Birth Stories

She Births: A Modern Woman’s Guidebook for an Ancient Rite of Passage

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“She Births: A Modern Woman’s Guidebook for an Ancient Rite of Passage” by Marcie Macari explores the Spiritual side of childbirth that is often overlooked or missing entirely in modern medically managed childbirths.

Macari makes an excellent argument for all women to explore within to find their Divine Feminine and take that to their pregnancy and birthing experience in order to have ‘Spirit’ present at the birth rather than “reducing it to a bodily function”, which unfortunately is exactly what happens in the majority of births today.

Reducing childbirth to a mere bodily function requires the same level of disconnect that casual sex requires, according to Macari. If women were to understand their value and worth, have self esteem and confidence, then they could stand up for themselves in childbirth and take back the right to choose and “demand respect, choices and freedom”.

Macari also explores pain in childbirth and never denies that childbirth has extreme sensations that some may call painful, but she continues to reiterate the idea that we do not have words in our language to describe these sensations. They are overwhelming and yes, sometimes painful, but they can also be pleasurable if women do not have preconceived notions about pain.

Macari describes childbirth as a rite of passage into womanhood, motherhood and more. Part of what makes childbirth a rite is courage in the face of pain and even compares it to walking hot coals that requires courage and the support of others to get through the rite and the very act of facing your fears and making it through to the other side is the magical, spiritual and transformational part of childbirth that is so often taken from us when our babies are violently taken from our drugged bodies in a hospital setting.

Macari also goes on to credit pain with being the very thing that makes birth possible. Without the contractions, the baby will never leave it’s mother’s body. She is adamantly opposed to the use of pain relief in childbirth, not because women should feel pain, but because of what it takes away from childbirth such as a woman’s instincts and inner strength to know what is right for the birthing process as well as the endorphins that create the natural “high” that is only present in natural births.

One of the most useful parts about “She Births” are the meditation and journaling sections at the end of each chapter. These are wonderful both for expecting women to really explore their feelings and perceptions about childbirth, but it also allows women who were robbed of their rite to find some comfort and perhaps some peace from what went wrong.

There is also a decent sized section in the book that contains natural childbirth stories which are always great to read and none are the gruesome medical childbirth stories that we dread. Some might even bring a tear to your eye. “She Births” is empowering and enlightening and will encourage any women who instinctively knows that childbirth is much more than a medical event to stand up and take back childbirth.

“She Births” is not a “how to” manual for natural childbirth but it does answer the question “why have a natural childbirth” from a fresh perspective. Childbirth is so much more than the physical act, and women have the unique and unparalleled opportunity to be the vessel that the spirit travels through to bring a new life into the world.

I would recommend this book for any woman who felt something intangible was missing from a previous childbirth or who knows that their rite of passage was taken from them during a previous childbirth. This is an excellent resource to work through childbirth trauma and find forgiveness. Even more importantly, this book should be required reading for any woman who is pregnant or planning to become pregnant and understands that there is an intangible spiritual side to life, birth and death that we can either deny or embrace fully to provide ourselves and our babies with the best, most joyous, fulfilling Birth possible.

If you would like to learn more about Marcie Macari and Shebirths, visit shebirths.com
Buy the book: She Births: A Modern Woman’s Guidebook for an Ancient Rite of Passage

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