Teta Wardeh

22/05/2026

Marhaba everyone 🌿 مرحبا يا جماعة

I’m Eva Maria, a Lebanese-born Birth & Postpartum Doula and Breastfeeding Specialist, currently based in Aotearoa New Zealand.

🌹 The name ‘Teta Wardeh’ carries a lot of meaning for me. It refers to my great grandmother, Wardeh, a village midwife in rural Akkar in North Lebanon.

My own path into this work feels like a quiet return. It began through my own experience of motherhood and birth, which deeply reshaped how I understand women’s care, the body, and the transition into matrescence.
I birthed my children at home with midwives, with my mum by my side - ⭕️ a full circle back to her mother, and the women before her. Thus, what started as something personal slowly became the work I now hold alongside other mothers and families.

🧰 In my toolkit as well, I carry my Healing Birth Practioner skills, as well as a background in journalism, artistic work, and community facilitation across Lebanon and beyond. These threads continue to shape my approach, which sits at the intersection of Art, Birth and Community.

🌱 While I’m currently not based in Lebanon, I remain closely connected to home, and I support families based in Lebanon, as well as those in the diaspora, through Online:
🤰🏻Antenatal education and birth preparation
👶🏻 Postnatal support and guidance
🤱🏻 Breastfeeding support and troubleshooting
❤️‍🩹 Healing Birth sessions and birth story processing
Holding space in Arabic, English, French or a mix of them all 😅

I’m especially mindful of what it means to navigate pregnancy, birth, and postpartum within Lebanon’s current realities , or away from home in unfamiliar systems. Having support that understands the cultural and relational context of birth can make a meaningful difference.

My work is grounded in informed choice, continuity of care, and supporting each mother to connect with her own sense of knowing and direction.

It feels really special to be part of a growing community of Doulas in Lebanon 🇱🇧
I’m looking forward to connecting with you all. 💗🙏🏽

مع محبّتي
إيڤا ماريا 🌺

20/05/2026

A (slightly) late Mother’s Day post 🫣

My son’s class had us over at our 50 year-young magical school for afternoon tea.
They made us Kawakawa tea served in these vintage sets, put together snacks, and set the whole space up for us.

We each had our personalised placemat - mine had spaghetti and meatballs 🍝 (he remembered that Italian cuisine is my favourite after Lebanese cuisine 🥹),
little flower pots they had decorated and planted 🪴
and also harakeke flax roses they’d woven themselves!🌹

You could feel how much thought and effort had gone into every detail.
It got me thinking how rare it is, in motherhood, to just sit and be on the receiving end like that.

Motherhood asks a lot of us; often quietly, often continuously.
So to be invited to sit, to be served, to be thought of in this way by these beautiful wee souls… felt like something to pause with.

💬 It was a small reminder that care can move both ways. Community is not only about what we give. It lives in these gestures, in what we offer, and in what we allow ourselves to receive. Being held is part of it too!

Art • Birth • Community

19/05/2026

BIRTH DOULA SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT 📢

As life keeps life-ing, and as my work continues to evolve, I’ve recently stepped into a part-time role alongside my practice within the wider space of maternal and whānau care.

With this shift, I’ll be pausing my in-person birth attendance for now, while continuing to hold space in other ways that feel just as meaningful and needed.

I’m still supporting mothers and families through:
🤰🏻 Antenatal sessions and birth preparation
🤱🏻 Postpartum care and guidance
❤️‍🩹 Healing Birth sessions and birth story processing
🤗 Online support for families here in Aotearoa and across borders

My work has always moved between the intimate and the collective; and this new rhythm allows me to hold space with presence and care.

If you’re looking for grounded, thoughtful and culturally attuned support during pregnancy or postpartum, I’m still very much here! 💗

With love and gratitude 🙏🏽
Eva Maria
•••••••••••
📷 credits:

06/05/2026

🎞️ My Photo Gallery app pops a memory on my screen from a year ago.
We had just arrived in Lebanon a couple days earlier and my kids were making Zaatar mana’eesh with Téta (grandma) - see last slide.

When we got back to Aotearoa end of June, we brought with us about 5 kilos of homemade Zaatar mix that my mum had made us with the main ingredients sourced from our village in the Shouf, wild thyme زوبع and sumac. When we were there, we also got to mix it with olive oil from our own orchard - talk about being a Lebanese zaatar snob! 😌🌿

We ran out of Téta’s zaatar last week and things have not been the same.
Today, I mixed a small batch of the Common Thyme which is available here, with some sumac and roasted sesame seeds.

It won’t be as yummy as my mum’s, or any Lebanese wild thyme but it’s an act of resistance, and preservation of our cultural and culinary heritage in face of the literal physical destruction and annihilation of our Lebanese villages and heritage by people whose history doesn’t connect to the land - which is why they want to erase any trace of the indigenous.

We’ll be back 🎶 راجعة بإذن الله 🤲🏽
ان قلتوا ايه، ان قلتوا لا 🇱🇧

13/02/2026

One lap around the sun later 🌞 and my heart is grateful 🥹

Grateful for the people who made this past year what it was: those I worked with, reunited with, met along the way, laughed and/or cried with, planned alongside, collaborated with, sang and danced with. Maqām of Liberation ladies especially hold a big piece of this.

Grateful to have gone back home to Lebanon لبنان 🇱🇧 to old friendships that welcomed me back as if no time had passed, and the new ones that settled in gently.

Grateful too, for the technology that keeps us close across oceans and time zones, when distance could’ve made it harder.

Not everyone or everything is pictured here. Some moments live off-camera, or behind my children’s faces (which I keep private). They still count, deeply!

My year doesn’t start in January. This is the beginning 🌞🌿🌺

05/02/2026

My Autumn 2026 Birth & Postpartum Doula availability

This is an availability update for Birth and Postpartum doula support in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland for March-June 2026.

I work with a limited number of families each month in order to offer a steady support through pregnancy, birth, and the early weeks postpartum.

🎠 This carousel shows my current availability by month and is designed to be easy to save and screenshot if helpful (slide 2).

Alongside birth and postpartum doula support, families can also book:
🦋 Healing Birth support - Unravelling your Birth Trauma
☎️ Pick My Brain - 1:1 Mama Coaching calls

All information and bookings are available via my website:
itsevamaria.com/tetawardeh-doula-packages-list

Based in West Auckland, supporting families across Tāmaki Makaurau.

Arohanui 🌺
Eva

29/01/2026

🎶Maqām of Liberation is extending its summer pause, with intention 🙏🏽

💃🏽These women-led movements gatherings have been unfolding for a year now, shaped by breath, rhythm, Arabic music, and the simple act of moving together without the pressure to perform.
As summer is (finally) summering, and Ramadan is approaching, it feels right to extend our rest and return with more space.

🥁I’m looking forward to gathering again in April, reconnecting with familiar faces and welcoming new ones, so we can mark one year of Maqām of Liberation together in a generous and grounded way.

Thank you to everyone who has showed up, danced, witnessed, checked in, or held this work with care.
I see you and I’m grateful for you 🤗
More soon 🌿💃🏽

26/01/2026

Maqām of Liberation is back this Sunday, 1 February | Tāmaki Makaurau- Auckland

A women-only space to move with breath, rhythm, and Arabic music without a set choreography or performance pressure.

We begin with gentle guidance, then allow the dance to open and unfold freely.

This gathering quietly marks one year since Maqām of Liberation began, and comes just before a short pause in March for Ramadan.

🗓 Sunday 1 February 2026
⏰ 3.00–4.30pm
📍 Dominion Dance Space, Mt Roskill
💛 Koha welcomed
📝 Registration essential - check the stories or DM me

If your body is asking for movement, grounding, and shared presence, you’re warmly welcome.

26/01/2026

ALARMING
to say the least

Shortage raises rates of maternity intervention, while improving access to care could potentially save 4.3m lives a year, say experts

31/12/2025

🥳 On New Year’s Eve, we count down minutes, seconds till midnight.
🤰🏻Birth doesn’t work like that. Babies don’t read calendars. Babies are not late. The system is impatient.

🗓️ Remember that due dates are guesstimates, not deadlines. And while calendars, rosters, and schedules prefer certainty, physiological birth unfolds in its own time.

As we enter a new year, especially the mamas approaching their ‘due dates’, this is a reminder that waiting is not a failure, and timing is not something to ‘fix’ when mama and baby are well and healthy.
👶🏻 Baby-led birth asks for patience and trust, not urgency for convenience.

🥳 As we count down to midnight tonight, and a new year begins, remember that your body and your baby are not on the clock. Some beginnings cannot be rushed!

Happy New Year! 🥂🌺