A Celebration of Childbirth

'Pregnant and birthing mothers are elemental forces, in the same sense that gravity, thunderstorms, earthquakes and hurricanes are elemental forces.  In order to understand the laws of their energy flow, you have to love and respect them for their magnificence at the same time that you study them with the accuracy of a true scientist.
 A midwife or obstetrician needs to understand about how the energy of childbirth flows  -- to not know is to be like a physicist who doesn't understand about gravity.'
  Ina May Gaskin Spiritual Midwifery 1977

Choices in Childbirth Rally ~ August 2001, Perth Cultural Centre Court-yard

In protest against the withdrawal of professional indemnity insurance from Australian midwives in independent and community practice.
Rally participants painted nappy flags to get their message across.
 

"Childbirth brings a change in the state of consciousness akin, I believe to that achieved by shamans and mystics.  It is a time when a woman reaches beyond normal perceptions and may involve a vision of the universe which transcends ordinary reality.  It is a time when we reach down into the very depths of our being to find the resources to give birth.  Of course, in the west we are unused to moving in these realms of consciousness and we have lost our knowledge of how to support someone who is doing so."
 Jacqueline Vincent Priya Birth Traditions and Modern Pregnancy Care  UK 1992
 

Catherine and Robin, staffing a Birthplace Support Group information stall at the Mother Nurture fete, 2001.  (Why not check out the Birthplace website?)