Connect - Attune - Restore - Engage

Care Cards

by Grow with Poppy

A gentle way to communicate your needs during pregnancy and birth

Care Cards are a small tool with a meaningful purpose. Created to support women seeking trauma‑informed maternity care, they offer a gentle way to share sensitive information, express personal needs, and feel more in control of their care.

A Care Card gives your healthcare provider a brief, respectful overview of your past experience and clearly communicates what helps you feel safe. It opens the door to understanding, connection, and compassionate support—so you can focus on your wellbeing and your birth experience.

How Care Cards Support You

  • Care Cards make it easier to communicate your needs in a calm, clear, and supportive way. The process is simple:

    1. Choose the message that feels right for you Pick from our pre‑written cards, book a live co‑design session, or send in your own wording for gentle editorial support.

    2. Receive your personalised Care Card pack You’ll receive 30 physical cards with your chosen message, plus an FAQ card with a QR code for your care providers.

    3. Use your cards whenever you meet someone new Hand a card to any midwife, doctor, or technician involved in your care. Each card communicates one clear request, helping your care team understand how to support you with sensitivity and respect.

    4. Keep a digital version for peace of mind A convenient backup you can access anytime.

  • Care Cards are designed for anyone who wants to feel safer, more understood, and more in control during their maternity care. They’re especially supportive for women who:

    • Have experienced trauma in the past and want a gentle way to communicate their needs

    • Feel anxious or overwhelmed in medical settings

    • Find it difficult to speak up or advocate for themselves during appointments

    • Want to set clear boundaries while maintaining a positive relationship with their care team

    • Are preparing for birth and want to create an environment that feels calm, respectful, and supportive

    Whether you’re navigating pregnancy for the first time or returning after a challenging experience, Care Cards offer a simple, compassionate tool to help you feel heard and protected.

  • Every woman deserves maternity care that feels safe, respectful, and attuned to her needs. But for many, past trauma can make pregnancy and birth feel emotionally complex. Communicating what you need — especially in moments of stress — can be incredibly difficult.

    Care Cards exist to bridge that gap.

    They offer a gentle, non‑confrontational way to share sensitive information and express what helps you feel secure. They also support healthcare providers by giving them clear, compassionate guidance on how to care for you in a way that honours your boundaries.

    When your care team understands what matters most to you, it becomes easier to build trust, reduce anxiety, and create a birth experience that feels empowering rather than overwhelming.

Choosing your Care Cards

Finding the right support for your maternity journey should feel simple and comforting. Care Cards are available in three gentle options, each designed to meet you where you are and honour what you need.

  • A set 30 of gentle, trauma‑informed Care Cards with your choice of message, designed to support emotional safety and clear communication during pregnancy and birth. Each card option offers grounding, compassionate language to help you express your needs, boundaries, and preferences in moments that can feel vulnerable or overwhelming.

    Created from lived experience and trauma‑informed practice, these cards are a supportive companion for your pregnancy, birth, or postpartum journey.

    What’s included

    • A full set of pre‑written Care Cards

    • Soft canvas pouch for safe keeping

    • Thoughtful, intentional packaging

    Perfect for anyone wanting a ready‑made, grounding tool to support communication with care providers, birth partners, or support people.

  • A personalised Care Card created from your own wording, gently refined into clear, grounding, trauma‑informed language. This option is ideal if you already have a message in mind and would like support shaping it into a card that feels emotionally safe, steady, and aligned with your needs.

    You share your wording, and I gently refine it for clarity, emotional safety, and alignment with Care Card values, while honouring your voice.

    What’s included

    • Gentle refinement of your wording

    • Personalised Care Card designed in the Care Card layout

    • Professional printing

    • Soft canvas pouch

    • Thoughtful packaging and postage within Australia

    A beautiful option if you know what you want to say but want support expressing it with clarity, grounding, and emotional attunement.

  • A deeply supported, attuned experience where we co‑create your personalised Care Card together in a 60‑minute online session. This is a gentle, collaborative space where your story, needs, and intentions are held with care.

    During the session, we explore the wording that feels most supportive for your pregnancy or birth journey — something that reflects your voice, your boundaries, and the emotional landscape you’re navigating. Afterward, I refine the wording, prepare the layout, and have your personalised card professionally printed.

    What’s included

    • 60‑minute online co‑design session

    • Trauma‑informed support and gentle guidance

    • Post‑session refinement and layout design

    • Professional printing

    • Soft canvas pouch

    • Thoughtful packaging and postage within Australia

    Perfect for anyone wanting a relational, supported experience — especially if you’re navigating fear, past trauma, or uncertainty and want a card that truly reflects your voice.

Ready to Choose Your Care Cards?

All options are available through my Etsy store, where you can select the approach that feels right for you.

Your Care Cards will be prepared with care and intention, supporting you as you move through pregnancy, birth, and beyond with greater confidence and ease.

Purchase on Etsy

Help choosing your Care Cards?

FAQs

  • You can use a Care Card whenever it feels right for you. They were originally created to support communication during my own pregnancy and birth, and they can be helpful at any stage of your maternity journey — from your first booking‑in appointment, to ultrasound visits, through labour, and into postnatal care.

    Some women also choose to use their cards outside of pregnancy. They can be a gentle way to communicate your needs during other medical appointments or procedures. Many people find them helpful with dentists, physiotherapists, massage therapists, yoga teachers, or anyone else involved in hands‑on or body‑based care.

    Your Care Cards are there to support you whenever you feel sharing your needs would help you feel safer, calmer, or more understood.

  • Each Care Card pack includes a welcome card with a QR code. When your care provider scans it, they’ll be taken to a dedicated FAQ page with information designed specifically for clinicians and support professionals.

    If they have further questions after reading that page, they’re welcome to reach out through the contact form. I’m always happy to offer clarity about the purpose of Care Cards so they can feel comfortable using them in their practice.

  • If the pre‑written message doesn’t feel quite right for you, you’re warmly invited to explore a personalised option. Many women choose wording that reflects their own needs, boundaries, or experiences, and I’m here to support that process in a way that feels safe and comfortable.

    You can work with me in a live co‑design session, or you can share your wording privately in writing if that feels easier. Together, we’ll shape a message that aligns with the CARE principles — Connect, Attune, Restore, Engage — while staying true to your voice and what helps you feel supported.

    Your Care Card should feel like yours, and I’ll help ensure the wording reflects both your needs and the gentle, trauma‑informed purpose of the cards.

  • Not at all. You never need to share the details of your past for a Care Card to support you. The card is designed to communicate what helps you feel safe right now, without requiring you to revisit anything you don’t want to talk about. Your needs in the present are enough.

  • Most care providers genuinely want to support you, and many appreciate having clear insight into what helps you feel safe. The card isn’t a criticism — it’s a gentle way to open communication. It gives your care provider something concrete to work with, which often makes their job easier, not harder.

  • It’s completely normal to feel that way. Many women find it easier to hand over the card at the beginning of an appointment or to ask a partner, doula, or support person to pass it on. The card is there to speak for you when words feel difficult — you don’t need to explain anything unless you want to.

  • Yes. Some women choose to carry a few cards with different messages, especially if their needs vary depending on the situation. You can offer one card or several — whatever feels right for you in the moment.

  • Your needs are allowed to change. Pregnancy, labour, and birth are dynamic experiences, and it’s completely normal for your comfort levels or boundaries to shift. You can use different cards at different times or choose a personalised option if you’d like wording that reflects where you are now.

  • No. You never owe anyone your story. The card communicates what you need without requiring you to justify it. If you choose to share more, that’s entirely up to you — but it’s never expected.

  • Absolutely. Care Cards are for anyone who wants clearer communication, more consent, or a greater sense of safety during maternity care. You don’t need a trauma history to benefit from having your needs expressed simply and respectfully.

  • No. While they were created with pregnancy and birth in mind, many people use them in other settings — medical appointments, dental visits, physiotherapy, massage, yoga, or any situation where clear communication helps them feel more comfortable.

  • You’re not alone — many women feel unsure at first. If you’d like support, you can choose a personalised option. We can work together, either live or through a private written process, to find wording that feels true to your needs and aligned with the CARE principles.