Gestational work or servitude conceptualises pregnancy and birth as a form of labour of the same ilk as plowing a field or reading for a postgraduate diploma. This is a grave error when it is embraced uncritically. Perhaps, by contrast, a mother’s journey with new life from conception to birth and beyond is the canvas on which her renewed self is being painted. She is not the worker; She is the work.

There’s a lot of talk about freedom as autonomy in birth ideologies. What are we free from when it comes to pregnancy, birth, postpartum…? For some it is freedom from the tyranny of medical institutions, or even any influence other than their own intuition. For others it is freedom from the responsibility of making their own decisions at all, freely turning themselves and their baby over to the discernment of others. These are different ways a pregnant woman may deploy her free will as her journey of motherhood materialises.

When I found out I was expecting my first baby I knew I had some significant fears about childbirth and wasn’t sure how I was going to handle labour. As I started looking for midwives in my area I came across a few who talked about supporting women to birth physiologically, who had a philosophy that birth is natural…

Hildegard of Bingen was a 12th century German abbess, composer, physician, and seer of visions. She was known to take in pregnant women and care for them, often keeping them under her wing long after they had given birth to their babies[…] This quote describes undisturbed physiological birth and shines as an example of ancient insight from a woman who knew how to witness and respect a mother in labour.