HerStory

TE AHURU MOWAI NURTURING THE NUMINOUS
2007 Homebirth Conference in Whangarei.

After a huge amount of work from the great core group of women from the Whangarei Homebirth Support Group, the sun shone brightly on what turned out to be an amazing, intense and deeply moving conference for me. Here are some of the highlights from my perspective: The powhiri and Te Puna O Te Matauranga. The powhiri was a deeply moving experience – from the first note of Crete’s daughter’s karanga, to the waiata and speeches this energy, and that of the whare embraced us all. I mention Te Kahu Waahine and Crete and Robert in particular for the loving way in which they helped us learn the tikanga and held the energy of the conference.  Without them this conference would not have been the same. The Wai. With the theme of Te Ahuru Mowai as a guide, we created a ceremony of participants bringing water from all over Aotearoa (and beyond) to symbolise our joining.    This water was then held in a vessel which was made for this purpose, which then sat in the wharenui, absorbing each of our stories, tears and strengths.  Kei a wai? We are the wai! – talk about bolts of lightening!  (This lead me to think that next conference should be sponsored by Kleenex!)

The history/herstory of homebirth.
This amazing gathering of powerful women spoke of their journey, from Kerrin having 3 caesarians moving to 3 homebirths, to Mandy – being a “lay midwife” in the Hokianga –supporting women in their choice to birth at home even to the point of being charged with an offence of “practising as a midwife” ,  Lynley offered how the work Mandy and her friends were doing moved her on in her practise, and Karen and Taane speaking about how for them Tino Rangitiratanga meant challenging their own health and well-being – taking responsibility for their birthing practises as part of this challenge.
To me this was the most powerful formal session of the conference – confronting my own fears, showing me the rich herstory we have been gifted and the legacy we inherit certainly empowers me in my vision of homebirth.

First Gaze.
Rachana lead us through work on the first gaze between mother and baby – and the biological, and spiritual significance of this time.  She spoke to us about the three levels of the brain – the reptilian, mammalian and the higher brain which all have separate functions – if the baby and mother are left uninterrupted the neurological pathways that are laid down at this time are crucial to the child’s development and we spoke about the issues around disrupting this.

Circle dancing.
The circle dancing and singing that evening was a beautiful way to wind down the energy of the group and to once again resonate a vibration of love and gentleness through participants.

Conception.
Again Rachana spoke with us about the spiritual realm of the physiological when she encouraged us to consider the energy we are surrounded with at conception becomes patterning we bring into our lives without realising why.  One profound thought was that as a being I was already present at a cellular level when my mother was in my grandmother’s womb.  This explains to me why patterns of energy and cycles of feeling and behaviour travel through families.  We were guided through an experiencing of what it was like at the moment of our conception – Someone, who will remain nameless, saw her mother’s square fallopian tubes!

The present and future of homebirth.
We were joined for this by men, women and midwives.  There was a feeling that midwives need to be supported in their role differently in order to sustain their demanding role.  We heard two midwives speak about their practise and how their work in sharing a caseload has created a life they both cherish and a 50% homebirth rate. We heard from the Mum of a “donor” baby and discussed how her birth had been a healing experience for her whanau – helping mothers heal their own birth trauma and to see empowerment for the homebirthing mother helps to “mend the broken weave”.   We heard from a mother and father - Lotus-birthers, from Mothers who had grown more and more into their power as homebirthers and who have become more “politicised” in the process.  We heard from Homebirth Aotearoa who will take a new form to lead the voice of homebirth in Aotearoa.  We discussed re-evaluating partnership and what that could mean – we really need a day to discuss this fully!  Personally I felt moved by the power of our home-birthing kuia to see the path of homebirth in Aotearoa blazed more distinctly, and I clearly felt the need for women to once again lead changes in the midwifery/birthing model.

Workshops
We had tried to gather all threads of the family – Men, grandparents, children –present and passed – to show that homebirth is about whanau.  We also wanted to acknowledge the precious healers we have in Northland and hoped the programme of the following workshops did that:

Stella’s story – stillborn at home.
Osteopathy
Reflexology
Ipu making
Te Tuhono Tapu O Te Tangata
Taking the sacred to hospital.

Creating a sacred space
Spiritual Parenting
Men’s circle
Homebirth kids perspectives
A homebirth Grandmother’s perspective.
Acupuncture.    

I can’t really comment on any of these – I only went to workshops I ran and then was in the wharekai!

Closing
This was held after the Homebirth Aotearoa Hui.  We walked in the most gentle misty rain to the Raumanga Stream and with karanga from Crete and karakia from Robert, Crete, Robert, Lynley and Louise released the water back into the stream – sending it, full of the energy of the conference back into the world – where each of us now walk filled with what we learnt, shared and let go!  

Helpers
A call out to all homebirthers past and present proved yet again what an amazing bunch of women we are – the kitchens and whare were buzzing with amazing women and their amazing children who pitched in and helped us create this event – for all of those who helped with the powhiri, kai, timekeeping, childcare, setup, cleanup etc etc… Thankyou!    

This was the culmination of many hours of planning, emailing, meeting, laughter and some tears.  We wanted to pass on what homebirth means to those of us in the Whangarei Core group and believe we really did that.