Sister MorningStar has dedicated a lifetime to the preservation of instinctual birth. She birthed her own daughters at home and has helped thousands of other women find empowerment through instinctual birth. She is the founder of a spiritual retreat center and author of books related to instinctual and spiritual living. She lives as a Cherokee hermitess and Catholic mystic in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri. Visit her on the web at: www.sistermorningstar.com.
The Power of Women: Instinctual Birth Stories: When women embarked on their journey into womanhood and motherhood, stories from their grandmothers, great-grandmothers and ancestors came forth through songs, stories and what appeared as mythological tales. Upon hearing these stories, women became empowered to do what all women from which they came were able to do: give birth instinctually.
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Not all babies live. Not all wimyn die with their uterus. Not all mothers survive childbirth. These are hard truths to bear. Hard truths for the family, community, and world to hold. But truths set us free and help guide us to deeper understanding and reformation. Read more…. Midwifing the Portal Door
Photo by Caroline Brown
I had to trot to keep up with Doña Juanita on the footpath leading to our first prenatal home visit of the day—a first time mother who had been born into Doña’s hands some 17 years past. Doña Juanita was in her 60s—my elder at the time—small, fierce, and focused. She brought nothing with her but her hands and a lifetime of wisdom born of experience.
Read more…. Village Prenatal Bringing Birth Back to Community
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Doña Cuca and I sat next to each other looking down at the ground. She was sad. I was too. She spoke of the changes happening in her village around birth. The wimyn were trusting the hospital more than the use of rebozo and sobada (1). The young ones were not interested in a midwife path. She felt the feeling of disappearance. The dissolving of a life she had lived and loved. I told her the loss had already happened for my people and in my land. We sat together. Sad about it all. Read more…. Kneeling before the Elders
Photo by Juliia Abramova
Anna held her jewel of a son in her arms. A halo seemed to surround them as she beamed her love into his face, cradling him like a Mother Mary. It was her third birth but first homebirth. We were village midwives back then, some 40+ years ago now.
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When wimyn gather, knowledge, skills, and wisdom are preserved and experience expands. Read more…. Gather the Wimyn!
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Will there be birth beyond medicalization? If so, for whom?
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Russia is a long way from my cottage door. I love Russia. Her strength and wild forests. Her legends and legendary wimyn. A motherland she is called, and rightly so. Mother to so much. I remember my first journey there in 2011.
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“The altars have images of all the Marys and one small icon of Jesus (with a cloth well covering his naked body) because I never know which Mary one of my mothers might need to pray to,” explained Doña Gloria as we enjoyed a tour of her new birthing room.
Holding the sacred for new mothers as Village Midwife.
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The Village Midwife is not lost. Her blood runs thick in our veins. Our great-great-grandmothers knew her ways. Many of them were her.
Too few wimyn spiraling through maidenhood, motherhood, cronehood hear of the innate powerhouse of sacred feminine energy that is their very nature. Sheroic stories perk the ears of all such wimyn. I am a lover and preserver of stories.
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There is not another like you. You are more complex and unique than a snowflake. If you are pregnant, there are at least two of you spinning in a universe of uniqueness.
Photo by Numan Malik
The power and superiority of homebirth is not in statistics, politics, academia, wimyn’s empowerment, or even the realms of species preservation. The power of homebirth is that it belongs to the Village. Read more…. Village Birth
