The name Dreaming the Wild Back Home came to me after my niece came to live and birth her baby in our home.  Since I don’t have children (by choice) I knew little to nothing about the “modern” hyper-medicalized birthing situation in this country, and specifically, I wasn’t aware of the technologies used on pregnant women and the marketing psychology behind the multi-billion dollar birthing industry which goes something like this; technology/drugs will assure you and baby health and safety because…you know, birthing should be in the hands of the “experts”.   The ultrasounds, women have been told-sold will detect danger, minimize risk.  And yes, perhaps sometimes, they do. However, most pregnant women have taken doctors/science at their word about a military derived technology which is now standard procedure, unquestioned as a natural part of having a healthy baby.  Some damn good research is actually showing the opposite is true.  http://www.whale.to/c/50_human_studies.html.  My niece waded through gobs of information to make decisions for herself and her baby. Jennifer birthed herself as she gained  knowledge and grew in wisdom; and gave birth to a beautiful healthy baby.

I was incredibly blessed with the opportunity to witness and be a part of  (as much as anyone other than mother and child can) the miracle of birth; a wholly sacred natural nativity! Jennifer spent much of her pregnancy reading, preparing physically, spiritually, emotionally with regular visits by her midwife in preparation for the Sacred Event.  That experience brought integral parts of the puzzle together for me. I’ve been researching and weaving together many areas of  my concerns, my passions and interests about women’s experiences and lives; the social engineering of women’s beliefs and psychology among my most inquisitive of topics. But I hadn’t gotten to what I now know is a most critical piece, and that is how women birth.

When Willa Jean was born on that crisp cold January morning, and after witnessing my dear niece, in all of her laboring and ecstasy (that’s the oxytocin kicking in, see….the Gynergy and woman and baby together know how to do this) I wanted to shout out to the world, to all women, to anyone who would listen…..Hey…this is how it’s done! This is how the blood and the milk flow as a natural river of life, pain and ecstasy dance in shared company; life and death conjunct and separate in a transcendental mystery that is honestly, when it comes right down to the sacred moment, wholly between woman and child.  Yeah baby, it’s the oneness becoming otherness, the instinctive wild magical cycle that is continuously Dreaming Itself Back Home. And it’s only Women who do this technology!

Well, that’s how Dreaming the Wild Back Home, the name of the manuscript and intermedia production which I’ve been working on for a few years, was born.  These pages will be a place where I share and explore my process of writing, research, and my personal journey with Dreaming the Wild Back Home. And, I might add, my writing studio is in the room where Willa was born!