Birth, Breath, and Death: Meditations on Motherhood, Chaplaincy, and Life as a Doula

Rhythm, ritual, and rest not only aid birthing women, but they also support all of us to move skillfully through our life’s labors.

Let us draw strength from birthing women who embody the goddess in her glory. Let us engage with our passions and birth our dreams. Let us meditate on the miracle of our own births. Let us honor the women who, through their very bodies, bestowed on us the gifts of life and life’s companion gift, the mystery of death.

The birth partner is also supported in his or her role of caring for the mother during childbirth.

Joseph Campbell calls the “ultimate truth.” Campbell posits that myth and ritual can only be the “penultimate truth.” Nothing in human language or in art can adequately express the immensity of the one energy that underlies existence.

she said. While such a practice may seem unorthodox, many midwives I know commonly recommend a glass of wine in early labor. Divya smiled as she raised her glass to toast the occasion. Her magical, full-moon birthing had begun.

At their best, religious traditions affirm the wonder at the heart of existence and provide meaningful contexts for its experience. This mystery allows us to breathe, dream, love, and dimly perceive something beyond time even while we live in time.

She transformed into an archetypal birth goddess, evoking primal power and strength. A new human being moved through her body. Between her legs, a new life descended.

Through the bodies of women, we are all born into time and space. Each one of us must also walk through that great, uncharted door of death.

The energy in the room shifted with celebratory grace and tearful smiles. We welcomed this precious one to the earthly realm of gravity, air, and land.