Greetings in the spirit of those yet born! Welcome to the Birth Justice blog. We are excited to be bringing you our first post on Birth Justice in honor of Midwives’ Week.
We are a group of birth workers (midwives, doulas, breastfeeding educators, etc) and mothers in South Florida. We are growing radical childbirth education circles and leadership development of mothers in the historically Black community of Overtown and the surrounding areas.
The herstory of midwifery in Florida is at once inspiring and infuriating. In 1920, there were 4000 midwives. Today there are 110 licensed midwives in this state. We stand on the shoulders of many ancestors whose stories have been neglected and disrespected. They say that when an elder passes, it is like burning down a library. So imagine, for a moment, all the wealth of birthing knowledge that has been lost because no one took the time to sit with and listen to the stories of those thousands of elder midwives.
We are reclaiming our story, the stories of our grannies and our ancestors, in the name of those yet born. What birth experiences will our daughters have? Our granddaughters? What will birth look like in seven generations? Not an assembly line chopping block of unnecesareans. We refuse! We resist!
We are consciously creating a community of birthworkers and mamas to organize, strategize and create the communities we want for our children. Many of us have had traumatic birth experiences, been robbed of our right to breastfeed and to parent our children.
We are healing. We know that healing is part of this work. We know that we must decolonize our bodies, our minds and our spirits in order to be free. We know that we are part of a powerful movement to create another, more just world. There is a deep knowing that birth and motherhood are paths to liberation.
Please breathe deep and enjoy the moment as you browse our site. We would love your feedback, your birth stories and your visions of Birth Justice.
When I say Birth, you say Justice… Birth!!!
Looking forward to it. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteHey!
ReplyDeleteKeep going! A commendable job. However, I must say that the white print on black gets kind of difficult to read. Can we have a soothing colour that any ways will go with your mission?
Girija Deshpande
Great! I am so happy for you all!! Hugs -Sophie
ReplyDeleteI honor your work, and can't wait to see what comes from this new Birth Justice movement. Your words and passion have had a powerful effect on me this month. Thank you for opening my eyes a little wider by your honesty and truth.
ReplyDeletehi there, my name is mai'a and i am the editor of outlaw midwives blog and zine. i would love to feature mobile midwife in the third volume of outlaw midwives zine. basically, i would like to quote your opening letter here -- http://www.mobilemidwife.org/index.html
ReplyDeleteand your definition of birth justice here --
http://www.mobilemidwife.org/birth-justice.html
to read more about outlaw midwives please see here --
http://outlawmidwives.tumblr.com/
http://outlawmidwife.wordpress.com/
http://outlawmidwife.wordpress.com/blah/
and you can contact me at maiamedicine at gmail dot com
with love and solidarity,
mai'a