Midwives as Portals
The visions that emerged from the Birth Futures workshops in Peru and the Netherlands cast midwives in an inspiring new light - as compassionate guides capable of ushering us towards radically transformed paradigms for birth care.
Across diverse narratives, a common thread appeared - midwives serving as conduits between worlds, seamlessly bridging the technological and ancestral, the clinical and spiritual, the individual and communal.
Midwives as intermediaries
In the Dutch stories, midwives deftly integrated cutting-edge innovations like AI, virtual reality, and implantable technologies into deeply personalized care plans that prioritized the autonomy of birthing individuals. The Peruvian narratives envisioned midwives as custodians of physiological birth, champions of decolonial praxis creating inclusive spaces where giving birth in a high-tech “pod” or a rainforest river held equal reverence.
Across both contexts, midwives emerged as anchors of community support and emotional sanctuary.
Harmonising nature and tech intelligence
The visions saw them nurturing networks of solidarity, guiding not just the birthing process itself, but the entire journey of pregnancy, parenthood, and beyond. Their care extended far past the clinical, tending to the intergenerational bonds and social fabrics that allow new life to truly thrive.
Whether harmonizing “nature intelligence” into AI-assisted care or serving as spiritual guides honoring the Earth itself, they emerge as boundary-crossers with the power to expand what birth can be.
Midwives, not saviors
However, we must critically reflect on the potential for midwives to inadvertently perpetuate systems of oppression, despite envisioning them as liberators. The narratives position them as saviors, but we must interrogate how they may uphold colonial legacies, marginalization, and institutionalized hierarchies through unconscious biases and cultural impositions on the birthing process.
Images conjured with the AI Midjourney for the workshop Futuros del Parto Peru.
As visionary “portals,” midwives must engage in continuous self-reflection, deconstructing their authority and ceding power to the leadership of impacted communities. Embracing decolonial praxis fully means rejecting colonial binaries, interrogating systemic oppression, and uplifting pluriversal ethics of reciprocity and interconnectedness.