The first International Birth Summit was held in Italy at Damanhur, in the foothills of the alps north of Turin (Torino) from the 5th to the 9th of May 2010.
When Farfalla Vitalba sent me an email asking me to present a paper at the Birth Summit 2010 at Damanhur as a representative midwife of South Africa I was both excited and nervous. The emphasis of the summit was to be the spiritual importance of birth as well as exploring the different cultural traditions of each country represented there. Art is a very important part of Damanhur and creating beauty, peace and a culture of togetherness is part of family life and, thus, part of the way that their babies are welcomed into the world.
Each representative who took part in the conference brought their own experience, wisdom and knowledge to share with us from countries like South America, Australia, Bali, France, U.S.A, U.K, South Africa and, of course, Italy. Such a diverse group of people and experience made for very interesting presentations and discussions. We all agreed that the birth of a baby is a sacred moment in time and that we should create a sacred space around this event.
In the western world we have been trained to accept technocracy at birth and this can interfere with the first communications between mother, father and newborn baby. Births may often be traumatic experiences for both parents and baby. While we need to focus on the prevention of trauma around birth, we also need to provide healing for those who have had traumatic experiences.
More on the Birth Summit in Damanhur to follow in part 2, including pictures of this inspirational community. Please feel free to leave a reply!