Rachel Reed - Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage: Weaving Ancient Wisdom With Modern Knowledge

I have always loved the way Rachel Reed thinks and this book, Reclaiming childbirth as a rite of passage: weaving ancient wisdom with modern knowledge, is an extension of her thinking. Three hundred years ago Rachel would have been the wise woman of the village and 300 years later she is calling to that village of women, where childbirth always has and always will sit at the throbbing heart. This book weaves the threads of our past into the story of our present and shows how and why and where the disruption in the bond of women with each other and their bodies and babies have its genesis. Taking a dance through history into the unchanged and amazing function of women who grow babies, birth babies and raise them, you will end by feeling that women still have power, if only they would claim it. Standing together and weaving webs of support will enable childbirth, both as ancient ritual and current reality, to truly be held by women once more. Beautifully written!

Hannah Dahlen, Professor of Midwifery,

Western Sydney University

I love so much about the wisdom shared in this book. In particular, I love that Rachel uses as her central narrative a beautiful and detailed description of the normal undisturbed physiology of birth. She describes the birth-dance shared between mother and baby, including the hormones, instinctive body processes, brain changes, sensations and feeling states. This is important knowledge for contemporary birthing women as well as for midwives and other maternity caregivers as, in modern Western birth culture, physiological births that include all these aspects are increasingly rare. There is an urgent need for those of us who are privileged to regularly witness physiological birth to name it, describe it and document it while also raising awareness about the historical, structural and systemic issues that presently undermine it. To this end, Rachels book is valuable beyond measure.

Rhea Dempsey, childbirth educator, birth attendant,

counsellor and author of Birth with confidence: savvy choices for

normal birth and Beyond the birth plan: getting real about pain

and power

This book weaves together ancient knowledge, herstory, science, customs, politics and the ancient art of midwifery, all of which combine to create the understory or as Rachel aptly names it the waft and weft, that the weaving, or the experience of birthing in the modern world, happens within. Rachel weaves this all together so we can see whats going on in birth today and invites the reader to awaken to the situation. She then puts forth a call to action to all to participate in reclaiming childbirth as a rite of passage into motherhood for all women, no matter what. And her book offers all the evidence required to support this reclamation.

Jane Hardwicke Collings, founder of the School of

Shamanic Womancraft, teacher of the Womens Mysteries,

author of Ten moons: the inner journey of pregnancy

Brilliant! Rachel has deftly woven a rich fabric of ancient wisdom and modern knowledge. It is durable, it is wearable and, in usual Rachel Reed style, refuses to conform. With sound logic, she confronts and challenges us to rethink and reject erroneous assumptions and behaviours around care-providing by exploring their origins, and why we acquiesce and cling to them. She shows us that it is possible to heal our fragmented herstory (both individual and collective) through solidarity and self-inquiry. And she urges us to reinstate holistic care with the mother as central and expert in her own rite of passage, however her birth experience unfolds.

Jenny Blyth, independent birth worker, birth educator and

bodyworker, film-maker and author of The down to earth birth

book and Birthwork: a compassionate guide to being with birth

Reclaiming childbirth as a rite of passage is the book we have been missing. The analogy of weaving is right at the heart of this book, giving shape and structure to the threads that run through the chapters. Understanding childbirth today requires that we explore the herstory of birth and how the rites and rituals that once served us were stripped away. Rachel Reeds description of childbirth is one of the most beautiful and illuminating I have ever read, illustrated as it is by the fictional narrative thread of Eve and her birth story. This book has positivity at its core, not only listing the birth rites we have lost, but recounting the many rituals that we can reclaim and integrate into the lived experience of childbirth and postpartum. Importantly, Reed weaves in ways we can reclaim the rights of protection, ensuring that our births belong to us, even when they have to be medicalised. This book is one that I am sure will become a classic; required reading for parents, midwives, doctors and doulas everywhere.

Maddie Mahon, doula, doula trainer, birth activist,

breastfeeding counsellor and author of Why doulas matter

and Why mothering matters