The Rent Tent – Image from nuttermother.com
This is a fact. The modern woman, the Lize of 2010 (pre-baby), had no clue to what it meant to have a baby. The art of being woman, of being there for one another during childbirth, of sitting together with your peeps in the red tent hanging out menstruating and being ok with it, is lost. There’s no argument. It is the saddest truth about our society today, that we do not know how to give birth. If we are having to fight for the freedom of midwives, we have no clue.
And this is my argument for why we should all care and talk about birth. (e.g. why you should be involved in this exhibition).
Artwork from rubylane.com
Giving birth to a human being is a big deal. The physical act of bringing your child into this world takes bravery, strength, support, the utmost trust in yourself and those around you and I believe that If we were present at our sister/auntie/neighbor’s birth, we would know this fact undeniably. All fears woman (and society) might have will melt away when they see and feel the all encompassing love coursing through the air, your very being, when a baby is held for the first time. The connection to the world and your fellow humans are so powerful, it makes you re-evaluate life as you know it. Unfortunately I don’t think this will be a reality any time soon, so in the mean time we can talk about it honestly. The good, the bad and the ugly. Birth is a big deal. It’s the moment your child’s journey in this world starts. The first day of loving your human for the rest of their life. Birth, it is the biggest deal.
If everyone cared about each and every birth, each child born into this world. We will have the paradise many wish for here on earth.
And that is something to strive for, to fight for, to believe in.
Every person in this world is entitled to that kind of love and commitment. Lize.
*Having modern medicine to help save lives during birth is the most wonderful thng, this is not a rant trying to deny that fact.
Thank you Lize! Utterly agree! We have an amazing group of women here in HB fighting the homebirth cause, but generally awesome and reclaiming all aspects of womanhood. They gave me so much strength before the birth of my second baby, having that community of women passing on wisdom and communal knowledge, something that the midwives can’t really do in their more official capacity so much… my two births couldn’t have been more different, the first I felt an underlying feeling of failure, like I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do it, I suffered terrible insomnia (anxiety?), and ended up with epidural and forceps delivery. obviously we weren’t worried as we had our beautiful Ralph, but I felt sometime later I didn’t realise at the time just how traumatic this was. 2nd pregnancy I was just so relaxed and trusted in myself so much more, and the birth I had the attitude of ‘bring it on!’, 3 pushes and Thea was out. It was incredibly ‘empowering’ and healing. There is a wonderful Australian Documentary called ‘The Face of Birth’ which goes beyond just the fight to have homebirths and is about all women giving birth, I highly recommend it to all!
Em, that is such an encouraging story. It makes me excited and hopeful. Thank you for sharing your experience. (The more we share the more we learn the more we able to help others; pass on knowledge).
And huge respect to the women of HB! Heroes.