Birth, Breath, and Death: Meditations on Motherhood, Chaplaincy, and Life as a Doula

The power to give birth originates in the creative life spirit birthing all, the seen and the unseen.

Pain doesn’t have to equal suffering. Embodying this wisdom is the work of a doula.

The birth partner is also supported in his or her role of caring for the mother during childbirth.

Rhythm, ritual, and rest not only aid birthing women, but they also support all of us to move skillfully through our life’s labors.

My college professors served as wise academic mentors, but I needed spiritual support.

Studying philosophy and religion is not the same as practicing it. I longed to experience community rituals and missed the presence of elders and new babies in my life.

Mirroring the pattern of each living breath, we need to inhale and receive care as well as exhale and give fully of our talents. In labor, contractions are followed by time for renewal.

In particular, I loved introducing my students to the scholarship of Joseph Campbell. Together we applied his three-tiered description of the classic hero’s journey to the process of birth. In Campbell’s description, a hero departs from the known world; experiences various trials, revelations, and fulfillment; and finally returns to the community b

Through the bodies of women, we are all born into time and space. Each one of us must also walk through that great, uncharted door of death.