Category Archives: Birth Art

Read an amazing poem on birth lately? Seen or made some extraordinary birth art? Share it with the rest of us!

The Great Wall of Vagina

By The Midwife | Published: June 27, 2012

Wow, I stumbled upon the work of UK artist Jamie McCartney, and was pretty much blown away.  You have to visit his site ASAP: The Great Wall of Vagina.  The 9 metre long polyptych consists of four hundred plaster casts of vulvas, all of them unique, arranged into ten large panels. McCartney set out to make […]

Also posted in Feminism, Good Enough to Share, Sex and Sexuality | 2 Comments

Holy Work

By The Midwife | Published: March 18, 2012

I’ve been reading a lot of birth poetry lately.  For reasons which I can’t quite yet delve into in this moment (still keeping things on the down-low, if you know what I mean), I’ve been revisiting my calling to midwifery, and finding that it is still singing it’s siren song, as strong as ever as […]

Also posted in Good Enough to Share, Labor and Birth, Myth, Folklore and Ritual | Leave a comment

Mother of Many

By The Midwife | Published: September 23, 2011

I *love* this video (“Mother of Many” by Emma Lazenby, which also won the BAFTA for Best Short Animation last year).  It so perfectly portrays what the average day can be like for a hospital midwife, from the overwhelming chaos of helping so many women at the same time to the joy at every birth […]

Also posted in Good Enough to Share, Labor and Birth, Midwifery | Leave a comment

Blessingway Poetry

By The Midwife | Published: May 13, 2011

I also wanted to share the two poems which were read at my Blessingway, because they are so beautiful, and even now, just reading them will bring tears to my eyes. Mother Wisdom Speaks by Christine Lore Webber Some of you I will hollow out. I will make you a cave. I will carve you […]

Also posted in Labor and Birth, Myth, Folklore and Ritual | Leave a comment

Birth on Labor Day

By The Midwife | Published: August 24, 2006

And of course, something needs to be said about Birth on Labor Day, aka BOLD, a new event slated to occur annually on Labor Day (appropriate, eh?). Created by playwright Karen Brody, and clearly modelled off of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues and the subsequent V-Day that was created to call attention to violence against women, […]

Also posted in Birth Education, Labor and Birth, Politics | 1 Comment

Wonderous Vulva Puppets

By The Midwife | Published: February 18, 2006

OMG, check these out!! Wonderous Vulva Puppets! How absolutely, amazingly gorgeous! We wantssss one, precioussssss, yes, we do. The artist, Dorrie Lane, has named every puppet after a sacred feminine Goddess—she even has a puppet named after Hathor, the Egyptian Goddess of Love and joy (and fertility, and birth), and one of my own personal […]

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Belly beauty

By The Midwife | Published: February 8, 2006

This is a picture of one of my best friends in the entire world, who is 31 weeks pregnant this week. Isn’t she beautiful?? She and her husband have planned a homebirth with a local (Kentucky) midwife, and she’s due the second week of April, which also coincides with my spring break. If I’m lucky, […]

Also posted in Pregnancy | 1 Comment

Opening poetry

By The Midwife | Published: September 26, 2005

On the very first page of our Varney’s Midwifery (4th edition), before you even get to the table of contents, is the following poem, by Dana Quealy, CNM, MSN: Holy Births and Howling Babies In my backyard there are nuns who live in a shaded brick building next to the St. Stanislaus church and elementary […]

Also posted in Midwifery | 2 Comments

Featured Artist: Misty Benson

By The Midwife | Published: September 18, 2005

I’ve stumbled upon some gorgeous birth art, and the artist, Misty Benson, has been kind enough to share. Here are my three absolute favorites: “Secret of the Butterfly” 24″x32″ Acrylic on Unstretched Cotton Canvas Sheet. Misty writes: There is a Native American legend that says, “If you have a secret wish, capture a butterfly and […]

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World Breastfeeding Week, a week late

By The Midwife | Published: August 17, 2005

It has come to my attention that last week…well, nearly two weeks ago, now…was World Breastfeeding Week, brought to you by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action. *Sheepish* I feel like I should have been on top of that one, but somehow let it slip through my fingers (it was, to put it mildly, a […]

Also posted in Breastfeeding | 1 Comment