Whole Hearted Parenting and The Wheel of Consent®
Parenting is one of life’s most profound transformations. So many things change and impact our identity, bodies, relationships and the lens we see the world through.
How we meet parenting could be described as a path we make by walking.
As a midwife, mother, and Wheel of Consent® facilitator I have witnessed hundreds of families take their own journey through pregnancy, birth and early parenting.
Whilst each family’s pathway is incredibly unique, we share some universal motivations. One of them is a deep desire to do and be our best, as parents.
The physicality of caring for a child, 24/7 is demanding, we can become so focused on caring for others that we lose touch with our needs, override our limits and forget to ask for support. Over time, we may find ourselves in survival mode, overwhelmed and running on empty.
This can lead to us giving when we are already exhausted, allowing things we do not want and feeling guilty when we do prioritise our own needs. This is not a personal failing.
There are complex personal, societal and political reasons for this, including a lack of connection to community and the specific support that is meaningful in the early parenting weeks, months and years.
Often, it takes losing our way or some sort of balance in life, to find it again, and there is more good news. As well as being primally wired to nurture our children we are also wired to experience joy and receive pleasure.
Pleasure can come in many forms and may look different our life before parenthood, rest being one of them. Being fluent in giving and receiving can bring us back into balance and be deeply replenishing resources for the nervous system and the heart.
What if there was a way to practice and support you to stay connected to yourself while caring deeply for others? Would you be curious to explore it?
The Wheel of Consent® offers simple embodied practices, to do just that. It invites us to ask some simple but transformative questions:
* Who is this actually for?
* What do I really want?
* Am I truly willing to do this?
Becoming fluent and able to more easily balance giving and receiving can shape not only how we care for ourselves, but what our children come to know as normal. When we model agency, boundaries, consent, self-awareness, and loving communication, we offer our children a powerful relational inheritance.
If this speaks to you, I invite you to explore and learn with me about how the Wheel of Consent can support you during pregnancy and early parenting.
Together, we can cultivate the skills to help fill your cup, parent from the heart and role model empowered, skilled relating for family life.
Jo Marie
Red Thread
E: redthreadmidwifery@gmail.com
Join me, for an introductory class about Whole Hearted Parenting and the Wheel of Consent® info and booking
Join Consent Embodied email list to hear about Jo and Alexandra’s upcoming Wheel of Consent® events, including a two day Wheel of Consent® workshop on 24-25 October 2026 in Naarm / Melbourne.