography Prices
    • Gallery
  • Birth Classes
    • Private Classes
    • Group Workshops
  • Henna Adornment
  • Mother Blessings
  • About
    • My Birth Story
    • Testimonials
    • Why the Kookaburra feather?
  • Contact
    Why the Kookaburra feather?

When I was 38 weeks pregnant with my third baby (my daughter), our house was surrounded by kookaburras. And I’m not talking about just a couple of kookaburras, I mean about 20 of them. A whole tribe surrounded our house in every tree and in the closest branches to the house. They couldn’t seem to get close enough to the house. They would call constantly, even right through the night, which is very unusual for kookaburras. They were waking me up 3-4 times a night because they were SO loud. I was starting to get frustrated with them and even said to my husband “what’s with the kookaburras?!” It’s hard enough to get decent sleep at 38 weeks pregnant and with 2 toddlers in the house without then having to deal with kookaburras calling at 3am!

We also happen to have a beautiful lead light glass window in our kitchen of a kookaburra. The night before I went into labour I heard an almighty ‘BANG’ on the kookaburra window. I opened the back door, and there was a kookaburra on the ground, stunned, and just looking and blinking at me. He had flown into the kookaburra window and knocked himself out. I remember thinking that it really was very strange.

The next morning I awoke to contractions, I laboured all day and into that evening, the kookaburra calls continuing. At 5:45am my daughter was born in the birth pool in my lounge room. She was my vaginal birth after 2 previous Cesareans and it took everything I had to achieve this outcome.  About 5 min after she was born my midwife had to pop out to her car to grab something and when she came back in she said there were 5 kookaburras sitting on the balcony of our lounge room, right on the other side of the curtain of where I had just birthed. I found it interesting that we had just become a family of 5.

A few days later and after the calls had all stopped and the kookaburras had left, it dawned on me that perhaps they had come for a reason. Perhaps they were bringing me a message or protecting me? I googled “kookaburra spirit totem” and what I found was this…

Completion of family, Healing old wounds, Healing others and the self. Conquering fear. Ending old patterns. Turning hurt into happiness. Hunting down your own truths. Signals. God energy. Teaching and sharing your truths with others.

This resonated with every fibre of my body and gave me goosebumps. I knew deep in my bones that the kookaburra had entered my life at a pivotal moment to guide, protect and bring the gift of healing to my birthing journey. The kookaburra has since become my spiritual totem and is a reminder to not only look outwards to the messages the universe is showing us that we sometimes miss, but to also look within at our own strengths, truths and power. It is also a powerful message to me that this work is what I am meant to be doing. This is my life’s work, teaching and sharing my truths with others.

Have you noticed an animal showing up in your life in an unusual way at a particular time? Perhaps there are messages they are bringing to you?

Check out your own spirit totem here at wildspeak

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Did you know that the NICE guidelines that were re Did you know that the NICE guidelines that were released last year stated that continuous fetal monitoring for VBAC Mumma’s with 1 prior scar and no other complications is unnecessary? If only this information would filter through to hospital policy... #policyisnotlaw #vbac #homebirth #doppler #monitoring #birthphotography
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