Susan Crowther
Childbirth as sacred celebration.
Crowther, Susan
Authors
Contributors
Susan Crowther
Editor
Jenny Hall
Editor
Abstract
This chapter explores how childbirth is spiritually experienced and meaningful within society revealing how childbirth has purpose both individually and collectively. The discourse and mood around childbirth internationally is often concerned with risk, morbidity and mortality yet philosophers O'Byrne (2010) and Arendt (1958) infer that childbirth is a celebration of natality and future possibility, not purely avoidance of mortality. This chapter acknowledges birth as both joy and sorrow, birth as the potential for epiphany, peak experience, moments of self-actualisation and a time of remembrance. The notions of Kairos time (sacred felt-time) at birth and meaningful encounters in and around childbirth is introduced with narrative examples. Something lies quiescent in the background of childbirth gesturing to ineffability, the inexplicable, and what is mysterious and awe inspiring.
Citation
CROWTHER, S. 2017. Childbirth as sacred celebration. In Crowther, S. and Hall, J. (eds.) Spirituality and childbirth: meaning and care at the start of life. Abingdon: Routledge [online], chapter 2, pages 13-29. Available from: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315389639
Online Publication Date | Sep 13, 2017 |
---|---|
Publication Date | Sep 13, 2017 |
Deposit Date | Jul 20, 2018 |
Publicly Available Date | Sep 14, 2018 |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 13-29 |
Book Title | Spirituality and childbirth: meaning and care at the start of life |
Chapter Number | Chapter 2 |
ISBN | 9781138229419 |
Keywords | Childbirth; Spiritual meaning; Celebration; Embodied experiences; Sacred celebration |
Public URL | http://hdl.handle.net/10059/3008 |
Publisher URL | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315389639 |
Contract Date | Jul 20, 2018 |
Files
CROWTHER 2017 Childbirth as sacred celebration
(827 Kb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Downloadable Citations
About OpenAIR@RGU
Administrator e-mail: publications@rgu.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search