We are Waking Up!

So, long time, no post. The good news is- it means we are busy! I have been keeping seriously busy with midwifery and doula work! Corina has been doing some births and is getting her feet wet in postpartum work, and Sarafina is being a doula, taking classes for nursing prerequisites and working at Harvard. AND, we are spending some major time working on Creative Birth Doulas, investing our time and energy into this amazing work we all do together.



On May 5th, we made our Creative Birth debut at Wake Up the Earth in JP where we shared a table with Mischa's Wild Carrot Herbs. It was a great day spent outside in the sun telling people about what a doula is and convincing them to become pregnant and hire us immediately :) Here we are (Corina, Manny and myself) at Wake Up the Earth:

We have been meeting every two weeks to keep up the energy. In the works:

Gina is hosting Fertility Awareness Support Groups monthly in Central Square.

CBD is potentially having a birth movie screening night for all the birth junkies or interested folks to come, see births happen on the big screen, and talk about it afterwards.

Corina is hoping to get some birth art into open studios in JP, or perhaps have an open studio time of our own where we can get any crafty people together to make art celebrating women's bodies, babies and birth.

Sara and Gina are going strong in their birth-related trainings/schooling. Eventually, we will be offering childbirth education classes and/or consultations for holistically, left-leaning, thinking women of all backgrounds!

And, this is just the beginning of so much!!! I will have to keep posted with more as it arises...There will be plenty to share.

Moving into Mother: Artwork by Corina Pinkerton

Coleman and his Placenta

Placenta Print, 2007, Blood, hand-made Nicaraguan paper.

Additional Placenta Print Photos

























For Liesel, 2007, Recycled plastic, twine, leaves, seed pod, beads, fishing line, acrylic paint

Caroline 7 1/2 Months, 2006, Plaster gauze

Coleman’s Ancestors, 2006, Photos, leaves, recycled lampshade, fishing line, acrylic paint

Friends of Baby A, 2006, Photos, recycled lampshade, fishing line, acrylic paint, leaves

Esta Casa es un Nido, 2006, Twigs, twine, leaves, stone, paper, charcoal, fishing line, acrylic paint

Corina's Belly Mobile, 2006-7, Plaster gauze, fishing line, beads, branch, leaves, paper, acrylic paint

Moving into Mother: Art, Theology and Practice

Artist Statement for Corina Pinkerton

In addition to being a Creative Birth Doula, I am a new mother to Coleman Amory Pinkerton, born August 30, 2006. As part of an independent study at Harvard Divinity School I explored my transition into motherhood as a spiritual journey and reflected on that process through creating art.

Rather than trying to find time outside of the daily demands of parenting to meditate or make art I tried to see my time with Manny as sacred. I would brainstorm new projects while breastfeeding and gather materials while wearing the baby around our neighborhood. In so doing I wanted to challenge my assumption that to pray or paint properly I would need to separate myself from the intensity of my new life as a mother.

I make art out of a variety of materials. Much of my work came from recycled or natural materials found on our walks (leaves, twigs, paper). I created mobiles because I wanted to make pieces which might appeal to Coleman and other babies who are important in my life.

Other work I produced focused on the pregnant and post-partum body: including placenta prints (using my placenta and blood which we froze for four months) and body casts of plaster gauze.

Through the process of creating art I hoped to remind myself that the intensity of early motherhood is temporary and to be awake to the joys and challenges of life with Coleman. Soon the leaves in the mobiles will break down and my belly casts will crumble and so will this season with a little baby pass.

Lastly, I see many of the pieces I produced this fall as prayers in motion—prayers for myself during this tender time, prayers for my child as he grows, and prayers for my partner, extended family and friends. The mobiles and prayer flags remind me that the Holy Spirit moves in my life in ways which I do not control and for which I am thankful.

I would like to thank Amy Hollywood, my adviser at Harvard Divinity School for her feedback and my husband, Richard Amory, for his support. (He provided hours of childcare most weekends and took many of the photos of my work I share here.)

If you are interested in learning more about my artwork, or would like support in developing your own pregnancy/mother art please contact me at cpinkerton@hds.harvard.edu.

Swing of Things

Happy 2007!

This new year has been a sweet, sweet beginning to what I hope will be a very luscious year. I am going strong with my apprenticeship and really enjoying the time I spend with Heather Laier and my group of midwives and apprentices. It's been a joyful environment to spend time in and to begin learning.

Corina and her family are growing in love each day. She will be posting here shortly with some of her incredible art work that she is creating. And, Manny is the cutest little crumbly piece of pie (that's my chosen endearment for him) that I have ever seen. Sara and I have really fallen hard for this little one. He has stolen our hearts completely!

Sara is going strong with her birth work- we have both begun working on the ALACE Childbirth Education Training! It will be a slow and steady process, but once that is underway, she is planning on offering classes...An extra service for our Creative Birth team to offer!

Sara and I went on the lecture circuit as well. We spoke at a LLL Leaders meeting this past month on an intro to doulas- their role, the benefit of using one, etc... It was really amazing to engage in conversation with these amazing breastfeeding activists. They were so supportive and interested in our work. We are planning on doing other speaking engagements in the area, so I will keep you all posted as they arise!

One last thing- I am putting together self-care workshops at my house 1/month. It's called Good Health, Good Heart. The first one was last week, January 25th. I spoke about the importance of self-care and the benefits to a holistic health framework on both personal and eco/social/political reasons. Guest Mischa Schuler from Wild Carrot Herbs, spoke about "Kitchen Herbs for Everyday Wellness." We had about 18 people come to the event- A big success in my opinion! I will post about the next one in advance for those who might want to come.

Enjoy your day and keep posted for Corina's Art Work.

"It's a doula nest in here..."

Yesterday, Corina, Sarafina and I got together at Corina's art studio near the Brewery in JP. Wow- an amazing space that nested us in our doulaness for five hours of the day. We got together with the intention of catching up on our individual projects. Surrounded by three belly casts, painted leaves and a beautiful mobile, we discussed our spiritual callings and our birth work with enthusiasm and support. We doula each other through our professional and personal lives while being doulas to others- our connection is truly amazing.

So, what you MUST know about because it is so absolutely fantastic and AMAZING is Corina's proposal for her senior thesis at the Div School. It's focus is a community doula project within church communities. I will say no more and let excerpts of Corina's proposal do the explaining for itself:

Community Doula Project
Senior Seminar Proposal for Corina Pinkerton

What intellectual questions and theological commitments are driving my work?

How to improve pastoral care in mainline protestant (especially United Methodist) congregations to pregnant and birthing women?
How to design a forum in the church for women to celebrate positive birth experiences and heal from birth-related trauma by drawing on biblical and theological resources?
How to enable congregations to develop a community doula program? i.e. an outreach ministry that trains congregants to support women throughout their pregnancy and accompany them during labor and the immediate post-partum period?

Project Description

The audience of this ministry project are pastors and lay leaders of local UMC or other congregations and the potential beneficiaries of the ministry are three fold: 1) interested women within the congregation, 2) pregnant women in the community, and 3) babies of the women who participate.
The community doula project is comprised of two ministry forms. The first is a covenanted small group for women to process/heal from/celebrate their birth narratives. The leader of the small group needs to be well trained in counseling/pastoral care strategies in order to be able to appropriately respond to women recovering from traumatic births. In addition, the leader of the small group would introduce biblical passages as well as theological concepts for use in the general discussion. The hope is that through small group conversation and individual reflection, the ministry participants would craft a theological language for use in the broader congregation which honors the potentially sacred and creative dimensions of birth.
The second component of the ministry would be the development of a trained cadre of volunteer doulas which the church makes available for the broader community. The training process would be lead by birth professionals i.e. midwives or certified doulas which the church invites as a partner in the ministry. The congregation would then advertise the availability of volunteer doulas for all women in the community, regardless of member status or religious beliefs. In so doing the congregation would be providing a valuable social service because currently in the US doulas are employed primarily by families who can afford them (mainly white, middle to upper middle class couples) so a volunteer doula program would extend the benefits of doula care to families who otherwise would likely not enjoy them.
The goal of my senior seminar project is to produce a workbook and resource guide for pastors and/or lay leaders to use in developing this ministry in local congregations. I will include in the guide both an introductory statement describing the ministry opportunities related to pregnant and birthing women in our country as well as the concrete steps a pastor or lay leader could take to design a community doula ministry in their home parishes.
I do not envision the workbook as a complete curriculum. Rather, I assume that the lived experiences of women in the congregation are the primary resource on which the pastor/lay leader needs to draw in order to develop a community doula ministry. However I hope to provide enough information that the organizer of this project feels that it is feasible in their setting. By enabling interested churches to better minister to child-bearing women and their families I hope to support a current trend among protestant churches— that of honoring the presence of the Divine in everyday lived experiences.

Amazing, right? I can't even tell you the energy that is happening with Corina right now, and with us all! I don't think there is any stopping us!

I wanted to post some pics of Manny but I can't figure out how to do so in this instant...So, keep your eyes open for that to come...

~Gina

It's been awhile...

So, I know it's been awhile, but a lot is in the works!

Corina and her partner Richie are enjoying beautiful Coleman. Sara and I LOOOOVE spending time with little Manny, who just gets cuter and cuter each day. Corina and Richie are doing really amazing and look glowing everytime I see them. Yesterday I bumped into Corina at the T stop and Manny was wearing a pumpkin outfit. I seriously almost died of cuteness overload!

Sarafina has started two new part-time jobs, both amazing! She is working part time at Harvard in the anthropology department and part time at the Center for New Words, which is pretty much the most amazing feminist organization in Boston. What's even better??? The CNW office is directly next door to mine, so Sara and I get to see each other almost every day. It's pretty spectacular.

And, for myself, I have some rather big news-I am beginning an apprenticeship with Heather Laier, CPM!!! My first prenatal with her is today. I just can't believe how quickly it all happened, but it's really a phenomenal opportunity for me to grow in knowledge and skills and to attend some home births. I am really excited to be doing this and I will keep you posted as I begin and update you on all of my adventures.

More to come...

Quick update

So, I am officially in JP! My new home is amazing and I really love being there. I am looking forward to engaging the in JP community and embracing my new place. There has been so much going on in the last two weeks, but the nesting urge has arisen and I plan on spending as much time as I can in and around my new house over the next few weeks to get settled in.

Back from Idaho

These are the women who all participated in the Motherwise Midwifery Assistant Training Program. Nancy Draznin is on the bottom row, farthest to the left.

Wow, I think I have culture shock! Idaho was absolutely amazing, but being back in Cambridge feels like it's a different country. I stayed in Genesee, ID with Nancy Draznin, an ALACE trainer and homebirth midwife, attended the midwifery assistant training (which Nancy taught) and got a taste of the Idaho culture. I have to say, it was not necessarily what I expected. It was very dry out there, lots of hills of rolling wheat fields that are currently being shaved, burned and tilled for the season. Towns are small and far apart from each other. Genesee's population is 942 or something like that! I really liked it a lot. I felt relaxed and the pace of life is easy, slow. No one really seemed stressed or rushed out there. Life seemed pretty laid back...

It probably helped that all I did while I was out there was hang out with amazing women, lots of midwives and lots of pregnant women. I was so psyched to be a part of the training. I learned how to do maternal and infant vitals, how to take fetal heart rate with a fetoscope and doppler, how to chart, how to give injections and use sterile technique...Spending time with a homebirth crowd was really fabulous, too. Just so many empowered women all celebrating themselves, birth--not much is better for an aspiring midwife. I can't wait to tell everyone more about it. I am back in Cambridge and trying to pick up where I left off here, so I should run for now. I will write more and post some more pics when I get a second to spare.