Welcoming the Bloom: Honoring Menarche

                                              
  "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven".


Menarche, the first menstrual cycle is not just a biological milestone, but a sacred threshold in a young woman's life. As a doula and soon to be midwife rooted in traditional wisdom and holistic care, I believe this transition deserves more than hushed tones or clinical detachment. It's a rite of passage, a calling into womanhood, and a moment for mothers, midwives and communities to surround daughters with honor, truth and spiritual grounding. 



What is Menarche?

- Menarche is the onset of menstruation, a releasing of an egg, awaiting fertilization, and the shedding of uterine lining when not met with fertilization, typically occurring between the ages of 9-15, marking the beginning of reproductive potential and hormonal cycling. It is a time of identity formation, inner awareness and calling forth of the sacred embodiment of feminine change in God's design.

Reclaiming the Wisdom of Our Ancestors

 A Sacred Threshold

In many traditionsal cultures, menarche was honored with rituals, blessings, songs, and stories. Daughters were brought ino the circle of women, grandmothers, aunties, mothers and midwives, all who passed on knowledge but blessing and affirmation.

Today, much of that reverence has been lost in out modern, convenience-driven world. It is our calling as holistic midwives and keepers of women's wisdom to restore the sacred to this transition. 

1. Education Rooted in Respect


- Teaching cycle tracking as a form of body literacy, not fear

- Introducing holistoc period care (herbs, warm baths, organic non toxic
 products, red tent wisdom)

- Explaining God's design for her body without shame




2. Ceremonies with Love and Reverence


- Blessing circles with loved ones celebrating the transition

- Anointing oil and prayer

- Sharing ancestral stroies or letters from older women in the family and their menarche transitions

- Presenting a gift that symbolized maturity



3. Encouragement of Emotional Expression


- Letting the young woman journal, dance, draw, pray, communicate through her feelings and experience

-Making safe space for her questions, curiosities and fears

- Gather female relatives and mentors in a peaceful, loving, cozy space.

- Read aloud Psalm 139:14 -- "I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

- Light a candle to represent the flame of womanhood being kindled.

- Each woman sharing a blessing, story, prayer, or word of wisdom with love and support

- Sharing a meal together, with special talks, centered around womanhood and the becoming of a woman through the start of menarche

- Close with an anointing, using a special oil of choosing (such as frankincense or lavender), and a prayer over her cycles, future cycles, womb, her body, and her future as a woman of God. 

Dear Mama,

your daughter is entering holy ground on her journey on Earth, as a woman, and future potential mother. Stand with her. Pray over her. Celebrate with her. Invite a midwife, a mentor, a christian sister to help hold space for her journey as a woman. It is a beautiful transition, and welcoming it with wisdom, gentleness and encouragement can set the trajectory for an incredible lens and view of future menstruation and the goodness and sacredness of fertility.

Dear Daughter,

your body is an incredibly intentional design by the Lord himself, it is not a burden, but a temple. Your cycle is not a curse, but a sacred rhythm. You were fearfully and wonderfully made, and your womanhood is a gift. This month, you cross a sacred threshold, a quiet, powerful, new moment that connects you with generations of women who have walked this path before you. Today, your body begins to bloom in a new way, marking the beginning of your moon cycle- your menarche- your first period.

It's not just biology, but a divine design. 

You are entering a rhythm that mirrors the moon and the tides, the seasons of the earth, and the cycle of life itself. This rhythm was woven into you by the hands of the Creator, the same hands that formed the stars and oceansm the same hands that knit you together in your mother's wombs, with the same cells that were once held within your mothers womb, and within her mothers womb. Your body carries the wisdom held from generation to generation.

There is nothign shameful about your bleeding. There is nothing "dirty", and nothign to hide about the blood that continues the divine mystery of life, birth, rebirth and a sacred newness each month. Your body is now capable of one day holding life within you, not just physically, but emotionally, mentally, spiritually and communally. Whether you ever bear children of not, you now carry the deep knowing of womanhood, of nurturing, of receiving, and of release. Learning how to tend to yourself in this time, during your releasing bleeds will pour forth in the knowledge that grows on how to tend for yourself, which in turn teaches you how to one day tend for new life similarly.

Your first period is not a burden, its a blessing. Your cycle is not a curse, it is a covenant between your body and the seasons of creation. Just as the earth rests and renews, so too will your body. 

You are not alone in this, you are surrounded by women who walk beside you. We are here to remind you that this path is ancient and holy. We are here to teach you to honor your body with gentle care, with herbs and restm with prayer and quiet power.

So when the cramps come, know they are temporary messengers. When your emotions feel heavy, know they are sacred waters moving through you. When you feel unsure or curious, come to us, trusted women who have walked before you, who can listen with compassion and speak truth in love, without fear.

You are becoming, daugher. Becoming a woman,. Becoming who God made you to be. 

Your body is a temple.
Your cycle is a rhythm.
Your womanhood is a gift.
And you, dear one, are a blessing to this world.
We honor you today. We bless your joruney with every drop of wisdom we carry.

With all the love, grace, and strength of the women who came before you,

How Midwives Can Support Menarche as a Sacred Rite of Passage

A Sample Ceremony to Inspire 

Encouragement to Mothers 

A Message to Daughters

Love,


Your Doula, Midwife To Be, Sister in Christ, and Fellow Keeper of Sacred Womanhood.