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EcoBirth-Women for Earth and Birth

Uniting the earth and birth movements for the well-being of our world

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The very subtle design of a human being

It seems that the very subtle design of a human being in a mother's womb can be altered unnaturally and inadvertantly by the mother's body. The first environment of a child is its mother's body. But that mother's body can contain harmful substances that may have permanent affects on the child, and even on that child's child- another generation. Does the mother knowingly allow these affects on her body? Or does the adulteration of her environment inadvertantly cause those harmful affects? If we have lead in our homes and mercury in our foods, that we are ignorant of, how do we prevent our bodies from contaminating our babies? If our Mother Earth Home is being abused and poisoned, then so are we and all other living beings. This is unjust. How do we make the right choices when we are not free to choose clean air, water, food? This is unjust and our children are living the affects.

During our own birth experience and our children's birth experiences, are there actions that affect us and our children long-term?
Below is a workshop in which Penny Simkin will address this provocative question at the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services Conference, in February,2010.
http://www.motherfriendly.org/program.php

• Session Title: Eco-Friendly Birth: Troubling Downstream Effects of Common OB Practices & How to Reduce Them
• Session Description: Drawing from the language and methods of ecology, Penny will explore the effects of today’s birth practices on the baby’s first habitat – the uterus – and his or her next habitat – the mother’s body and breasts. Looking downstream from birth, Penny hopes to focus our attention on the recent findings of long-term implications of such common practices as induction of labor, epidural analgesia, immediate separation of mother from baby, and lack of breastfeeding. How resilient do mothers and babies have to be to withstand the disturbances to their habitat?

EcoBirth, as a philosphy, knows that women can personally affect the quality of the human species by enabling their bodies to be safe and clean first environments for their babies and by bringing their child into the world within a loving experience.

Molly Arthur's Maternal Lines digital story from molly arthur on Vimeo.

We women can face the pain and grief we have for our suffering Mother Earth and reclaim our story of creation and redemption with the power and beauty intimately held in our body’s cells from our maternal lines since the beginning of the cosmos. Our existential and communal grief heals within the loving gathering of our feminine compassion, connecting us to the truth and strength of our Mother Earth and all our kin. We start with Molly’s Personal Environmental Story-to explore the birth stories and places and times of ourselves, our mothers and grandmothers.Using the stories of our own maternal lines, with sharing, active listening and intention, we call on our ancestors, our inner wisdom and the shared circle to witness our story with compassion. Using ritual, song, movement, and sharing of our truths, in community and powerful circle as well as spending time on the land - we can acknowledge the oppression in our lives, feeling it in our bodies, grieving it, transforming it and ourselves in a safe, loving space. Our healing path connects our sacred lineage from the womb of our Mother Earth to integrate our inner and outer lives and discover our place in the connected caring cosmos. We are a part of a continuum of sacredness, lifeforce, divine energy including our Ancestors back to the stuff of the stars. We can reclaim our cells, our lineage and our legacy to the future generations. Like in birth labor, we must yield to our bodies innate knowing, to progress, to open, to birth our love. With our active surrender to fierce compassion we can restore our connection to the natural world and our own inner wisdom. We can drop our obsessive addictions to control and return to our healing, caring, befriending tendencies- innate for us nurturers. And then we can repair, regenerate, and renew our culture for tenderness and kindness, naturally embodied by us. We will be able to guard and protect ours and all descendents - becoming their Beloved Ancestors- by asking - What is possible now to transform our world for Future Generations?

Molly Arthur of EcoBirth- My Personal Environmental Story November 2012 from molly arthur on Vimeo.

Why EcoBirth’s My Personal Environmental Story
EcoBirth’s My Personal Environmental Story will help women tell their life story by considering the two primary environments- place and birth- for themselves, their mothers and their maternal grandmothers. Through this process each participant will come to realize the hazards in their environmental genealogy and realize the healing in telling their own story. And they will be empowered to affect the changes that are necessary for our Mother Earth and our children and grandchildren to thrive.
Imagine looking back to your grandmother's and mother's birth time to figure out what environmental influences you might have inherited? And have passed onto your children and grandchildren? Would you wonder what was in the air, water and food in their lives- and look twice at what diseases, birth defects, addictions there are in your family?