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I really can’t accurately describe how moving it is to witness a mother making what amounts at the time, to a very courageous decision to give birth at home…and then to exclaim, while holding her baby just seconds after giving birth with complete autonomy, authority and power, “that was so EASY!!!” In that moment, mother has been transformed, father has been transformed, and the entire trajectory of the family has undergone a shift, a radical change of course.  Thanks to that sacred moment of emergence, birth, for this whole family, is no longer frightening, medical or dangerous. This family will go on to tell their birth story within their circle, and to their friends, and this will have a profound impact on the world, rippling through their community. Until a mother experiences birth outside of the medical industrial complex, it is impossible for her to understand how truly straightforward and spontaneous birth can be. And so while there is nothing “to” birth, the decision to remove oneself from the medical approach certainly does require courage, and a leap of faith. Because in our culture, the very concept of birth as a normal life event has become almost entirely foreign.

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Birth changes the world.