Early on, I realized that it matters how we give birth and how we are born, it matters how we are held and how we are witnessed. I knew the simple truth that birth was the absolute and limitless terrain and treasure of the women herself.
When my time came, I chose a midwife that supported my true nature. I gave birth as an animal. I was brought to my knees and loved every minute of it. The old violation that my body had been carrying, burned away. The portal worked. Transformation is real. I experienced the power of true self-responsibility and the profound healing of body sovereignty. I became a fierce, joyful and confident mother. Motherhood was and still is my heaven realm.
I knew with every fiber of my being that I wanted to protect this exquisite, vast, excruciating, essential, powerful, majestic and deeply female experience for women and babies and humanity.
A calling.
Friends began inviting me to their free births. For years this was life (plus, and mostly, being mama, homesteading, dancing, making music, making clothes and living in community). Then I swerved and decided to “get legit” and pursue licensure.
That’s a story for another time…
After midwifery school and a homebirth apprenticeship, the medical board of California authorized me to attend women in labor. They provided a paradigm supported by protocols, regulations and rules. I got to know a system, that at its foundation and in its present day manifestation, is more dedicated to legislating routine subjugation on birthing women, babies and birth professionals - than it is with human flourishing.
After 700+ first breaths, the time came to turn directly towards my delight in protecting and tending to the majesty, mystery and messiness of our extraordinary earthbodies and to an undiluted trust in a women’s capacity and right to make decisions for herself and her baby.
So, I stepped away from medicalized midwifery.
I now facilitate The Birth Keepers’ Circle, a mentored group for birthkeepers (midwives, nurses, doulas, students), who are ready to flourish in their work. I also have sessions with pregnant women as they experience their pregnancy and plan their empowered birth, as well as to support integration of and heal from traumatic birth experiences. I’m a dancer, have a sturdy contemplative practice, make nearly all the pottery in my kitchen and occasionally, still attend births.
In all that I am and do, I’m dedicated, in quiet and noisy ways to understanding power, privilege and responsibility - both internal and societal, and to standing up to and speaking out against oppressions. I’m committed to protecting, nurturing and celebrating women’s embodied, true nature - during each stage of life - with health, joy, dignity, reality and liberation.
