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Training, Education and Services
January 2007 - Vol 2, Issue 1
Birth Art
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Hello friends,
chana luba

Birth is a physical as well as an emotional/spiritual journey. I feel that it is equally as important to prepare for birth through cultivating and nurturing both aspects. We can understand how women prepare physically; prenatal appointments to check vital signs, eating well, exercise, breathing and position practice etc... But what are some tangible tools women can use to prepare their souls, emotions and deep inner thoughts and feelings? I have found that through creating Birth Art and Personal affirmations women can have surprisingly intimate expressions that help heal, face, work on, or discover inner parts of their psyche that want or need to be expressed.

The Power of Expression
birth art
Creative expression helps a person to tap into areas of their being that otherwise could lie dormant or repressed. When exploring the complexities of labor and birth and the rite of passage it brings, women often benefit from exploring their subconscious or expressing conscious thoughts surrounding the upcoming experience.

Just as each labor is different, the needs of expressions are different for each. Birth are can bring awareness and healing to women. Particular instances include:
  • Women who have fear around giving birth
  • Women who are scared to become mothers
  • Women who have had a previous traumatic birth
  • Women who have gone through fertility treatments
  • Women who have lost a child during or prior to birth
  • Women who are survivors of abuse
  • Women who have negative images of their bodies
  • Women for whom their pregnancy was a "surprise"
  • Women who don't trust their bodies or the birth process
When using art to heal or explore, drawings can often reflect hurt, horror or pain. It is important that in addition to birth art exercises that evoke negativity, that a birth art exercise is facilitated that animates positivity. Ultimately the art should imprint a good and empowering image on a womans mind.

Birth art does not need to be limited to those women who need healing. Birth art and expression is also a wonderful way for any woman to celebrate the life within her and express her power and joy in being a giver of life. Regardless of the reason behind the expression, whether to heal, celebrate or explore; women can recall the positive images they created during the birth and project themselves in the empowered image they created.
Cultivating Tools...
Active birth art
In the image seen here, a woman was asked to draw herself as an empowered birthing women. This picture was done after her first drawing which by contrast was all one color, showing the doula and herself as faceless figures, the doula standing upright while the birthing women was drawn sitting.

In this empowered birth art picture we see the birthing woman as a strong figure, standing, giving birth in an upright position. The color pink was chosen for her hair symbolizing spiritual strength. Her facial features are clearly emphasized, particularly the eyes which are open and present with the birth. The woman is birthing among the trees, hills and water of the earth connecting her with the strength of the earth. We can see the doula in the background but she is faceless and small, clearly the birthing women is the main figure.

The process of creating this art was empowering to the mother as she was able to realize that she really can be this birthing 'goddess'. During her birth I reminded her of her image and asked her to draw strength form her image... She then had a tangible representation of which to reflect on.
Healing tools...
mc art
I created the birth art pictured above after my miscarriage. Creating this allowed me to give tangible expression to an experience that had no tangible result. It provided a closure to the experience and allowed me to put all the pieces together in a intimate way.

The main red circle is representative of all the blood that I experienced during the hemmhoraging. Inside the circle is the placenta, which was the source of the bleeding. The yellow shape extending off the page is representative of spiritual energy, taking the life back to It's source and at the same time still keeping me alive. The yellow descends into a picture of me lying down. There is a black line surrounding my supine body which is representative of the lingering energy of death that was surrounding me. The hand at the far right of the picture is also surrounded by the black line and it is catching the baby which is an unformed sack but does have two distinct eyes. The eighteen green circle are the eighteen women who were with me during the experience at the training. The clouds are the people that helped me at the hospital and at home, Dr.s, midwives, nurses, doulas, my husband, etc... I realize that the number eighteen in Hebrew corresponds to the letters 'ches and yud', written in the top of the picture which spell out the word "chai" which means life.
Learning tools...
bfw
Birthing From Within by Pam England is a wonderful childbirth preparation book that has many examples and suggestions of birth art.

Some suggestion for birth art exercises are:

Draw you most powerful image of birth...
Draw yourself at your ideal birth
Draw a picture of your womb
What does a healing birth look like to you?
Draw your pregnant self
Draw your birth (can be done after birth or miscarriage)
Winter Training 2007
The dates of my Winter Training are February 4, 11, 18, 25, 2007. I am looking forward to a great training and I hope that you will join me! All the information you need can be found on my new web site!

Thanks for taking the time to read this and feel free to forward it...

Happy New Year!
Chana Luba Ertel, CD (DONA), CLD, CCCE, CAPPA Labor Doula Trainer of MA
Maternal Wisdom

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