Regenerative Birthwork

Written by our Tanzania Program Director, Kai Njeri

In 2007/2008 Kenya’s political class led the country into a season of violence that left many Kenyans displaced and families deeply broken; bringing death cruelly close. We recovered from this with both the haste of a people eager to forget the darkness it is capable of and the pained movement of a body attempting to regenerate with only some of its parts intact. This process was, to me, a revelation as to how far we had travelled from our natural regenerative instincts and knowledge systems. The questions that rose to my surfaces met with a diagnosis that took me down the food systems rabbit hole then deposited me at birth’s door. Through it, Anansi began to reveal the interconnectedness of all of life. 

In 2019 I went through Doula Thrive’s program, emerging from it as a birthworker and with the pandemic hitting the following year it gave me time to consider my contexts anew. To even further steep me, I birthed my son in 2022 and that was, as it always is, profoundly initiatory. A few weeks into this initiation, a dear Doula Thrive cohort-sister came to Tanzania on a WotW advanced doula training trip and just like that our paths knotted. From the moment Charlotte and I spoke it was clear that we both held essential pieces to offer each other’s story as people, even more as birthworkers.

My first trip, January 2023, broke my world wide open! The warmly present yet light touch of facilitation, the richness of birthworkers sharing in a common birthwork story abroad, witnessing birth be beautiful, violent, life-saving, medicalised, held in community and sisterhood…it all roused so much in me. After my son’s birth I felt there were some things to address within myself before I was supporting another mother and child through birth, and had no idea how long that would take, but I still wanted to be in service to birth. The invitation to become a facilitator was the perfect sweet spot and after the January trip my YES grew in folding thousands! On the other hand, WotW’s growth was asking for just this. 

As a WotW facilitator, I have found that themes such as care, honour and the power of birth, its medicalisation, normalised obstetric violence, reproductive justice and saviorism repeatedly find their way to the dinner table. To then, as Regional Programs Director, get to explore some of these and more themes through projects such as the Gentle Birth Initiative is a welcome challenge. 

Through this project and in partnership with Karatu Lutheran Hospital, we get to apply a decade of research, observation of cross-cultural methods and relationships into the possibility of vertical labour and birth in medical contexts. This project is as exciting as it is challenging. To realise it means confronting deep-seated medical and cultural perspectives of the woman’s body, her right to it and its processes, her pain and what we mean when we talk about maternal and infant care. It is quite the thing to take on but we must. The way we do birth says everything about the way we do any and all of life. 

A few years ago I came across the term ‘Womb Ecology’ and several puzzle pieces fell right into place. My theory is, placing womb health at the centre of all our systems would return humanity and this planet to a place of prosperity. It would require us to understand and to create systems crafted in deep alignment with the womb’s intricate rhythms, ecosystems and needs. These rhythms are a fractal of the planet’s own. To attune ourselves to the womb keeps us in fidelity with this planet’s desire to thrive. This place where life’s multiplicity intersects is where my work, joy and purpose lie. 

Speaking of purpose, while I trained as a doula, the last two mamas I supported had home births and with both, the midwife did not make it in time so guess who caught the babies?! I am taking on no new titles, yet, but like I said earlier, birth reveals its asks and in my willingness to serve, it appears traditional midwifery could very well be in my future. That said, what I am even more excited about is the growing number of doulas and birthworkers in East Africa. Just three years ago I had a difficult time finding a doula to support me and now I know several that I could easily reach. We are growing and so is the quality of care mamas are receiving. I dare dream of a time when every woman has access to this care. I dare put my heart, hands and body to work towards this dream!

As an African mother and birthworker I know that what we need is our humanity held with honour, care and curiosity. Our ways have a lot to offer but colonisation has us hiding from what we know, our people’s wisdoms, and tried and tested ways. Collaboration held in decoloniality is where it’s at. No one here needs saving.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. I believe it takes a village to raise a mother too so we must become the village that raises the mother and the child. We are raising a love army of birth workers to restore birth to mamas and babies. The revolution is maternalising and it is regenerative. A beautiful story unfolds in Tanzania, East Africa, Africa. If you would like to learn more about our Karatu Gentle Birth Initative, we invite you to view the proposal HERE.