Closing of the Bones

Postnatal rebozo massage and closing ceremony

About the ritual

Closing of the Bones is a beautiful, supportive and nurturing cross-cultural, postpartum wrapping ritual1,2 that is rooted in a woman’s innate physiological, psychosocial, spiritual and emotional needs and design1. After the expansiveness of pregnancy and birth, being wrapped and having a sacred space held for them helps a newly birthed mother to be restored to a place of centeredness and wholeness2. A ceremony such as this can also act as a celebration of, and to bear witness to, each individual’s unique rite of passage into motherhood.


How Closing of the Bones is beneficial as a postpartum ritual and closing ceremony

During pregnancy and birth our physical bodies, our psyches and our energy fields expand more than they will at any other point in our lives. The physical expansion process can be understood through the physiological processes of:

  • Increased Relaxin: Relaxin is a hormone present in all humans, naturally higher in females. It softens connective tissues, and makes ligaments and tendons more elastic throughout the whole body. On average, pregnant women have 10 times the normal amount of Relaxin in their bodies to help facilitate the relaxing and opening of the body needed for birth.
  • Blood volume expansion: during pregnancy, a woman’s blood volume increases on average by 50% or around 1250mls.
  • Diastasis Recti: around 60 % of women will experience some degree of diastasis recti (separation of the rectus abdominus muscles) during pregnancy3.
  • The stomach and uterus grow throughout pregnancy; joints, ligaments and tendons are stretched and organs are displaced.
  • There is an average weight gain of 12-17kg (baby; placenta; uterus; amniotic fluid; breasts; blood, protein and fat; body fluids)4.
  • The pelvis opens during birth to allow for the passage of the baby.
  • Significant hormonal changes also occur during pregnancy, birth and postpartum, including the beginning of lactation.

"Pregnancy and birth require us to open and expand. The postpartum requires that we close our physical bodies back up, that we re-define our personal boundaries and that we reconnect with ourselves as newly born mothers” (Rachelle Garcia Seliga1)."

The Closing of the Bones ritual is designed to help return organs, tissues, muscles, tendons and ligaments back to their optimal positioning, and the gentle rocking and wrapping facilitates healing by encouraging movement in the joints, muscles, tissues and fluids2.

The energetic, psychological and spiritual expansions that can happen through pregnancy and birth are unique to every individual and may include:

  • Deep enquiry into who we might be as a mother
  • Stepping into new roles and responsibilities in our families, communities and in the world
  • Knowing ourselves and our capacities in a way that we never have before1
  • Reckoning with our own early childhood experiences and how we were parented
  • Concerns about what might become of our romantic partnerships/maturation in our relationships to our partners, our finances and our outer work in this word
  • Shifting of family dynamics
  • There may also be a felt need to ‘close’ certain chapters of one’s life, or to acknowledge the end of a cycle and welcome a time of transition

Closing of the Bones as a healing ritual after pregnancy loss

A person is considered to be postpartum after any pregnancy carry. Whether the pregnancy was terminated, miscarried, whether stillbirth or infant loss were experienced and whether the pregnancy was welcomed or not, postpartum care is still needed. Depending on what stage of pregnancy the loss happened, some, or all of the information above may be relevant here.

Closing of the Bones after loss can be deeply healing and nourishing in the following ways:

  • Facilitation of emotional release
  • Witnessing through the chaos of emotion that comes with grief
  • Acknowledging the work of the body, particularly the womb space
  • Facilitation of deeper bonding with living children
  • Helping with acknowledgement of own grief and loss
  • Helping to feel forgiveness
  • Helping to integrate the experience of loss
  • Assisting to move the body out of a sympathetic nervous system response (fight/flight/freeze/fawn) and into a parasympathetic state (rest and digest) where deeper healing can take place
  • Help with acknowledging the end of a cycle and welcoming a time of transition

Closing of the Bones in other life stages

Closing of the Bones is not just a ritual for the immediate postpartum period. It can be done at any point in a person’s life when they feel the need for nurturing or witnessing, re-centering and re-connecting. For example:

  • As a postpartum ritual at any point postpartum, including after a loss (this could be 5 years, 10 years or 30+ years)
  • To honour rites of passage such as menarche (the first menstrual bleed), marriage or menopause. Closing of the Bones could even be used as part of end-of-life care.
  • Following a birth trauma (for either parent)
  • To honour the end of a breastfeeding journey
  • To honour the parent at an important milestone for their child (e.g. first birthday, completion of the breastfeeding journey, 16th birthday, menarche, leaving home)
  • After any kind of bereavement including the death of a friend or family member, divorce, moving home, etc.
  • Following any kind of trauma
  • After a hysterectomy
  • Help with acknowledging the end of any cycle and welcoming a time of transition
  • Closing of the Bones can benefit people of any gender, any age and at any life stage

What does a Closing of the Bones Ritual look like?

In its simplest form, Closing of the Bones is like a strong, loving and grounding embrace1. Beginning at the head, working down to the feet and paying special attention to the pelvis, lengths of cloth (in this case the Mexican rebozo, an intricately hand-woven shawl) are wrapped gently around the head (excluding the face), and firmly around the body, cocooning you.

In the ritual I offer, the head, limbs, torso and hips are also gently rocked using a rebozo before being wrapped.

After the rocking and wrapping is complete, you then lay, still wrapped, for some time longer. I will sit with you and in turn hold your feet, your hips and your head. Whatever needs to come up for you will do so, and the opportunity is there for you to be witnessed and acknowledged. You may feel joy, elation, sadness, grief, anger, affirmation, love, something else entirely, deep relaxation, a combination of these things or absolutely nothing. All emotions are welcome in this space.

After you are unwrapped, the ceremony will end with a relaxing and grounding foot bath and foot massage, and a cup of warming tea to help bring your energy and focus back into the present moment.


The origins of Closing of the Bones

It is no coincidence that birthing and postpartum traditions from around the world are incredibly similar. A woman’s innate needs during birth and around the first 40 days postpartum are the same, irrespective of their lineage and irrespective of the lands their ancestors belonged to. Community support, warmth, nourishing foods, specific bodywork and an extended resting period are the five foundational pillars for postpartum wellness1.

If you are interested in learning more about a woman’s innate needs in the postpartum period please visit the Innate Traditions website.

Traditionally, rituals such as Closing of the Bones would have been passed down from mother to daughter and from midwife-to-midwife. The cloth used for rituals such as these would also have had many uses such as relaxing and repositioning women during childbirth, for carrying babies, carrying groceries and during ceremonies that celebrate important rites of passage in a woman’s life. Women would have been gifted their special cloths, used them throughout their life and then either gifted them on when death was near or used them as a shroud5.

Globally, comparable ceremonies are still often widely practiced. Each individual culture has its own unique approach to postpartum wrapping but with a shared goal: holding the new mother and helping her return to her center after the work of pregnancy and birth, or pregnancy loss.

In Ecuador a Manta is used for the ‘Closing of the Bones’.

In Morocco the ceremony is called ‘Al-Shedd’ meaning ‘pulling’ and the traditional cloth called kourziya are used1.

In Russia, Closing of the Bones is called ‘Seven Locks’ and a traditional cloth called a rushnyk is used1.

In Somalia a traditional shawl called a Garbasar is used in a similar way to a rebozo during labour5.

There are also testimonials that in many Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan villages there are still women who will visit others’ houses and close the bones of new mothers6.


1. Garcia Seliga R. Innate Postpartum Care [blog]. Closing of the Bones – A Cross-Cultural, Postpartum Practice. 2021 Feb 23. Available: https://www.innatetraditions.com/blog/Closing-of-the-bones-rebozo.

2. Messager S. Why Postnatal Recovery Matters. London (GB): Pinter & Martin; 2020.

3. Schulte L. website, diastasis recti. 2019, August 5. Available: https://instituteforbirthhealing.com/diastasis-recti-important/

4. Healthline - Rosecrans T. How ‘baby’ Changes the Body: See the Power of Pregnancy. Healthline. 2012, June 21. Available: https://www.healthline.com/health/pregnancy/body-changes-infographic#1

5. Messager, S. [blog]. The background of the rebozo. Available: https://sophiemessager.com/the-background-of-the-rebozo

6. Kaur, J.R. (Dr). [website], What is ‘Closing the Bones’ and who is it for? 2022. Available: https://www.shuniya-yoga.org/closing-bones-ceremony/