New post on journey to birth

If any of you have been following my blog for awhile, you have seen my other blog www.jouneytobirth.blogspot.com. This is a blog devoted to artists who do birth art. I have just added a new artist so check it out. For anyone that is interested, I am always looking for artists. Just drop me a note. I prefer to have images that would not be offensive to anyone:), so I don't post pictures of women without clothes.

The fear/pain/anger of tramatic birth experiences and how to overcome?

This is a site with some brutally honest, painful expressions of what one woman felt like after her c-section. http://www.cesarean-art.com/ It brought tears to my eyes to think that she felt so much pain about what happened to her. I also know that not all c-sections cause this kind of pain, but I think we need to understand how some women have felt about what happens to them.

I think we need to understand the pain, but what I would really like to show, is peaceful healing pictures also. So, I'm asking for some...How have you healed from traumatic birth experiences, what has allowed peace to come back into your lives? How have you found love instead of fear and hate? How have you overcome the feelings of fear, loss, and anger? While I appreciate this artists expression of the pain she felt, I would also like to show expressions of finding forgiveness and love afterwards. So, to anyone who would like to, please share.

New artist

I've got a new artist up at http://journeyofbirth.blogspot.com/2009/12/toni-rakestraw.html

If anyone knows someone who would like to contribute this to me, let me know:)

New Artist

I've got some new photos up on my art gallery. Check it out at http://journeyofbirth.blogspot.com/2009/09/emily-weaver-brown.

New Art Exhibit Site

In trying to keep all the peices I have in some sort of order, I have put them in their own blog.  I have some new photos from Tamra Hyde at http://journeyofbirth.blogspot.com/.  I will be putting all the other ones over there soon.  Hopefully this will help with the mess:)

New Artist

I've got a new photo up in the art gallery by Lori Nawyn.  Thanks for sharing.  

Birth and Art

When I gave birth for the first time, I didn't realize how lucky I was. Well, that might be subjective. I gave birth in Arizona in one of the first free standing birth centers there. It was a beautiful place that I felt comfortable in without the stark floors and drab walls of a hospital. All they did there were natural births...they knew how to help women with a natural birth. I was in 24 hours of labor in pain, and surprisingly enough I came away from that with a very positive view of birth and my abilities to give birth. At that time, I didn't know that things were done differently at the hospital. I didn't know that having a natural birth was something that most women did not do. So, I had my second there. With both of these births I found great meaning and application to my beginning life as a mother.

Then I moved and the birthing possibilities were not the same. It was either at home, which I didn't feel entirely comfortable with, or in the hospital. I did not mind the hospital as much, but no one knew quite what to do with a woman who did not take pain medication. They simple had not had enough experience. It was at this point that I began to really explore why I still chose to have medication free births. Why would any of us choose to feel pain when it can easily be taken away? It's a question that I'm not sure I can still answer, except to say that somehow, I have found meaning in that pain.

This exploration has also led me to write my own blog...one in which I have explored the meaning of pain, fear, becoming a mother, and how this applies to motherhood. Part of this exploration has also led me to explore art in the context of birth also. I have felt like the meaning in birth and motherhood can be very difficult to explain and touches on emotional aspects that can sometimes only be expressed by art, either in writing, painting, sewing etc. Explaining the joy that came to me is like trying to explain why seeing the smile on my child for the first time makes me so happy. It is one of those experiences that has the ability to touch the inner core of who we are as women. As such, sometimes the only way we can express this is through art.

I myself am not an artist, but I appreciate and enjoy looking at and experiencing other peoples art. As a part of my own exploration, I began collecting other's art peices that showed what birth and motherhood meant to them. You can find that on my blog at http://thebeginningofmotherhood.blogspot.com/2008/09/art-of-giving-birth-on-line-exhibition.html. I am still accepting more and see this an ongoing project, so if any of you would like to submit something send it my way. I would love to see how this process has changed you and how you have found meaning in your own roles as mothers.

New artists in The Journey of Giving Birth.

I've been adding to my collection of birth/motherhood art and appreciate the artists so far who have contributed. The latest one is from Eugenia Garcia entitled "Expectations". Please take a moment to see the wonderful works that have been done in honor of motherhood. You can access the link either from clicking on the top picture or by clicking on the link on the side entitled The Journal of Giving Birth-an online art exhibition. This is a work in progress and I am adding new pieces all the time so check back frequently.