Storytelling is central to Druidry. Our personal story is who we are, what shaped our spirit. Storytelling is the craft of passing on tradition and sharing experience. As part of the plan to create Druid Birth pages for the Druid Network web pages Bobcat suggested that I hold a workshop on Birth Stories. I was slightly nervous about this but as it’s a subject I’m fairly comfortable talking about I was fairly confident it would be fine. I recruited a couple of other midwives at camp to join me in hosting the workshop and we threw our intent out to the Gods and waited to see what they sent back.
We were a fairly small intimate group of mothers (both pregnant and with babes crawling and in arms), fathers, birthing partners, a doula (professional birth attendant) and midwives. At first I was a little disappointed that more people hadn’t come, but in the event it worked perfectly, allowing the two women who had recently given birth to tell their stories in intimate and minute detail. The two stories were almost as different as it is possible to be: Penny’s an archetypal beautiful, natural home water birth; Sarah’s a very traumatic hospital birth, despite her being physically fit and well prepared both physically and emotionally.
Penny was inspired and inspiring, euphoric in her creativity. Sarah was traumatized, emotionally violated and felt physically compromised by her birth. I was aware that there was a danger that Sarah’s feelings of failure could be compounded by hearing Penny’s story and her euphoria and the pregnant woman, Hannah could be frightened by hearing this story. I hope that in this supportive, held space where she felt really heard and listened to Sarah achieved a sense of healing and acceptance and an awareness that what happened needed to happen for her and her baby to come out of the experience alive. Hannah said that she had gained a great deal from the session, particularly a greater understanding that straightforward birth is in the gift of the Gods and what mattered to her most was feeling that her wishes were listened to and honoured.
As a midwife I gained a great deal from the workshop. I have heard many, many birth stories and I love to hear them, but I have never been part of a group sharing birth stories in this way. I was awed by the courage and strength of all the women, the connection they experienced to their babies throughout and, as ever, by the shear wonder of creativity. A couple of days later I attended a beautiful home birth. I had never met the woman before, but developed a strong rapport with her and felt that we each allowed the other into our nemetons for a few hours. I felt very trusted and very honoured and completely awe struck by her focus and power. I firmly believe that the workshop inspired the deep connection I made with this woman and feel a deep gratitude to all who came and shared their stories and experiences. Thank you.
All names have been changed.
Sophie Otter
20 July 2007