I'm too old to havebeen one of the babies of the Home Birth Renaissance led by hippie types, and a bit too young to havebeenthere when the first cohort produced its self-help books (all out of northern Claifornia, really.) but I got this wonderful blast from the past today when an old friend sent this to me, and wondered if any of you were in it?
otr if you were born at home, whether you feel the optimism of the mothers and fatherswho truly believed that gentle home birth wouldbring about calmer, happier chidlren for life was justified in your life?
I finally had my baby at home when I was 38, after many eyars of trying...feltvery retro but that's my life.
Judith
just got a beautiful blast from the past. last year I got in touch
with my dear friend from when we were the youngest, skinniest, and
most countercultural kids in our class at junior high in Hollywood.
turns out we have lived very parallel lives in many ways in spite of
being temperamentally very different people. she went to college in
Santa Cruz and stayed on there for a long time...now living in
Oregon but planning to relocate to Sebastopol, where her mother and
brother live, in the next year.
anyway, she was in the midwifery world for many years, then got into
doing eldercare, and last year told me that she'd thinned out her
library and sent many of her old midwifery books to the bookseller.
and she'd kept the Birth Book by Raven lang and all from the Santa
Cruz midwifery collective in the early 70s. (this was the third of
the early books on natural home birth in the 70s renaissance of
same...Jeannine credited it as an inspiration in Prenatal Yoga.
so I has told Tasha she was wise to hang on to Birth Book, that it;s
very rare and a collectors' item that often sells for a hundred
dollars (a really trashed one was about $50 on alibris.com lately).
and that my copy had disappeared from a box of my stuff when I ahd
it stored in an attic and was living in Central America in the late
70s...
well, today I took a day off work to try to get caught up on
laundry, get straight with the post office where my packages have
been in no-person's land for reasons that aren;t entirely clear,
etc. I went up to the window earlier this morning adn they had
about 5 or 6 packages of various sizes for me, including the
chemistry book I needed for my class weeks ago.
and there was a package from Tasha saying, "This seemed right to
come live with you, hope you enjoy, love," with her copy of the
Birth Book!
what a generous thing for her to do. I haven;t seen the book in
maybe 20 years? I burst into tears. remembered a lot of it, had
forgotten some, amazing to see how much we've learned since and also
how little some things have changed, the idealism and courage of
those young families...
anyway, if you have an opportunity to review this classic, DO.
much love, Judith
otr if you were born at home, whether you feel the optimism of the mothers and fatherswho truly believed that gentle home birth wouldbring about calmer, happier chidlren for life was justified in your life?
I finally had my baby at home when I was 38, after many eyars of trying...feltvery retro but that's my life.
Judith
just got a beautiful blast from the past. last year I got in touch
with my dear friend from when we were the youngest, skinniest, and
most countercultural kids in our class at junior high in Hollywood.
turns out we have lived very parallel lives in many ways in spite of
being temperamentally very different people. she went to college in
Santa Cruz and stayed on there for a long time...now living in
Oregon but planning to relocate to Sebastopol, where her mother and
brother live, in the next year.
anyway, she was in the midwifery world for many years, then got into
doing eldercare, and last year told me that she'd thinned out her
library and sent many of her old midwifery books to the bookseller.
and she'd kept the Birth Book by Raven lang and all from the Santa
Cruz midwifery collective in the early 70s. (this was the third of
the early books on natural home birth in the 70s renaissance of
same...Jeannine credited it as an inspiration in Prenatal Yoga.
so I has told Tasha she was wise to hang on to Birth Book, that it;s
very rare and a collectors' item that often sells for a hundred
dollars (a really trashed one was about $50 on alibris.com lately).
and that my copy had disappeared from a box of my stuff when I ahd
it stored in an attic and was living in Central America in the late
70s...
well, today I took a day off work to try to get caught up on
laundry, get straight with the post office where my packages have
been in no-person's land for reasons that aren;t entirely clear,
etc. I went up to the window earlier this morning adn they had
about 5 or 6 packages of various sizes for me, including the
chemistry book I needed for my class weeks ago.
and there was a package from Tasha saying, "This seemed right to
come live with you, hope you enjoy, love," with her copy of the
Birth Book!
what a generous thing for her to do. I haven;t seen the book in
maybe 20 years? I burst into tears. remembered a lot of it, had
forgotten some, amazing to see how much we've learned since and also
how little some things have changed, the idealism and courage of
those young families...
anyway, if you have an opportunity to review this classic, DO.
much love, Judith
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SF Bay Area
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