i want us to be more than just the internet
i want us to be move out into the world, and make change, and that is change, in how people think about birth
i want us to to influence our own neighborhoods
i want us to be our own healers
i want us to share own ways of getting through labor
through birth, through the pain, and also through the pain of having to deal with hospital personnel and protocals
i want us to share the joy of bringing forth another life
and the pain of not doing so, or refusing to do so, or not being able to do so, or doing so in a way that goes against the script that is handed to us
talk openly about abortion, miscarriage, still borns, live births, adoptions, keeping the kidness, and letting go of who we thought we were
i want us to talk about being mamas, warriors, lovers, wives, travelers, home makers, grandmothers, sisters, doulas, midwives, the forgotten and the everlasting
to talk about defying boundaries, and why we stayed within the borders laid out for us
nursing, milk, healing, forgiveness, but also anger, energy, gender, sexuality, asking for help, helping, building community, witnessing, forgetting, foraging, and forestry
and can we talk about gender and sexuality? race and class? nationality and anarchism? can we talk about art and anger? the practical and the poetic? the questions and the answers?
in other words: i want to talk about unassisted birth and economics. i want to talk about physiological birth and western medical hegemony. i want to talk about poetry and the ululations during second stage pushing. i want to talk about life. and death. and violence. and bliss. heaven and apocalypse.
submission deadline july 31st
