HELD: A POSTNATAL DAY RETREAT
A restorative day for mothers navigating the months after birth.
You’re doing all of it. Feeding, soothing, holding, googling, smiling when someone asks “how are you really?” and saying “I’m fine” anyway.
You haven’t had a hot full cup of tea in months. You’ve forgotten what your own thoughts sound like without always listening out for your baby, or thinking you hear them crying at every moment.
If that’s you — Held was built for you.
Not a workshop. Not a class. A full day designed entirely around you – your body, your mind, meeting you where you are in this moment.
Held is an intimate retreat for mothers with a little one from newborn to 18 months. A day to rebuild strength, steady your mind and feel genuinely supported, with your baby right beside you.
YOUR DAY
Imagine a day where you’re not the only one holding it all.
Your baby’s still there. They’ll still need feeding, still need you. But this time, you’re not doing it alone in a room by yourself – you’re supported, fed, and looked after too, exactly as you are, with your baby right beside you.
What you actually want isn’t complicated:
- To feel like you exist again in your own right, not just as the baby’s mother
- Real conversation and information that doesn’t gloss over the hard parts
- To stop pretending you’re completely fine
What you don’t want:
- A “wellness day” that’s really just a spa voucher and a smile
- To leave your baby behind with someone else
- More advice that assumes you don’t know your own baby or your own body
- More advice that assumes you should be doing this alone
Nobody tells you that becoming a mother feels like it happens in a single moment — but that it’s a slow, disorientating unravelling and rebuilding of who you are. Your body has changed. Your identity has changed. And you’re expected to just… know how to hold all of it, quietly, while everyone asks about the baby.
You might be telling yourself:
- “I should be coping better than this by now.”
- “Everyone else seems to have it figured out.”
- “I don’t have time to take a whole day for myself.”
These aren’t facts. They’re the limiting beliefs motherhood hands you — some from inside you, some from a world that stops checking in on you the second the baby arrives.
Held exists to gently take those beliefs apart, one by one, and hand you something truer: you are allowed to be looked after too.
If you’re ever overwhelmed, touched-out, or quietly unravelling behind the smile — what would it feel like to have one full day where someone else is holding it all, so you don’t have to?
To leave feeling steadier in your body, with language for why you feel like a different person, and a real plan for what’s still ahead?
What you’ll walk away with.
By the end of the day, you will have:
- Language for what you’re feeling — through matrescence, so the shift in who you are finally makes sense.
- A body that feels steadier — through movement designed specifically for pelvic floor, posture and recovery.
- A plan you can actually use — practical, honest tools for your sleep, nutrition and the postpartum period, so you leave prepared for what’s still ahead, not just what’s already happened.
Picture your day…
You arrive, and someone’s there to welcome you – nothing to figure out, just someone glad you’ve made it. Your baby is welcome, right beside you, the whole time – no juggling, no apologising for the crying in the middle of a session.
The morning moves gently — yoga to ease you in, then Pilates to rebuild real strength from the inside out. By midday, you’re sitting down to a nourishing lunch you didn’t have to make or clear away, learning what your body actually needs right now to heal and feed and function.
In the afternoon, you get to just understand — matrescence, sleep, the parts of this season nobody explained. And as the day winds down, breathwork and movement ease you back out into the world, held and steadied, with a goodie bag to take home and a little more steadiness in who you’re becoming.
WHAT'S INCLUDED
- A flowing yoga session, followed by Pilates for pelvic floor, posture and alignment
- Honest, practical postnatal nutrition guidance — the information nobody gives you at the six-week check
- A nourishing lunch, eaten together, with real time to rest and feed
- An exploration of matrescence – language for the identity shift no one warned you about
- Real strategies for finding rest and yourself in the pockets of time you actually have
- Breathwork and closing movement to leave you feeling held
- A curated goodie bag to take home
- Your baby, welcome throughout
THE DETAILS
- The Canary Shed, Creeksea Place Farm, Burnham-on-Crouch CM0 8PJ
- Tuesday 3rd November 2026
- 10am — 4pm
- £135 per person – everything is taken care of from the moment you arrive. However long it takes you to get out the door with a newborn, we’ll be ready for you.
- Your baby is welcome throughout – this day was designed with them in mind too.
A note from us
Held is led by Whitney Lodge and Charli Davies, bringing together expertise in movement, postnatal support, nutritional therapy, matrescence, sleep and holistic wellbeing.
We created Held because we’ve both stood in the six-week check, told “everything looks fine,” and gone home wondering if that was it and all the support we were going to get.
Between us, we built the day we wish someone had handed us — not another class to attend, but a day built around exactly where you are right now.
This is the retreat we needed. Now it’s yours.
If you’re thinking “Is this really for me?”
If you’re worried you’ll feel out of place, or that you should be able to manage without a day like this — that’s exactly the belief Held is here to gently challenge.
You don’t need to be struggling to deserve to be held. You just need to be a mother who’s been giving everything to everyone else for a while now.
You’re also welcome to bring your own mother or a friend — they can book their own space and hold you right back.
You’ve been holding so much already.
You don’t have to keep holding all of it alone.
It’s time to be Held.
A few questions you might have
The Canary Shed, Creeksea Place Farm, Burnham-on-Crouch CM0 8PJ. Tuesday 3rd November 2026, 10am–4pm.
Yes — always. Held was designed with them in mind too, from newborn to 18 months. And if you’d rather come without them this time, that’s completely fine too — come however feels right for you.
That’s completely normal and expected. Nothing here is timed against your baby’s needs — you do whatever you need to do, when you need to do it.
Either is welcome. Come alone and be looked after, or bring your own mother or a friend (they’ll need their own space).
No – Held is for any mother with a little one from newborn to 18 months, whatever number baby this is for you.
All sessions, a nourishing lunch and a curated goodie bag — everything except your travel to us. £135 in total.
If you’re still reading this, some part of you already knows this day is for you.
You don’t have to keep holding all of it alone. You’ve been the one holding everyone else — it’s time someone held you.
This isn’t just a ‘now’ decision. It’s the moment you’ll look back on and say,
‘That’s when everything changed.’
Join us in the way that fits your life.
Connect & Reclaim yourself in motherhood.
POP UP PARK MEETUP
Our monthly park meetups are a relaxed, informal gathering for mothers and their little ones in the rose gardens at Chalkwell Park.
There is no agenda and no structure — just an open, welcoming space to connect with other mothers, share the load and enjoy some time together while the children play.
Drop in anytime between 9am and 11:30am and stay for as long as suits you.
These meetups are free to attend and open to all.
Upcoming dates
7th August 2026 | 4th September 2026
Location
Rose Gardens, Chalkwell Park, indoor venue TBC for October and beyond.
UNWIND LIKE A MOTHER
Unwind Like A Mother is a relaxed evening for mothers who need a moment to step away, take a breath and be in the company of people who truly understand. There is no formal programme — just good conversation, genuine connection and a warm, welcoming space to simply be.
These evenings are intentionally small and intimate. Guests purchase their own drinks and food on the night — occasionally we incorporate an activity which may carry a small additional cost, communicated in advance.
Free to attend unless otherwise stated.
Upcoming dates
2026
14th August | 23rd October | 18th December
2027
26th February | 23rd April
Stay connected
Register your interest with Charli to receive details about all Friday events.
Join the DILAM WhatsApp broadcast group to receive on-the-day updates and find out what else is happening.
To be added, message us on 07434 612 836 and save the number to your contacts to ensure you receive broadcast messages.