breasts, needles, becoming

. . . and that sums up my week a day's seminar up in Wellington (ah, road trips with 5 very confident, very opinionated, very funny women) on acupuncture, homeopathy and osteopathy. I love the paradigms these alternative healing modalities take. The way they view the body as an amalgam of energies. The way they respect the work that is done in pregnancy, labour, breast-feeding - without making us feel weak or injured. I'm itching to know everything it seems. . . I want to not only be alternative (lip service?) but to also offer something real, tangible, supportive, empowering. Healing midwifery style. Offering a woman a way to heal herself, through herself. and then the breast-feeding All day seminar today with the head of our program (who I wish I could kidnap and permanently install in my brain with her soothing South African accent). I must ask this question - why do so many breast-feeding (etc) videos depict mothering (and how we get there) in such an inane, dull, drab, passive and frankly ugly way? It hardly seems a celebration of. . . life itself and certainly I know, have seen, and whole-heartedly believe that you can become (and be) a mother with strength, creativity, character and probably a helpful dose of joyous insanity

heck, even if it's a maelstrom

at least it's your maelstrom

And I for one say. . . we women, should own it.

oh, and breastfeeding is fantastic!

and so is bed time!