This edited volume explores the intersection of spirituality with childbirth from 1800 to the present day from a comparative perspective. It illustrates how over this time period in much of the world, traditional practices, home births, and midwives have been overshadowed and undermined by male dominated obstetrics, hospitalization, and ultimately the medicalization of the birthing process itself.
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Review
This richly contextual book draws our attention to the energetic qualities of birth and the importance of honoring spirit and emotional wellbeing within myriad contrasting socio-political-cultural and cosmological belief milieus. This collection of diverse chapters takes us on a multi-layered journey through birth that acquaints us with something conjoined with birth yet often left unspoken. A welcome addition to the emergent literature that appreciates the intimate kinship of birth and spirituality. (Susan Crowther, Robert Gordon University)
Through a global framework, Sacred Inception presents birth as not merely biological, but as that which emanates from and embodies spirit. It honors diverse, external contexts as shaping an act so internally intimate. Any reader looking to engage discourse on the intersectionality and relatedness of maternal thought with faith-filled praxis would do well to examine what Delaporte, Martin, and these authors offer. (Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder, Chicago Theological Seminary)
In many of our contemporary contexts where births are taking place in cold hospital rooms under the control of professionals and with the use of modern technologies, we tend to forget that childbirth is a miraculous experience having always been surrounded by rituals, prayers, and spirituality. This wonderful collection reminds us that diverse rituals and practices of childbirth across the world share one common trait: the magic of the birth itself. Based on thick research with telling details from anthropological, historical, and sociological perspectives, this collection of essays enable the readers to reconsider the spirituality of childbirth, a topic almost fully ignored by academic scholarship. Through the presentation of genuine voices and experiences from a broad range of cultural frames and temporalities, the articles collected in this book vividly demonstrate how awesome, miraculous, and also empowering the experience of childbirth is. One outstanding merit of this book is its dovetailing otherwise discordant concepts such as colonialism and spirituality, or academic areas of inquiry such as religious studies and ethnographies of childbirth. Anyone interested in issues related to the cultures of childbirth, spirituality, midwifery, or obstetrical violence will want to read this meticulously crafted book. (Gülhan Balsoy, Istanbul Bilgi University)
Marianne Delaporte and Morag Martin have gathered an important collection on the continuum of the spirituality of birthing and parenting. This book adds to the current discussion of reproductive justice and women’s health by taking inclusive, interfaith, and interdisciplinary approaches. They honor women's stories that redefine the sacred and remember the ancient and modern wisdom of midwives, doulas, and mothers. And the essays in this book challenge the reader with the implications for true healing and activism. (Tina Pippin, Agnes Scott College)
About the Author
Marianne Delaporte is professor of religious studies at Notre Dame de Namur University.
Morag Martin is associate professor of history at the College of Brockport, SUNY.
Contributors: Robbie Davis-Floyd & Pamela Hunt & Kristin Brig & Angela N. Castañeda & Claire de Labrusse & Cara Delay & Andrea L. Demaria & Gökçen B. Dinç & Anna M. Fedele & Tracy Humphrey & Sara MacLennan & Sharifah Huseinah Madihid & Dunen Kaneybia Muelas Izquierdo & Tatiana Novikova & Florence Pasche Guignard & Anne Sylvie Ramelet & Camila Rangel & Angela Santamaria & Amba J. Sepie & Beth Sundstrom & Ogechukwu Ezekwem Williams
Sociology
Health & Fitness
Spirituality
Marriage & Family
History
Motherhood
Family & Relationships
Pregnancy & Childbirth
Parenting
Religion
Social Science
Cover 1
Sacred Inception 2
Sacred Inception: Reclaiming the Spirituality of Birth in the Modern World 4
copyright page 5
Contents 6
Foreword 8
Acknowledgments 28
Introduction 30
Midwives as a Bridge between the Spirit and the World 48
Chapter 1 50
Midwifery as Religious Calling 50
Notes 65
References 65
Chapter 2 70
Childbirth and Folk Orthodoxy in Russia in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 70
‘Folk Orthodoxy’ 70
Obstetrics and Childbirth or the Midwife’s Text 72
Mother’s text 76
Child’s text 80
Conclusion 82
References 83
Chapter 3 88
Superstition, Folk Religion, and Childbirth 88
Exclusion of Informal Midwives in the Late Ottoman Empire and the Law of 1928 89
The Need for Oral History: The “Invisibility” of Informal Midwives 91
“Destined by God”: Becoming a Midwife and Motherhood 92
“I Deliver Babies with Many Prayers”: Intersection of Medical and Spiritual Roles 94
Midwife as a Mother: Respect and Reputation 96
Conclusion 98
Notes 98
References 99
Chapter 4 104
Stories of Birth 104
Childbirth Manuals for Mothers and Others 105
Spiritual Midwifery: Enter the Counterculture 108
Pain to Pleasure: “An Interesting Sensation” 112
Papas, Prophets, and Priests 116
Conclusion 119
Notes 120
References 120
Contested Maternities: Colonization and a Return to Ancestors and Culture 124
Chapter 5 126
Birthing the Spirit 126
Conceptualizing “Spirit” within Ecological Worldviews 128
Born by Ground: Birth on Country in Australia 131
Birth on Earth: Community, Instinct, and Intuition 135
Notes 140
References 141
Chapter 6 144
A Blur between the Spiritual and the Physical 144
Understanding Spirituality in Traditional Igbo Medicine 145
Birth in the Traditional Igbo Society Prior to the Mid-Twentieth Century 147
Childbirth and Changing Landscapes since the Mid-Twentieth Century 153
Conclusion 156
References 157
Chapter 7 160
The Art of Midwifery among the Arhuaco People of Colombia 160
Power and Obstetric Violence: The Emergent Need for a Midwifery Model 162
Communities and the Promotion of Midwifery and Humanized Birth 163
Traditional Arhuaco Knowledge and the Spiritual Dimension of Birth 166
The Midwives 170
Conclusion 172
Notes 173
References 173
Home Birth, Natural Birth, Hospital Birth: Choices for Spiritual Maternity 176
Chapter 8 178
Pushing from the Margins 178
Homebirth in France: Trust, Secrecy, and Witch Hunt 185
Holistic Mothers and Their Quest for a Safe Space to Give Birth in Portugal 188
Pushing from the Margins: With or Against Religious and Spiritual Notions 191
Notes 194
References 194
Chapter 9 198
Delivering Spirituality in Maternity Services 198
Aim and Study Methods 199
Spirituality as a Component of Maternity Care: Examples of Scottish and Swiss Intervention: Scotland 200
Linking the SWHMR and the PCMC to Midwifery Care: A Way to Support Spirituality 209
Notes 210
References 211
Chapter 10 214
“Going Back” 214
Methodology 215
“Good Old-Fashioned Prayer”: Spirituality and the Personal 217
Ancestral Connections through Reproduction 221
Conclusion 227
Notes 228
References 228
Chapter 11 230
Birthing the Natural Pious Singaporean Malay-Muslim Woman through the Ideal Islamic Birth Framework 230
Dominant Discourses on Singaporean Malay-Muslim Maternity 231
METHODOLOGY 234
TOWARDS THE BIRTH OF THE NATURAL PIOUS MOTHER 240
Concluding Remarks: What about My OWN Births? 243
Notes 245
References 245
A Desire to Serve 251
The Oxytocin Connection 256
A Time to be Born 259
A Mother and Father’s Vision 259
References 261
Index 262
About the Contributors 270
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