Birth stories are incredibly powerful–and each of our stories matter.
Have you shared your birth story? Have you processed your own birth experience? For most of us, the stories of how we birthed our children contain moments of glory and struggle. Joy, pain, triumph, challenge, and even sadness appear in each of our birth stories.
How you birthed your child(ren) becomes a part of your personal history. And subsequently, how you feel about those experiences matter. As a doula, I always encourage people to share their feelings about their birth experiences with somebody who will listen without judgment and who will validate their experiences.
For this reason, stories about birth also play a role in informing the culture around birth in our communities.
For instance, are birthing people in a community respected and treated with dignity during labor? Or are they ignored or even dehumanized? People who share their birth stories are sharing truths. These truths have the power to change the birth culture for the better. Birthing people have the power to create change that makes birth more family-centered and respectful.
In our Seacoast community, a group of local doulas, midwives, mothers, obstetricians, and birth advocates will come together to create a movement to share birth stories.
On Mother’s Day weekend, consider joining us for an evening of theater. We will be performing a scripted reading of the play, BIRTH, by Karen Brody. The event will take place at the West End Studio Theatre in Portsmouth. The play follows the birth stories of eight women from around the country. The play is poignant, intense–and funny at times. It will resonate so deeply with anybody who has given birth or witnessed it.
Another awesome aspect of this performance: most of the sponsorship and ticket proceeds will go to Hope on Haven Hill. Hope on Haven Hill is a residential facility in Rochester that supports pregnant and postpartum mothers who have substance abuse disorders and their babies. Above all, we feel so passionately about the importance of quality prenatal, birth, and postpartum care for all people.
Please consider joining us on Friday, May 12 or Saturday, May 13. To find out more and purchase tickets, visit BIRTH, the play.
Also, you can also follow our Facebook page for up-to-date information.
