Ideas for birth art

[Modesto Doula]

I am in the midst of hatching a plan for some good pregnancy and birth PR...
I am hoping to get my local doula group to help me plan a birth art exhibit, hopefully to be seen in our local malls.

So far, would like to bring in as many differently decorated belly casts as possible, some decorated birth stories and some photography of pregnant and birthing women.

Is there anything else we can add to this? Is there some type of art I am not thinking of? (Except for placenta prints- I just dont want to explain them- LOL)

[~Kindred Spirit~]

Here are a couple other ideas....I hope they help!


http://www.motheringtouch.ca/birthart.htm

[lisamarie]

I really love some of the sculptures that the Attachments Catalog carries www.attachmentscatalog.com Also, I love seeing casting of newborn foot/handprints.

good luck~

lisa

[Modesto Doula]

Thank you ladies, for your suggestions!!
The birth art website and Attachments catalog had some great ideas, I would love to display clay birthing goddesses, but this is a pretty mainstream (read: backward and birth-hostile) area, and I dont think that would get us any good reviews...

However the henna art reminded me that we have several henna artists in my area, perhaps one of them would like to contribute some photos, or would like to do some demonstrations.

I would love to display all of the beautiful statuary from Attachments, but beside being too far from norm for my area, most of them are well out of the price range I have right now.
Someday, however, I will have an office decorated with them!!

(And Im glad to know where my former OB got her pregnant woman mobile from, I just loved it!!)

[13moons]

I'm not sure if this would qualify for what you are looking for, but when a friend of mine was pregnant, we put together a handmade book for her. Everyone contributed some piece of art to the book-a drawing, a poem-whatever felt right. The finished product was a beautiful, unique, and very moving collection of birth and mothering related works of art designed for a person we all cared deeply about. It sounds like a wonderful exhibit you are putting together!

[Modesto Doula]

13moons,
I dont think that the book idea would work for what I have in mind, but it does give me goose bumps... It sounds like a most wonderful gift, a fabulous way to endow a woman with perspectives of birth and mothering...

I think i would like to start one of these, maybe have each of my clients add something to it.. And it would be a wonderful way to bring my doula group closer together, as well as serving for inspiration after tough births.
Thank you so much for sharing this idea!!

[MommaKat]

I think placenta prints would be a great addition!! I have seen some beautiful artwork that came from these. Just beautiful IMHO.

[Modesto Doula]

MommaKat,
I agree that placenta prints would make a perfect addition. But I really don't think that it will work for my area right now, in fact, I think adding them would get us and our message dismissed as wierdo hippies :
I really dont have a problem with that, but it's not an efficient way to get our message out to the public, KWIM?
Im pretty sure that in order to get approval to put up an exhibit in the malls around here, every piece of art will have to be approved. It might be easy to sneak in a couple extra birth photo albums (maybe I could get a few pics of prints for those), with me every day, but I doubt I could frame a placenta print and be taken seriously right here right now. It's just a sad fact of where this community is right now...

edited for spelling...

[BohoMama]

YOGA YOGA YOGA!!! A pregnant woman's salvation of body, mind & soul. What about having a live demo of some limber ladies?

Also, what about including those who have to give birth by c-section in your display. I know that's not what midwives/doulas usually want to talk about, but some of us had to go that way, and our births are worthwhile too.

[Modesto Doula]

Yoga sounds great!!! If I could find enough pregnant women to do a live demo maybe we could include it on the weekend... Thanks for the great idea...

And yes, midwives and doulas do discuss C-sections... Usually we are ranting and raving about the unnecessary ones, though
It is important to acknowledge that they are necessary sometimes, and on my list of belly cast decorating ideas are a couple related specifically to c-sections.
Also, there will be birth photos, and Im sure a portion of them will be from surgical births, especially because in my area a first time mom has a 1 in 3 chance of a section. (The reason we rant...)

[BohoMama]

c-sections

Well, my take on c-sections is this: midwives/doulas and women ought to struggle against the medical establishment that pushes all unnecessary procedures. However, for those women who truly need a C-S, the technology that makes it possible ought to be regarded as a blessing and a miracle. In my case, I had a large-headed breech baby whose cord was wrapped tightly 2x around his neck. All the doctors and nurse/midwives here said that he would have certainly hanged himself and my placenta could have broken off during strong contractions had we tried to deliver vaginally. I don't think they are scalpel-happy in the hospital where I delivered: they have only an 11% rate of surgical delivery.

Natural birth is a wonderful thing EXCEPT for the part where Nature wants to claim a certain percentage of women's and babies lives. After giving birth to my son I told people "We cheated Uncle Darwin."

So maybe in your project you could briefly introduce the medical indications for C-S and their frequency in the population with the spin that lives are being saved by this procedure. Then you could discuss the problems of unnecessary interventions and encourage women to consult with birth practitioners who have a non-interventionist philosophy and low rates of technology use.

As another suggestion, maybe you could include a story of somebody who successfully delivered by VBAC.

[mrs_hacky]

Hello!

When I was pregnant with ds, I found a book titled, "Birthing form Within" and found it to be very inspiring. Part of the book talks about using various art forms to express feelings about birth, etc. There were some wonderful pictures and stories in the book from both moms and dads. Maybe this book could offer some more ideas. Although it sounds like your area wouldn't be open to this, maybe a future demo could include drawings, sculptures, stories, poems, etc. (in addition to belly casts and all your other great ideas) done by Mothers of the area and elsewhere.

Sounds like you are doing great work! My prayers are with you and your project!