We Birth (in) Communities

While the physical act of giving birth is an intensely individual experience for the birthing person, the visions emerging from the Birth Futures workshops revealed a deep yearning to reintegrate pregnancy and childbirth into the communal fabric from which it stems.

Increasingly the fundamental rite of passage birth is being reframed through an isolating, medicalized lens - positioning the birthing person as a solitary figure expected to labor alone amidst strangers (in some countries) or if they are lucky with one or two support persons in sterile environments. But the diverse narratives dreamed up during our workshops reimagined radically different futures - ones where birth is understood as a “village-raising” process anchored in rich networks of intergenerational care and interdependence.

At its core, this vision casts the birthing room as a portal into belonging - one where a new soul gets woven into the intricate tapestry of human and more-than-human relations from their very first breath. It is an invitation to transcend the isolated nuclear family and embrace the role of the entire community as the ultimate midwife ushering new life into the world.

Re-enchanting birth

When we let go of individualistic frameworks, birth can become a moment of great spiritual and social re-binding. A reminder that we are never alone, but part of an ancient, continual cycle intimately linked to the cosmos itself. For though one body births the child, it is the village that births the new community member.

Spirituality in birth has been ignored, not just in so-called western, post-industrialised countries, but also in the colonised countries of the global south in favour of more mechanistic and medical frameworks. While science and medical interventions have great potential for making birth safer, neglecting the spiritual aspect comes at a cost. We cut loose birth from the communal and spiritual connections that help people cope with the transformation that a birth brings and it makes pregnancy, birth and parenting isolating experiences.

Sketches by Amritha R Warrier

Communal birthing experiences

Giving birth in a truly communal setting is to gift a child not just parents, but an entire circle committed to their thriving from day one. It strengthens the invisible cords dynamically weaving families, neighborhoods, cultures and our entire species together across generations.

The visions dreamed up communal birthing experiences augmented by supportive technologies like virtual support circles and holographic communication. For the energy we bring to these birthing spaces inevitably informs the foundations of our cultures

and societies. When we involve the “village” from the very start through midwife-guided community models, we birth not just new lives, but new relational paradigms rooted in interdependence.

Holographic tech to connect to ancestors

In our workshops some envisioned polyamorous constellations coming together to joyfully co-parent new arrivals. Others dreamed of “communal apartment buildings” where children are raised by an intentional community united around shared values and responsibilities. Still others imagined birthing parents surrounded by extended families and tribal elders, physical or through holographic technologies, providing guidance through familiar and ancient traditions.

What united these visions is the understanding that birth is never a singular experience, despite being an individual journey for the birthing parent. It is a connective phenomenon that reminds us we all emerge into this world carried by a constellation of ancestors, elders, and the village that will nurture us.