Welcome!
As a group of international filmmakers and midwives, our aim is to stimulate discussion and thought about natural birth by providing powerful and creative information and resources. At World Birth Hub we wish to uplift birth, and reduce the fear and dissatisfaction surrounding it. We want wellbeing for mothers and babies everywhere. We hope our work strengthens the connections between women, families and the community. Birth is a sensitive human rights issue.
People working and birthing in poor countries often welcome the arrival of modern medicine and facilities. Those working and birthing in wealthy countries often regret the medical management of such a sacred and instinctive event. Around the world, arguments rage about the best systems, facilities, traditions, practices and techniques for birth. We believe there is a vast middle ground that acknowledges the benefits of both ancient traditions and modern medicine. Our desire is to show images of women birthing in power. Images of kindness and triumph.
We know all women are capable of taking responsibility for their decision-making and choices. What one woman can do, all women can do. Women everywhere give birth in all kinds of conditions. There are millions of amazing stories unfolding every day. Stories of strength, joy, endurance, healing, courage, sadness, trauma, tenderness, determination, challenge and discovery. This is what connects us as human beings.
We are committed to making birth better for everyone.
We hope our resources help you to do the same in your community.
Join us in this growing birth revolution!
Soroptimist Barbara Hurwick interviews Diana Paul
The Truth About Birth in Changing Times
By Deborah Allen and Diana Paul If you are pregnant in a pandemic, you may not want to go to a hospital to give birth. We understand. You may live in a place where there is no doctor or midwife. That happens. You may feel alone and unsupported. ...
Nourishing natural Birth Wisdom in Laos
Lao Birthwork is a voluntary project that was inspired by having made several trips to Luang Prabang province in northern Laos between 2005 and 2015. During my visits there, and through Laos contacts and friends working in Maternal and Child Health, I witnessed which...
Video: What is a Midwife?
In this talk from the 2014 Cape Town Midwifery and Birth Conference, midwife Ruth Ehrhardt speaks about what being a midwife means to her, from her perspective as a daughter, a mother and a midwife. See truemidwifery.com for more info
Loving Midwifery Care for Every Woman
Access to good, personalised and loving care should be a basic human right for any pregnant woman. Unfortunately, this is not the reality for most. I offer my services as a home birth midwife to the women in and around my community, who would like to be able to access...
Birthwork & The 3 Kindnesses
Earlier this year, some midwife and childbirth educator friends and I presented a 5 day refresher training workshop to some 30 midwives and health workers in Laos. They were from villages within 2 of the poorest districts in Luang Prabang Province, where there are...
Video: Jolene’s Birth Story
Emily Vaccaro is a family and baby photographer in San Francisco, California. In this video, Emily reads to her own newborn, Jolene, about the day she arrived.
Video: Two Questions
Here we have a lighting designer, midwife, student and medical doctor answering two questions about birth:
1) Where were you born?
&
2) What would you tell your daughter about birth?
How would you answer those questions?
Video: Texas Couple Talk About Their Homebirth Experience
Brenda and DeAndre´ Vaxter were planning on a hospital birth and were all set for that when Brenda, at 36 weeks, approached her husband about having their baby at home. Loving and practical, DeAndre recognized that his wife’s desire was deep and heartfelt. He asked Brenda to set up an interview with a midwife and the rest is history.
There is Hope…
A few weeks ago I came back home to South Africa after a full and busy tour of teaching and presenting in various countries in Europe. I don’t think I quite realised what I had signed myself up for when I said yes to all the commitments I had made but for three weeks...
Video – An Introduction to the Compassionate Birth Project
The Compassionate Birth Project is a systems based programme which offers staff working in public maternity units, from midwives and doctors to clerks and security, a process to discover the human compassion within themselves, empowering them to provide more holistic,...
A Homebirth Pilgrimage
In many cultures, burying the placenta in or near the house is a guarantee that your child will return home. A young woman called Lilith visited me last week. She came all the way from Belgium to visit her place of birth. She had just turned 21. When her mama was 21...
Emergently
Shona Midwife
Anamboya means ‘midwife’ in Shona I have heard about this Zimbabwean midwife in the informal settlement of Masiphumelele for about a year now. I have heard that she is a traditional midwife and that many women in the Zimbabwean community in Cape Town seek her out...
Featherly Concern
Matilda has a flock of fine looking hens. All kinds and colours. They live close to the house, but don’t generally come in the house. She loves having them around, clucks over them and cares for them. When she went into labour at home, one of her hens, called Dougal,...
Video: Bathing In Liquid Mind
by Diana Paul
Droëland
~ In memory of my mother ~ My mother, Carol Kathleen Ehrhardt, was born in Athlone, a 'coloured' area in Cape Town, South Africa, in December 1950. In 1958, under the Apartheid government’s Population Registration Act, her family were reclassified ‘white’ and moved to...
A Hearing In The Ministry of Health
Ministry of health: A hearing with a panel of 3 “judges”. I sit in the room, watching them, hearing them. They are all men, even the expert witness who came to give his insights about homebirth. Beside me sit 7-8 more women, listening. We are not allowed to talk. The...
Video: Birth in A Cow Trough??
by Diana Paul
Rocking & Rolling
The reboso, or Mexican shawl, can be used in many ways to promote circulation, mobility, balance and open-ness in a mother’s pelvis in pregnancy and birth. Different techniques can also effectively bring babies in or out of the pelvis, and help them change to a more...
I never want to go near that hospital again!
Strong words said by a mother… Then another mother says to me, “There’s no way I’m going to the hospital!” And then another mother says, “I don’t want to go to the hospital for even one check up. Everyone I know ends up with caesareans…” Three different mothers. Three...
All in the Flow of Family and Life
There is a young woman in my neighborhood called Kate who recently gave birth. I have known her since she was 10 years old. I helped her mother Catherine give birth to babies number 10 and 11. When Kate was 13 years old, her mother asked her to catch baby number 11...
Run Mother Run
A year ago I logged in to facebook and saw a picture of a woman with a notification from the official police page: “Please help us find this woman who disappeared with her baby 2 days ago”. Within a few more minutes I saw another notification with the same picture of...
Freedom From Fear
The best advice I got for birth and life came from a chicken farmer. I was many months pregnant when she counselled, “Don’t let anyone make you afraid.” She knew that this was my first birth. But she didn’t know that if I wanted to have a ‘legal’ homebirth, I would...
Natural Birth Learnings through Nurturing
Last weekend nine ladies gathered to enjoy a birthworker’s autumn retreat in the Australian bush. It was comfortable and informal, as we sat by the fire, swam in the dam, watched kangaroos and birds play, ate nourishing organic food, and drank a lot of tea. We laughed...