Empower yourself through every stage of pregnancy and connect to your baby through candle work, affirmations, astrology, meditations, color correspondences, inner child healing, and more Pregnancy can be one of the most spiritually transformative times in our lives. When a child is born, so is a parent, and we all deserve tools to support us through that process. With Emilia Ortiz's (@ethereal.1) guidance, learn how to: release your expectations around conceiving and pregnancy - work with candles, prayer, intuition, and energy - incorporate herbal baths and other self-care practices - prepare for labor, both physically and spiritually - use pregnancy- and breastfeeding-safe herbs for nourishing yourself, energetic cleansing, building milk supply, and postpartum recovery - heal from previous losses - differentiate anxiety from intuition - and connect to nature for extra grounding when you need it. Reclaiming our wisdom and spiritual insight around pregnancy and childbirth is a radical act for all birthing people. By strengthening your bond with your baby when they are still in the womb, and tapping into your intuition throughout, you are laying the groundwork for an empowered, sacred nine months—and long after. Emilia Ortiz is a mental health advocate, creative, and energetic practitioner from Brooklyn, NY. Utilizing both personal experience and teachings from mentors, she has become known for making difficult topics more digestible for her audience. PRE-CONCEPTION A common practice throughout the Caribbean is to go out and bathe in the first rain of May. Some will collect it and bottle it up for later use in spiritual baths. It's believed to hold fertile energy, good luck, and cleansing and healing properties. It isn't uncommon to see people collecting the water or bathing in the rain as it pours down. While this isn't a practice exclusive to the Caribbean, the connection is important for the story I'm going to share. Many years ago, I had a dream about a friend of mine. In this dream, I saw her dancing in the rain, her face filled with joy and excitement. Then I saw her pregnant in her mother's living room, surrounded by flowers and the people she loved most, with a soft green light washing over her. When I woke up, I immediately called to tell her about it, as I believe that pregnancy dreams are never to be dismissed. She laughed and brushed it off, because while she knew what I see in my dreams tends to come to fruition (as with many dreams), especially regarding new life and death, a baby was not on her to-do list. I reminded her, "I'm only the messenger and you can do with this information what you choose, but be mindful." A little while later, she shared a video on social media of her dancing in the rain. It happened to be the first rain of May in the Dominican Republic, where she was visiting. I wrote her jokingly that I'd be starting my preparations for the baby shower. We both had a good laugh, and she mentioned that her family members had told her about women bathing in the first rain of May in hopes of becoming pregnant. I told her, "Listen, either a baby is on the way or you'll be birthing a new project"-though I knew in my gut which it would be. A month or so went by, and she called me and said, "I have to start listening to you, because why am I pregnant now?" It wasn't planned, it just came to be. And yes, she had her baby shower in her mother's apartment. As I look back, I still can't help but laugh. That baby was determined to let her know it was coming into this world one way or another. Sometimes pregnancy requires planning and effort, sometimes it doesn't. NOT EVERY SEED WE SOW WILL GROW When trying to conceive, we can get so caught up in the timelines of others. We see friends, family, even people we barely know who seem to get pregnant without trying. It seems to just happen for them, while it can feel like it is taking forever or is impossible for us. Our timelines always differ from everyone else's, but that doesn't make it hurt any less. The act of releasing expectations, surrendering to the process, is easier said than done-especially while still making an effort to be intentional about conception. How do we find our rhythm? How do we flow with this process? There is no one-size-fits-all solution, and that can be the hardest thing to accept. It is the first step, though, of how our children come to be. In another way, it's a lesson in parenting: things don't always go as planned and we aren't the only person in this. A child is their own person, with their own plans, which is something we have to both respect and work with. Like when they learn to walk, we can provide guidance, support, and someone to catch them should they stumble-but they have to take the steps on their own. We often hear parents say, "You were just a twinkle in my eye," when telling their children about how they came to be. Before they are conceived in the physical plane, children are re