Birthing Liberation

Birthing Liberation presents reproductive justice as the pathway to equity and the birthplace of liberation. Sabia C. Wade, renowned radical doula and educator, speaks to the intersections of systemic issues—such as access to health care, house transportation, and nutrition—and personal trauma work that, if healed, have the power to lead us to collective liberation in all facets of life. Collective liberation rests on the idea that in order for us all to have equity in this world—from the safety of childbirth, to the ability to bring a baby home to a safe community, to having access to resources, safety, and opportunities over the long term—we must all become liberated individuals. Birthing Liberation creates a path to social and systemic change, starting within the birthing world and expanding far beyond.

Highly acclaimed by leading parenting authors, academics and activists, with a foreword from Naomi Stadlen, founder of Mothers Talking and author of What Mothers Do, and How Mothers Love. If it is true that there have been waves of feminism, then mothers' rights are the flotsam left behind on the ocean surface of patriarchy. For all the talk of women's liberation, when it is predicated on liberation from motherhood, it is no liberation at all. Under twenty-first century capitalism, the bonds of motherhood are being replaced with binds to the market within wage slavery and ruthless individualism. Mothers are in bondage - and not in a 50 Shades way. Olorenshaw is clear: When mothering is on our terms, it can be liberating. The time has come for a radical, bold and creative approach to the question of mothers, children and care. Liberating Motherhood discusses our bodies, our minds, our labour and our hearts, exploring issues from birth and breastfeeding to mental health, economics, politics, basic incomes and love and in doing so, broaches a conversation we've been avoiding for years: how do we value motherhood?

a guide to mindfulness and other useful disciplines for a life-changing event

There is a global crisis in maternal health care for black women. In the United States, black women are over three times more likely to perish from pregnancy-related complications than white women; their babies are half as likely to survive the first year. Many black women experience policing, coercion, and disempowerment during pregnancy and childbirth and are disconnected from alternative birthing traditions. This book places black women's voices at the center of the debate on what should be done to fix the broken maternity system and foregrounds black women's agency in the emerging birth justice movement. Mixing scholarly, activist, and personal perspectives, the book shows readers how they too can change lives, one birth at a time.

The history of abortion decriminalization and critical advocacy efforts to improve access in Canada deserve to be better known. Ordinary people persevered to make Canada the most progressive country in the world with respect to abortion care. But while abortion access is poorly understood, so too are the persistent threats to reproductive justice in this country: sexual violence, gun violence, homophobia and transphobia, criminalization of sex work, reproductive oppression of Indigenous women and girls, privatization of fertility health services, and the racism and colonialism of policing and the prison system. This beautifully illustrated book tells the empowering true stories behind the struggles for reproductive justice in Canada, celebrating past wins and revealing how prison abolitionism is key to the path forward.

This book explores the issues of power, authority and love with current concerns in the Christian theological exploration of feminism and feminist theology. It addresses its key themes in three parts: (1) power deals with feminist critiques, (2) authority unpacks feminist methodologies, and (3) love explores feminist ethics. Covering issues such as embodiment, intersectionality, liberation theologies, historiography, queer approaches to hermeneutics, philosophy and more, it provides a multi-layered and nuanced appreciation of this important area of theological thought and practice. This volume will be vital reading for scholars of feminist theology, queer theology, process theology, practical theology, religion and gender.

The collection gives voice to those often overlooked in birthing books, including stories from indigenous families, and families from diverse socio-economic classes, religions, and urban and rural lifestyles. Also unique are the additional stories from witnesses to birth: partners describe their awe, children write sweetly of siblings' arrivals and midwives and doulas recount their experiences aiding women in their journeys. Included as landmarks amongst the stories are testaments to birth traditions such as blessingways and umbilical cord and placenta practices. From days of labor, to babies born so quickly support did not make it in time; from waterbirths at home, to transfers to the hospital; from planned pregnancies to unexpected ones; from tales of tears to tales of euphoria--the eclectic stories brought together here share one theme: they capture an intent to birth at home that comes out of a deep love for and belief in the human body and spirit. These amazing voices rise to a clarion call--women of all descents reclaiming a birthright: to give birth, and to be birthed, as they choose. It is an ancient choice made now by modern women. These stories, delightful and empowering, find the new within the old.

All of life is liturgy. People encounter God as they live, work, and play in human communities and as they work to sustain the health of communities and the ground on which communities are built. Liturgy is distilled from everyday life when we peer through the mist and see the sacramental and spiritual dimensions of daily actions, objects, conversations, and events. In When I in Awesome Wonder, Jill Y. Crainshaw explores this dimension of spirituality and celebrates the ways God's sacramental gifts and presence arise from and return to everyday human experiences.