by Joan Logghe
Holistic Home Birth
Irish Yotvat’s chronicle of her VBAC homebirth at age 40 is an amazing document. Pregnant with her third child, and shaky at the prospect, she introduces us to her numerous support networks: women friends, massage, her midwife, body-centered hypnosis with Gayle Peterson, movement classes, sound harmonics – the full gamut of pregnancy possibilities.
While the exposure is informative, women need not think they must be busy to take care of their unborn babies. My first pregnancy was simple; I walked a lot. Yotvat’s most welcome exposure is to the intensity of birth itself. She does not flinch, stating that “if we shy away from the pain, we shy away from the power of the experience.” Her husband is very much present, yet very much background support for this dance of birth. Presented with a midwife’s view of the birth, I cried along with Yotvat. Women are brave, and this mother-filmmaker is right up there at the front.
COPYRIGHT 1992 Mothering Magazine
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group