When I got pregnant, I expected that I would have someone to guide me into my next phase of life.
Maybe my mother ~ or my best friends who had children of their own… but no.
And I thought, that since I had traveled the country, helping women set up Red Tents in their neighborhood- that by the time I got pregnant I’d have a large support system.
But that didn’t happen either.
Instead I felt very alone.
I tried to find my security in hiring a birth team…
but as I was interviewing midwives and doulas- I witnessed a lot of judgment, criticism, fear, & “rights and wrongs”~ for birth, for motherhood, for parenting…
All of which seemed to stem from their own traumas…
And a need to control life…
when life is wildly uncontrollable.
~~~
Women’s disconnection from their bodies & nature has increasingly gotten worse in our modern times.
And I decided, that if I was going to learn about motherhood I’d have to refer back to the old world.
I needed to learn about Traditional Birth Care practices.
What did midwives do before modern medicine?
When more women died, and there needed to be more psychological & spiritual care.
How did different cultures support the maiden to mother transition?
What did they do that’s the same?
What did they do that’s different? ….
When I speak about “traditional birth care,”
I’m speaking about care that is rooted in the natural world and the spiritual worlds.
This type of care includes rituals that help us psychologically transition from one life phase to the next.
There is a great initiation that occurs in birth, that involves shamanic support.
And it is essential to celebrate and honor the new mother’s rite of passage~
A rite of passage that is NOT dependent on HOW she gave birth.
What matters is that she DID.
~~~
Here comes my ideas for “The Red Thread” project…
Which in my mind is a continuation of “Our Red Tent” project.
Which helped women learn their maiden mysteries, sex, blood rites and shadow work…
our interconnection as women, the power of our wombs, and our sovereignty.
Now that I’m in the mother phase of life, I’ve been writing down the stages of a woman’s hero’s journey- from marriage to conception, to birth and the years postpartum.
I am studying everything I can~ about what ancient cultures did to nourish the new mother, and to prepare her for her new role.
….
Layla B hosted an incredible postpartum birth summit recently: https://www.laylab.co.uk/sps2
Which interviewed postpartum birth workers around the world ~ to share their ancient traditions. From Guatemala, to India, to Morrocco, to Egypt, to Thailand…
from Native American to African American to Anglo Saxon.
~~~
The RED THREAD reminds us that all women are connected.
We are connected to our past~ as we birth our future.
I myself am 8 months pregnant…
And I’m somewhere between who I was and who I am becoming.
So, this Red Thread project is just coming into form.
It will continue to evolve itself… And I’ll write about my journey.
I hope to create workshops and services that share my personal findings with other women…
Because I do not believe that we are supposed to evolve alone.
P.S. I made this “Blood Rites” logo. Do you like it? 🙂
I’ll speak more about the BLOOD RITES in birth later
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