Photo by Wanda Walker

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Midwifery Today, Issue 113, Spring 2015.
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The Birth Revolution is like the slow food movement—it takes time to cook, it tastes best in community and a small taste leaves you wanting more.

At the Midwifery Today conference in Byron Bay, Australia, on a warm and windy afternoon on the sandy beach, we sang our Birth Revolution song (“We are here for a birth revolution, babies deserve the best…”), wore the Birth Revolution turquoise color, danced the Birth Revolution dance (spontaneously created) and wrote “Birth Revolution” in the sand. Byron Bay will never be the same.

Two Fijian midwives arrived just as the beach party ended. When they learned the reason for our gathering, they said, “We definitely need a Birth Revolution in Fiji.” They gave me a turquoise shirt with matching earrings and generously offered to have turquoise clothes made with “Birth Revolution” embroidered on them. And so the revolution grows—organically, naturally and now stylishly.

My good friend, Deborah Allen, likes to write the word birth like this: BEARTH, marrying the words birth and earth. If you think about it, more respect for Mother Earth would certainly translate into more respect for birth. Right now, heavy-handed industrial interests have trumped natural systems on earth and at birth. Birth, Mother Nature and all that is sacred should be regarded as such and not be at the disposal of monetary interests.

If you agree, then join the revolution. Create an action and post it on YouTube.

Our action on the beach was fun and included folks from the greater community.

Another symbol of the Birth Revolution is the Liberty Bell to celebrate “belly freedom”! Editor’s note: Another is the color turquoise.]

Onward!