Sunday, May 8, 2011

Screening at The Red Tent, Los Gatos

For international Midwives Day

Patricia Madden and Jennifer Penick hosted the screening at this wonderful, everything-red space: Outside just another mall space. Inside crimson, draped, glowing and full of women's energy!


I read the first monologue - the midwife's monologue - she addresses a group of pregnant couples at a pre-natal visit. These are the inspirational words which capture centuries-old deep wisdom and intuition that women have around birth. We had to edit it out of the film. Here are a couple of excerpts,

"You CAN give birth to this baby. You were designed to give birth to this baby. There is a reason that the uterus is the strongest muscle in the human body. That a baby's skull bones overlap in birth to accommodate the space it has to go through. That a woman's white blood cell count rises from 5,000 to 15,000 in birth - to protect her from infection. Somewhere, you have a knowledge of this, a biological memory imprinted on your X chromosome."


My sister-in-law Young Boon and my niece, Michelle, came to see the show from San Jose.! And a really great audience. (Above is only one half of the room). The discussion afterwards was, for me, fantastic, as I got to see how people interpreted the film, what they took away with them into their lives. The stories that came out and my admiration for yet another strong mum who prevailed in her v-bac; I was also especially impressed with the Yoga instructor, Jeanna Lurie. Here they both are:


If you want copies of the script, go to www.smashwords.com/books/view/48770
PASS THE WORD ALONG.

If you want to talk about bringing the film to your community, contact me at hickshalloran AT dccnet.com

It's Mother's Day. And since the film is all about 'who is there for the mother'? I celebrate with this. PLEASE pass this info onto friends/mums/birth care providers you think would be interested.