The Fountain of Life Confluence gathers us to remember the vitality, value, and virtue of breastfeeding — not merely as nourishment, but as intelligent creational design and imperative, woven into the fabric of human flourishing.

The Fountain of Life Confluence is a shared space where we will explore the mystery and miracle of breastfeeding in an interdisciplinary fashion — through every lens it deserves — ancestral, anthropological, biological, eternal, emotional, generational, hormonal, immunological, ontological, physiological, relational, sociological, spiritual and theological. Together, with select guest panelists, we’ll uncover the depth, design, devotion and dignity woven into this act of creation and communion. These are the conversations I longed for — the ones I searched for in books, on podcasts, in mothers’ groups and in the quiet questions of my own heart, but could never quite find. A space where breastfeeding isn’t reduced to technique or trend, but honored as the fountain of life itself — a mirror of God’s provision, the body’s wisdom, and the milk-drenched thread that binds bloodlines. I wish these conversations had existed for me… so I chose to create it for other women and their daughters. For my daughter(s). And her daughter(s).

In an age that fragments and mechanizes the most human acts, we return here to the heart of why breastfeeding must be guarded, protected, and preserved — not only for the health of mothers and babies, but for the continuity of civilization itself. 

To breastfeed is to stand in the stream of life’s continuity — to receive and to give in one motion, to embody the mercy and provision of God through flesh and flow. It is a practice of futuresteading: anchoring humanity in rhythms of reciprocity, reverence, and relationship that stretch backward through lineage and forward into legacy.

Through testimony, teaching, and communal reflection, we’ll explore:

  • the era and economics of formula / artificial milk 
  • attachment, bonding and relationship
  • breastmilk as living — adaptive, active, agential, intelligent, relational, receptive, responsive, symbiotic and sentient
  • childism, choice, personal preference and primate rights
  • what Michel Odent refers to as "primal health" 
  • physiological mothering and babycare
  • exterogestation, motherbaby proximity and contact and breastmilk supply
  • breastfeeding / breastmilk as a form of preventative medicine
  • the benefits of long term breastfeeding for both mother and baby (the two are inseparable)
  • the cultural and communal restoration of the art and act of breastfeeding
  • how breastmilk reveals a relational ontology and a theology of dependence and trust 

… and so much more. 

The Fountain of Life Confluence is a gathering of women, mothers, birth workers, practitioners and care providers devoted to restoring reverence and respect for the ecology of breastfeeding. Together we will remember that to sustain life is holy work. Together, we will remember what it means to support women and their babies in the fullness of this birthright. 

Here, we return to what is most true:

That to feed is to give life. That to nurse is to participate in Creation itself. That in every drop of milk, Heaven still speaks.

WHY CONFLUENCE

The word confluence means a flowing together — the meeting place of rivers that merge to form something greater than their separate streams. It evokes movement, life, and union — not competition or hierarchy, but harmony and synarchy.

I chose this word intentionally. The Fountain of Life Confluence is not a stage for experts, but a riverbed where many streams of wisdom meet: the physiological and the spiritual, the scientific and the sacred, the mother and the midwife, the biological and the biblical.

Just as breastmilk flows from the body as a continuation of creation itself, this confluence represents the flow that happens when knowledge and spirit are brought back into right relationship — when the truths of the body and the mysteries and miracles of God are no longer divided but reunited.

It is also symbolic of the maternal calling itself — to be a vessel through which life, nourishment, and wisdom flow. The confluence honors the feminine way of gathering: fluid, circular, integrative, and generous.

Where conferences often divide by discipline, the Fountain of Life Confluence seeks to merge — to become a living testimony that science and spirit, matter and meaning, can flow as one abundant river, sourced from the same fountain.

CONTRIBUTORS / PANELISTS

Each contributor / panelist will be contributing in three ways:

1. A Live Teaching / Formation Gathering

2. A Written Offering

3. An account / testimony of her personal breastfeeding journey. 

The contributors / panelists are as follows:

1. Anja Smoliak

2. Aleksandra Petkovska

3. Michelle Williams

4. Nikko Kennedy

5. Emily Hancock

6. Kristin Lawless

7. Penelope

8. Jessica

FORMAT & FLOW

Schedule TBD/A.

A Weekend Immersion — February 13th-15th. 

Hosted in Central European Time (CET). 

All sessions are live and recorded, available for replay to accommodate every timezone.‍

INVESTMENT

You’ll notice I’ve chosen not to use the word cost.

To cost implies loss — something given without return.

But to invest is to sow — and every true sowing, in time, returns a harvest.

Investment in The Fountain of Life Confluence is both practical and spiritual:

It sustains the women who have poured from their own lived wells of experience + expertise and it nourishes the collective remembrance of God’s design for life, nourishment, and mercy.

We’ve set the foundational investment at 33€, to make this gathering as accessible as possible — so that the waters of this work may flow widely and freely, touching the lives of women everywhere.

In keeping with the feminine economy of reciprocity and shared provision, all proceeds will be pooled and divided evenly among the panel members — a circular model of mutual blessing rather than extraction.

For those who feel led to sow more abundantly, we’ve created an optional Cascade Tier at 55€ and 111€, for those who desire to water the work more deeply — honoring the time, presence, and wisdom each mother has brought forth, and ensuring this stream continues to flow into future gatherings.

Every contribution, no matter its amount, is an act of participation in restoration.

An investment not only in a single event, but in the flourishing of women, mothers, and the living whole and future.

A NOTE ON THE NATURE OF THIS GATHERING

The Fountain of Life Confluence is a living, breathing space — not a polished production. All of our panelists are mothers, many of whom are still in the sacred intensity of the early childrearing years: nursing on demand, babywearing, rocking little ones to sleep, and tending to needs as they arise.

This means that you may hear the subtle and significant sounds of babies, the rustle of movement, or moments of pause woven throughout our time together. These are not distractions — they are reminders.

Reminders of why we gather.

Reminders of the living reality of what we speak about.

Reminders that nourishment, motherhood, and ministry are not separate streams, but one flowing river.

We will not be sanitizing or sterilizing this experience of the presence of children. Instead, we honor it as part of the sacred ecology of life — an invitation into slowness, softness, and presence.

This is not a stage.

It is a circle — a confluence of mothers, babies, wisdom, and witness.

You are invited to come as you are, to breathe, to listen, and to allow the rhythm of real life — cries, coos, pauses and all — to be received as part of the holy flow.

We look forward to meeting you at the waters.