| Get Into It! Spring - Summer 2008 |
|
|
| Share |
|
|
“Every woman owns within herself the spirit of a warrior to give birth to her children on her own...in harmony with the Cosmic Forces of Creation.” |
I watched the video twice, just to be sure that I hadn’t missed something.
Yes, something was definitely missing. Where were the sterile hallways with carts being rolled this way and that? There were no machines beeping, no sudden flurries of chaos or clamour of raised voices before a mother’s scream and a wailing baby held aloft by an anonymous pair of blue latex gloves.
In fact, there was no screaming – at all. The whole presentation, from start to finish, was calm, quiet…almost surreal.
Sacred Birth is the footage of Carol de Bowé’s unassisted labour. As the first scenes come info focus, Carol herself is calmly squatting in deep concentration. She is labouring in the lush, green landscape of what could be the family backyard. The sunlight is startling beautiful. Naked as the day she herself was born, Carol’s labour support team is made up of two children who run and frolic around as Carol makes comments and gives advice to the camera.
|
“Natural Birth has an enormous positive value for the lifelong physical and spiritual health and well-being of a mother as well as a baby.” |
As the baby’s head appears, Carol’s husband comes forward to help her to lie on her back and then catch the baby as Carol gives her final push. The baby is immediately laid on her mother’s stomach and she is happily nursing even before the umbilical cord is cut.
This video can give any woman courage. We can give birth ourselves and we can do it under any circumstances. I realized that, if a woman can give birth fearlessly in the comfort of her own backyard with no doctors or medical intervention of any kind, what have we to fear with all the options that are available? From home birth to hospital, midwives, doctors, family or none, we can do it. We are not powerless bystanders in this timeless process of Giving Life.
Nicole Osbourne James
Click here to see PDF of this magazine exert. To order a subscription to BWAC, visit our subscription page.
What's On?
CNN Special: Blacks in America
"Somebody who saw that special will be looking at me now, thinking that I am probably pregnant with twins for a man whose name I don’t know and looking to the welfare system to support me because it is obvious that a black man never would, right?!"