Sacred Inception

This edited volume explores the intersection of spirituality with childbirth from 1800 to the present day from a comparative perspective. It illustrates how over this time period in much of the world, traditional practices, home births, and midwives have been overshadowed and undermined by male dominated obstetrics, hospitalization, and ultimately the medicalization of the birthing process itself.

Marianne Delaporte is professor of religious studies at Notre Dame de Namur University.
Morag Martin is associate professor of history at the College of Brockport, SUNY.

Foreword
Robbie Davis-Floyd
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Marianne Delaporte and Morag Martin
Part I: Midwives as a Bridge between the Spirit and the World
1. Midwifery as Religious Calling: The Struggle for Church Recognition by the Soeurs de la Charité Maternelle of Metz in the Nineteenth Century
Morag Martin
2. Childbirth and Folk Orthodoxy in Russia in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Tatiana Novikova
3. Superstition, Folk Religion and Childbirth: Highlighting the World of Informal Midwives in Modern Turkey
Gökçen B. Dinç
4. Stories of Birth: The Spiritual Genesis of Ina May Gaskin's Spiritual Midwifery
Marianne Delaporte
Part II: Contested Maternities: Colonization and a Return to Ancestors and Culture
5. Birthing the Spirit: Self-determination and Childbirth in Australia
Amba J. Sepie
6. A Blur between the Spiritual and the Physical: Birthing Practices among the Igbo of Nigeria in the Twentieth Century
Ogechukwu Ezekwem Williams
7. The Art of Midwifery among the Arhuaco People of Colombia: Spirituality, Resistance, and Violence in Intercultural Birth Contexts
Angela Santamaria, Dunen Kaneybia Muelas Izquierdo, Angela N. Castañeda, and Camila Rangel
Part III: Home Birth, Natural Birth, Hospital Birth: Choices for Spiritual Maternity
8. Pushing from the Margins: "Natural Childbirth" in Holistic Spiritualities and Natural Parenting in France and Portugal
Anna M. Fedele and Florence Pasche Guignard
9. Delivering Spirituality in Maternity Services: An Example of Two European Countries
Claire de Labrusse, Tracy Humphrey, Anne Sylvie Ramelet, and Sarah MacLennan
10. "Going Back": Spirituality and Cultural Traditions in South Carolina Women's Childbirth Experiences
Cara Delay, Beth Sundstrom, Andrea L. DeMaria, and Kristin Brig
11. Birthing the Natural Pious Singaporean Malay Muslim Woman through the Ideal Islamic Birth Framework
Sharifah Huseinah Madihid
Afterword: The Spirituality of Birth
Pamela Hunt