Decolonizing Birth

Coming from Orange County, all I ever knew was that babies were born in hospitals.  But after a switch midway in my first pregnancy, from a white male OB/Gyn who called women “gals” to a team of magical midwives, my education on the mysteries of the human body and the power of natural childbirth were born. Women are taught that birth is a medical event, like having your tonsils taken out, robbing the experience of its profound sacredness. Native American women have further had their culture and traditions stolen from them by being forced to leave their Indigenous birth practices for the sterile control of institutional birth. The Indigenous birth movement is promising to reclaim women’s knowledge, power, and choice while restoring their relationship to their bodies, and their cultural heritage.

Read the full article on Yes Magazine.