BIRTHING AS A RITE OF PASSAGE

I have been given the esteemed honour of creating a baby shower for my sister. She is expecting her first child, on my birthday nonetheless, and I wanted to make the experience memorable, less about products and all about this wonderful rite of passage for both mother and babe. My dear sister, as well as I, feel very deeply about these so-called showers: we do not like them. The shower was historically a means by which to bestow blessings upon the baby and mother through ritual, love and culture. North American culture is so far removed from that as our consumerism has swept its way into our precious babies' lives and ours. Here is the link to an article published by a wiccan mother, Elder and Priestess, Sue Curewitz Arthen. And although I am not wiccan, the history she presents is accurate and her viewpoints well taken. I am concerned prenatally and postnatally about the mother and baby, their connection and their connection to the earth. I want my sister to experience the opposite of what my baby shower was: a room full of disconnect, unfamiliarity, and product.

Rites of Passage Celebration of Birth by Sue Curewitz Arthen