About Birth Story
Birth is the physical, spiritual, and animal experience through which a baby is brought into the world. So often, I hear stories of trauma in birth, either from difficulty, violence, a traumatic experience that resurges from another time, or from past generations. I first realized there could be trauma in birth when my mother told me my birth story. When I heard her, I noticed how hard it was for her to speak her story of giving birth to me, and I understood the lasting impacts my birth had on her. It took me even longer to see, though it may seem obvious, that it also left impressions on me. A desire to understand what happened to my mother and me on the day I was born is what sparked my interest in birth.
When I hear about trauma in women’s stories of giving birth, I wonder what impacts it has, if unresolved, on how humans form relationships. We often forget that birth is a universal experience. We are born from our mothers and although every birth is different, it is a process we all share. Birth is the portal through which we enter the world and yet, I dare say most of us know very little about birth, and even less about what women’s experiences are of giving birth. There is a vacuum in place of a collective consciousness of what it is to give birth and be born.
Over the next year, I’ll travel the world in search of communities of mothers that are closely linked to networks of midwives, parteras, traditional birth attendants, and birthkeepers. I want to open up the memories of birth through story. As I travel, I’ll interview mothers about the day they gave birth. My intention is to create a birth story archive. In hearing and sharing their stories, I hope to revive an oral tradition of birth storytelling and learn about different birth practices around the globe. I believe birth can transform trauma across generations. How we make sense of birth matters and the words we speak have power. Every time a birth story is told, the birth itself changes, and when a birth story is heard, birth becomes something new. And so, in this sense, storytelling can transform birth, too.