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Women's Intuition

Women's Intuition

Goddess Hub CIC supports women who have experienced pregnancy loss. We talk to its founder, Keji Moses

Goddess Hub CIC supports women who have experienced pregnancy loss. We talk to its founder, Keji Moses

This is a feature from Issue 10 of Charitable Traveller. Click to read more from this issue.

What is Goddess Hub CIC?

Goddess Hub CIC (community interest company) is a community for women that have experienced pregnancy loss and are at a point where they want to move forward and find a sense of purpose. It’s not about forgetting grief or denying experience or pain. It’s about helping women see that grief is a journey and providing them with the tools they need to heal themselves and awaken their inner goddess. We will achieve this via a weekend retreat using a special framework called S.O.A.R.

What inspired you to set it up?

In 2018, my daughter Mayah was stillborn at 35 weeks. I can’t describe how I felt but I was in a very dark place and I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel until I used S.O.A.R, which helped me progress and eventually got me to the point (in 2020) where I founded a charity, Mayah’s Legacy, as well as becoming a coach and a grief counsellor.
Mayah’s Legacy exists to shine a light on the issue of pregnancy loss and in particular the mental health impact of it. It’s also dedicated to promoting self advocacy. There were times during my pregnancy when I could have spoken up about what I wanted to happen but I didn’t  have the confidence or courage to do it. 

I have met other women who said that they had moments where they intuitively knew something was wrong and did speak up, but no one listened. Mayah’s Legacy helps women and their families gain the skills and the confidence to make themselves heard.

I took a year off work after I lost Mayah and joined various support groups, but I felt that much of it was about how you were feeling in the raw moments right after pregnancy loss and there wasn’t enough support to help women transition into the next phase. I was lucky to be able to take time off because it allowed me to focus on myself and be with my other two kids. That’s why I created Goddess Hub, to give women the time, the space and the support network they need to continue their healing journey, which has no time limit and is unique to each person.

What is S.O.AR?

S.O.A.R stands for surrender, openness, action and approach and is a framework for healing and empowerment. The surrender session helps women to identify what is blocking them from embracing who they are. Openness is about being open to love – and in particular learning to love yourself. The action phase sees women identifying their dreams and goals and creating a strategy to achieve them as well as a unique healing plan. The reawaken session helps women to action their plan, reawaken their authentic self and recognise that they have everything they need already.

What will happen on a retreat?

A Goddess Hub Retreat will last two days and we’ll have different
facilitators to help women look at different issues. We’ll combine things like meditation, one-to-one coaching and group sessions where women can talk and share their feelings and hopes in a safe space. The sessions that women choose to enter will depend on where they are on their journey and what they are looking to get out of the process. It’ll be a very flexible programme with quiet time built in as well as chances for the women to get to know each other and bond over their shared experiences.

What's your advice for helping someone cope with pregnancy loss?

Try to see things from their viewpoint. You may not have experienced what they are going through but you can listen to them tell you about it. Also, it’s ok to tell someone you don’t feel able or equipped to support them. Let them know that you care and you’ll help them find professional support, so that you don’t add to the sense of isolation and abandonment.

What is the biggest misconception about pregnancy loss?

People often think that as long as a woman can get pregnant again that they will be ok but that’s not true. People go through deep depressions and have suicidal thoughts following pregnancy loss, marriages can break up and parents are not able to be there for their living children. I developed PTSD during my pregnancy, which was fraught with complications, and that really impacted my relationship with my family, including my children. There’s also a misconception that pregnancy loss is so personal that we shouldn’t speak about it. It’s true that it is personal, and you can choose not to talk about your experience, but it’s important that we talk about it in general. We need to look at how it impacts society and make changes to how we care for the people who go through it.

What's next for Goddess Hub?

Our website is up and running and we are looking to run our first retreat soon. I want to create a community of women who can lift each other up and encourage one another to see a way through pregnancy loss. My ultimate goal is to be running retreats all over the country and eventually creating a global community. I have based Goddess Hub on the S.O.A.R approach because it really worked for me but also because I believe that it’s something everyone can take and use again and again throughout their lives. We don’t just focus on the experience of pregnancy loss, we look at each woman and ask: who are you and who do you want to be?

Woman on a mission

Find out more about Keji and how she’s using her experience to help other women at Goddess Hub. You can access support and resources related to pregnancy loss at Mayah’s Legacy.
goddesshub.uk
charitable.travel/mayahs-legacy/

This is a feature from Issue 10 of Charitable Traveller. Click to read more from this issue.