My path has led me to birthwork, where I have the privilege of sitting at the feet of women as they move through one of life's most profound rites of passage. I am continually humbled by the wisdom of the female body and grateful for a deep trust in my own.

My first encounter with live birth was on a farm during lambing season. The farmers taught us never to disturb a ewe in labor, and that sheep often leave the flock to birth alone. Animals possess an instinctual need for privacy in birth. Naturally, I began wondering why human birth is distinctly managed. In The Farmer and the Obstetrician, Dr. Michel Odent draws compelling parallels between modern obstetrics and agricultural practices that challenge many of our assumptions about birth.

As I began to ask questions, I encountered more ideas that challenged the dominant narrative. Despite technological advances, birth outcomes in hospitals have not consistently improved, while midwifery-led care  is associated with better outcomes. I learned that birth complications have been correlated to an impaired capacity to love. That the witch hunts and marginalization of midwifery was not incidental, but part of a broader shift toward the medicalization and monopolization of birth. The evidence suggests that the safest place to birth is where the mother feels unobserved and undisturbed, which is usually at home. Disturbances in the birth space can interfere with labor, slowing or even stoping its progression altogether. 

Undisturbed birth is certainly in the realm of the mystical for most people. Fear is normal and natural, and birth is inherently unpredictable and will stretch you physically and emotionally. But when we allow our fears to control us, and construct systems (and institutions) to avoid confronting those fears, we should examine them. Pregnancy is an opportunity to identify your fears, explore where they come from, and consider how they have served you. You will not eliminate all fears in childbirth, but you can acknowledge some and bless others. Releasing fear can even become part of the birth process itself. As you come to understand your fears, they lose much of their power. Your instinct and physiology are much stronger than your fear. When we demystify birth while also honoring its depth and significance, we create space to trust ourselves more fully and reclaim our sovereignty within the birth experience.

Until we come to know birth, we will continue to complicate it. What I now understand, on the bridge between maiden and mother, is that womanhood carries a profound creative power. To bring life into the world is both a privilege and a responsibility. My hope is that women and families are transformed through birth, that they are seen, supported, and witnessed in this passage, and that every child enters the world with an intact capacity for love.