The Birth Project

www.birthproject.com

What is The Birth Project?We are a quarterly magazine that talks about and normalizes birth and issues around birth. We find it odd that women are asked to give birth having never seen a live birth. Childbirth is made to be trivial and scary by popular culture, our peers, our family and even strangers. Most women don't think much about actually giving birth until their first childbirth education class at 6 months pregnant if they take a class at all. Or they try to read every book on the shelf in the library or book store trying to "prepare" for the big day. For most men it is even worse having never ovulated or bled themselves, the idea of growing a human and bringing forth life via the vagina they hold dear is to say the least overwhelming.Why is childbirth not a normal part of our upbringing? Why is childbirth education not part of our sex ed in 7th grade? Why do people not know about certified nurse midwives, home birth midwives, or doulas and how they are different from each other and how they can make a difference in outcomes for normal birth? Why don't people understand the role of good food and health including pregnancy? Why can't people hear or say the word vulva without snickering? Why do women lack the confidence in themselves and their bodies to do what it knows how to do? Why do we not talk about abortion as an emotional issue rather than just as a political or religious issue? Why cant we talk about miscarriage or loss in later pregnancy? Why are we so driven by fear when we talk about birth? Why do we not know our mothers and grandmothers birth stories?We want to demystify childbirth. We want to make it a part of our entire life not just the "childbearing year" -embracing the women before us and the women who birth after us as opposed to scaring and disempowering. We don't want to spout off statistics or research or shove our opinions down anyones throat in judgment. We am here to chat, to discuss, to ponder over the state of things and how they can evolve and grow.You can check us out for free. Email us your snail mail address and we will mail you a free issue for you to read [email protected] want to hear from you. We are a magazine for everyone by everyone. Send us your articles, prose, poetry, artwork, photography, tell us about your organization or work you do in birth - Send your submissions to [email protected].