Birth Philosopy
Tara with Youngest son Noah
My own personal introduction to becoming a mother within the medicalized birth system was very difficult and left me feeling as though everything I knew about my body and spirit were not only at odds with the mainstream concept of birth but that becoming a mother was a very unsupported process indeed. As I continued to expand my hands-on work with women and mothers through massage and craniosacral therapy, I developed a kinesthetic sense of the incredible changes in a woman's body throughout her ages, gaining a profound understanding of birth and women's cycles that machines just cannot measure. And then, when I became a doula and attended hospital births from the outside looking in, I realized just how difficult it is to advocate for and support a woman within a sometimes hostile and contradictory environment. I knew then that we needed a different system and began researching everything I could get my hands on related to birth. However, it was not until I birthed my third son at home, unhindered by the technological and ideological underpinnings of the 'modern' U.S. birth customs, that I finally came fully and completely into my own motherhood and with a new understanding of how things COULD change.
This is not to say that I believe all women should birth at home. This is to say that all women should be able to choose, fully and without pretense, how they wish to birth. Unfortunately, the information given to women is anything but accurate and two of the of the biggest hurdles to humane birth practices are: 1. The ways in which information is spin-doctored, and 2. The alienation of women from their own bodies.
As such, I have also founded the Uma Center, the mission of which is to 'Nurture the Nurturer and Celebrate Birth' through Support and Advocacy.
SUPPORT
Motherhood, birth and the pre and post natal periods all require a tremendous amount of support. By providing a center where women can access services like body work, doula services, childbirth education classes, infant care classes, lecture series and informal meeting groups, we return to the age old system of women supporting women and women tapping into the knowledge of our own bodies. It is a beautiful thing to see a woman becoming a mother and discovering her strength and the ways in which this reaches into the lives of her children and the community at large. An incredible sharing of wisdom occurs as women come together in their strengths and realize that no one should be alone in birth and motherhood.
ADVOCACY
The history of birth in the world is complex and varied, but there is a fundamental similarity throughout: Women's birth knowledge has been obliterated and replaced with a technocratic model that denies our very humanity. By providing education, support and ways to reconnect with our own bodies, the Uma Center helps women to discover the strength and power within. Connecting with other women in an environment that believes in a woman's wisdom allows for the grassroots dissemination of information that takes the power back into the hands of those whose experience is the basis of childbirth to begin with: mothers. Mothers together advocate for mothers.
I believe the support we give mothers is crucial to the health of our entire earth and see profound connections between the treatment of human mothers and the treatment of Mother Earth. Women of all ages respond to the Uma Center's fundamental principle of "Nurturing the Nurturer and Celebrating Birth' with the same sigh of relief. I can't tell you how many older women have passed my booth at fairs, read the sign and asked "Where were you when I was having kids?" I tell them in return: "I wish I had been there then."
Thankfully, women are once again asking for more in regards to birth and the overall health of body, mind, spirit and the planet at large. What was lost in generations past is being regained. In creating a center dedicated to support and advocacy for women during the childbearing years and beyond, providing nurturing touch and therapeutic support and further online education and resources, I hope women can find more of their own strengths and wisdom within the processes of motherhood and birth.
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