How Fathering a Newborn Changes a Man’s Brain
by Pam England Human fathers are among less than six percent of mammals who play a significant role in rearing offspring, along with pygmy marmosets, bat-eared foxes, silverback mountain gorillas, …
Birth Stories
The Origin of Father’s Day
by Pam England For centuries Catholic countries have celebrated fathers on St. Joseph’s Day (on March 19): building an altar, wearing red, and preparing special foods. In over a hundred …
When a Birth Story Cactus Flowers
by Pam England When I transferred from home birth to the hospital and my first child was born by cesarean, I was in birth shock. A friend brought the perfect …
Bridge Over Story River
by Pam England “All that we are is story. From the moment we are born to the time we continue on our spirit journey, we are involved in the creation …
In Laborland, There is No Story or Storyteller
by Pam England When immersed by waves of uncertainty and the unexpected (both synonymous with childbirth, especially the first time), there is little mind or time to tell ourselves a …
Matryoshkas and the Birth Story Medicine Process
Matryoshkas are nested wooden “mother dolls,” a folk-art toy that first appeared in Russia in 1890. Hollowed out from linden wood, matryoshkas consist of five to 12 (up to 60) …
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Story of Pam England’s Untitled Mythopoetic Painting
While painting the mythopoetic images coming through me over the past four months, I journaled associations that came through me: We are born of the earth, from the earth, through …
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Rituals of Matrescence among the Tundra Nenet People
Pam England, notes from “Catching a Child” by Zoia Vylka Ravna (2019) Rituals of Matrescence prepare and honor the “birth of the mother.” The term matrescence was coined in 1973 by medical anthropologist …
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Invitation to share Posttraumatic Growth stories
Before a seismic traumatic event, we put confidence (if not conviction) behind the grand, complex framework of contradictory beliefs we built to sustain us and to keep uncertainty at bay. …
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Transformation after “Seismic Trauma” in Childbirth
“We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters …
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