You Deserve a Joyful Postpartum Journey

Experience a nurtured, Waldorf-inspired, energetically aligned postpartum recovery of finding joy and gently welcoming your baby without depletion, isolation or losing yourself.

(IN PERSON services for Boulder, SW Weld, and SE Larimer counties, Colorado, and nearby areas)

Hey, I’m Julie Behnken – Holistic postpartum doula, early parenting coach, and Human Design enthusiast

I’ve been a parent for over 20 years, and after 13 of those years as a LifeWays (Waldorf-inspired) infant/toddler teacher, it is an honor to support and empower birthing people, their babies, and families at this tender stage of the parenting journey. 

In Human Design I’m a 2/4 Manifesting Generator with Sacral authority. That, and my Incarnation Cross orients me to “beginnings,” intuition, working with transformations, partnering with others and engaging with my community, and responding to my environment. The astrological sign of Cancer is considered the cosmic mother archetype, and as a Cancer Sun and Rising, nurturing those who are becoming parents (or parents again) is my calling. My Taurus moon lends a sense of comfort, can find the beauty in things, and keeps things practical.

I’ve experienced and witnessed the lack of SUPPORT for new parents in American society, and the UNREALISTIC expectations and pressure on parents of young children today, particularly mothers.

It’s time to CHANGE the paradigm around postpartum and parenting!

When I gave birth, I was grateful to have found a midwife and birth doula, but I had no idea about postpartum doulas, and my son’s dad and I didn’t know what we didn’t know!

That first week home with newborn baby Benjamin, I don’t think I showered at all.  It didn’t feel possible. After a rough night of what felt like constant nursing, getting out of bed to do so — ouch — and virtually no sleep, I felt like my life was literally SAVED by a lactation consultant we visited the next day!

I remember thinking, “Wow, Maybe ONE day I’ll work with babies and new mamas…” And there’s so much that I wish I would’ve known then that I get to share now!

I’m grateful we had some support from our mothers for the second and third weeks after the birth, but I didn’t know what I needed, what to ask for, or how to really rest, not “host” people in my home, and let them take care of me. There was so much I didn’t know that I didn’t know!

While I know the high-quality child care I provided for many years was of great value for parents, especially as I stayed open throughout the pandemic in 2020-21, it became clear to me that ALL parents need more support. My resolve to do more became even stronger after hearing stories of those who gave birth then, when most postpartum support disappeared.

Each person’s birthing and parenting journey is unique to them, and everyone deserves birth and postpartum support, in “normal” times and otherwise. It’s all too common for the postpartum experience to be an overwhelming, challenging, and isolating time, leading to depletion, health issues, and mood disorders.  Just because something is COMMON doesn’t mean it’s NORMAL.  

I was researching options for working with new parents and babies, outside of doing childcare all day, when I first learned what a postpartum doula was.  It was like the clouds parted and a light shone down, and (cue angelic sounds) wait, what?!  I want to do THAT!  My “one day” had come! 

Years before, I had a similar experience when I visited a beautiful, Waldorf early childhood classroom during a tour looking for the right school when my son was 7, which helped steer me towards Waldorf and LifeWays. The community we’d been a part of previously didn’t see anything wrong with a young child playing video games all the time since age 4– it was “normal.”  Normal doesn’t mean healthy, and when it got out of hand I didn’t know what to do about it. Part of choosing a Waldorf school for him was the school’s consciousness and encouragement to protect children from media and technology, which was something I really wish I’d known when he was born.  

Becoming a parent is a profoundly transformational, SACRED time (whether for the first time or again). In the Waldorf philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, each child is a soul (a star child) who has chosen to incarnate on the earth with their chosen parents for this life journey.  You are on a physical and spiritual journey with each other.

When you have the opportunity to heal, rest, eat nourishing food, be nurtured, and spend time bonding with your new baby in the early weeks and months after birth, you care for YOUR long-term health, AND you will be better able to care for your little one, ease into parenthood, and provide a warm, gentle welcome to their human experience, so THEY can thrive, too. 
Your baby will know they are loved, their needs will be met, and that the world is full of beauty, goodness and truth.  Because YOU — the mothering one — was nurtured, cared for, and “mothered” when baby was born.