If you haven’t heard about this event already, I am so thrilled to bring to your attention the first (and hopefully annual!) Womyn’s Summit, New Brunswick.

 
First of all, I just want to do a little bit of boasting: New Brunswick, my home, is a big swathe of gorgeous land, boasting stunning coastlines, beautiful rivers running throughout, pastoral  and forest.  We are one of the most rural provinces in an already wild country, and while our population is tiny, we have one of the most vital, passionate and engaged independent natural birth, mothering and women’s communities in Canada.  

 
My dear friend powerhouse of all things community, birthing, birth attending, building, making, mothering and loving, Natalie Arsenault, is the genius, force and instigator behind this event, and she has done an absolutely incredible job of creating what I think will become one of the most significant yearly events for women in the maritimes and beyond.  

Womyn’s Summit 2014 is about bringing women together to learn and network from each other, in a safe, beautiful, nurturing space.  
The location is a sublime ocean-front retreat in Shediac’s Caissie Cape, where we will be able to swim and sunbathe and make sandcastles while taking in 12 workshops of our choice over the weekend of the 27th-29th of June.  There will be a yurt for workshops, and a variety of accommodations available (camping, yurt-dwelling, possibly cottage), and absolutely incredible meals (local and organic whenever possible) all of which is included in a ridiculously reasonable fee of $160 for the entire weekend.  

Even if you live outside of New Brunswick, or even outside of the maritimes, this weekend would be an incredible opportunity to learn and make connections.  

A variety of inspiring speakers will be presenting workshops on subjects as diverse elimination communication, baby-led weaning, ecstatic breastfeeding, miscarriage, herbal medicine, fertility, unassisted birth, vaccines, and more.  We also have Carla Hartley, midwifery educator extraordinaire, who will be present to give a workshop on protecting the birth process as well as a special event for those who are interested in deepening their practice as birth-workers (please email me separately if you are interested in the midwifery component of the summit, it does have a separate registration process).  

Sheila Stubbs, the acclaimed author of “Birthing the Easy Way” will also be at the summit, discussing home birth and the roles of women and men during the birth process.

I am also honoured to be presenting a talk at the workshop on human rights in childbirth and bodily autonomy during birth.  (And at this rate, I may be giving birth at the summit as well.  We’ll see).

Anyway, there is lots more to say, but we’ll save that for the weekend of the 27th.  I really hope to see you there, and to meet you in person.