This book contains a huge development of my thinking since first exploring this back in 2013, there is new material, an extensive historical background chapter, more exploration of an ecology of birth and Kairos time. See contents and synopsis below. The forward is by Professor Liz Smythe. The initial publication is in a few weeks (Sept 2019) will be in hardback and e- versions with a follow up paperback version in 2021. Enjoy.
The book will draw attention to the beginning of life; a poignant human journey that holds meaning and significance within and beyond current maternity care systems.
Safe and free
Focus on safety safety safety breeds fear,
fear then attunes us to more fear and then
the situations we find ourselves in, like childbirth,
become coloured by more fearful feelings ….
then it all feels even less safe!
Being constantly fearful is an unsafe place to dwell, function and be human,
we are simply not free when we are fearful!
Needing to feel safe is a human need yet it need not imprison us
let us not cover over what it means to be human in the pursuit of safety;
find ways of being and doing that awaken our potential to
flourish and feel safe and free
Susan Crowther 2016
As Christmas arrives, a time of reflection for many on a holy birth, I ponder the way we as society attune at birth today. All human experiences are culturally and historically determined, including birth. Birth as with all other human experience and understanding is contextual. As Gadamer contends we are viewing and knowing the world from an inescapable effective historical consciousness. We are in a way continually walking into our past. I argue like others that birth is not purely physiological but enmeshed in its own unique context. Therefore to explore any phenomenon at birth is at once to address all of birth, past and present which at the same time is connected to future possibilities. There are constant hints from history that gesture towards birth as significant fusing with contemporary horizons of understanding and possible futures. That is to say that how we tune into, tune in or attune at birth reveals how birth is understood.
Dr Susan Crowther 