There’s a story we were never meant to forget.
It lives beneath centuries of doctrine, patriarchy, and fear. The story of women’s bodies as divine, creative, and whole.
But over time, that story was rewritten. Mother Mary was exalted not for her humanity, but for her untouched purity. Mary Magdalene: priestess (teacher and leader), beloved companion - was recast as a sinner and stripped of her voice. These reframed narratives became part of a larger cultural conditioning: one that taught women to distrust their bodies, their instincts, and their power.
That mistrust originated by the clergy and government, seeped into medicine, into systems, and into the way we approach childbirth today. The takeover of birth by white male physicians in the 18th and 19th centuries replaced women’s ancestral wisdom with clinical control, removing midwives and embedding fear where reverence once lived.
But the thread of feminine knowing was never lost.
And today, we are weaving it back together.
The virgin myth and the silencing of embodied birth
Historically, the Church elevated Mary as Theotokos (“God-bearer”) and hundreds of years later asserted her perpetual virginity before, during, and after Jesus’s birth. Early texts like the Protoevangelium of James (circa AD 120) advanced this idea, solidified by the Second Council of Constantinople (553 AD) and the Lateran Synod (649 AD). Theologians such as Jerome reframed the “brothers” of Jesus as cousins, while councils affirmed virginity as holier than embodied experience.
By stripping away Mary’s human story, the sacredness of birth itself was veiled.
A subtle but enduring message took root: childbirth was to be sanitized, hidden, controlled rather than honored in its raw, instinctive, and ecstatic reality.
How this disconnect shapes birth today
This theological shift laid cultural groundwork for systemic disempowerment, culminating in the medicalization of childbirth and the widespread erasure of midwives.
The historical takeover
For thousands of years, birth belonged to women. Midwives, herbalists, and community healers. (Particularly Black “granny midwives” and Indigenous birthkeepers carried ancestral knowledge of how to care for mothers and babies.)
Then, in the 18th century, white male physicians began entering birth spaces as “man-midwives.” Figures like William Smellie (1697–1763) popularized surgical tools like forceps, claiming authority over birth. Midwives were painted as untrained, “unclean,” and dangerous.
By the mid-1800s, wealthy white families began shifting from home to hospital births. By 1915, fewer than 40% of births were attended by midwives. After the Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921, licensing restrictions and systemic targeting drove midwives (particularly Black granny midwives) out of practice.
- In 1935, midwives attended only 11% of births overall, and just 4.5% among white women.
- By 1960, 96% of births occurred in hospitals, and by the 1970s, 99% of births were delivered by physicians (93% of them white men.)
Birth was no longer a communal, sacred rite of passage. It became a managed medical event. Fear replaced trust. Control replaced intuition.
The crisis we can no longer ignore
This legacy of disconnection continues to shape maternal health today with devastating consequences.
I see this surfacing weekly with the moms I guide in prenatal yoga and women's circles. Their sense of distrust of their body's ability to nurture and birth from a place of confidence, compassion, and autonomy. They look outside for answers first, rather than inwards.
Current statistics prove the distrust of self in such a sacred, human act.
Maternal mortality
The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate among wealthy nations: 19 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2024, compared to 5.5–8.8 in countries like the U.K., Canada, and South Korea (CDC).
Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes; not because of biology, education, or class, but systemic inequities and biases (CDC).
Infant mortality
The U.S. infant mortality rate remains high at 5.6 deaths per 1,000 live births, nearly double Scandinavian nations. In Mississippi, rates reach 9.7 per 1,000, prompting a declared public health emergency (NBER).
Mistreatment in care
Globally, over 40% of women report mistreatment during childbirth (UN News). In the U.S., 20% of mothers report neglect or disrespect, rising to 30% among Black and Hispanic women (CDC).
Maternal mental health
When women are not properly cared for postpartum (i.e. the first year at minimum after giving birth) their mental, emotional, and spiritual health suffers.
Suicide and overdose now account for nearly 23% of maternal deaths - among the leading causes of death in pregnancy and postpartum (Children’s National).
Reclaiming sacred birth
What if we remembered?
Be in harmony... If you are out of balance, take inspiration from manifestations of your true nature.
- The Gospel of Mary, 4:22–24
What if birth was seen — not as a medical event to control — but as an initiation into womanhood, connection to lineage, and divine creation itself?
Return to midwifery and home birth
Home and midwife-led births are rising: 51,600 in 2021, up from 38,500 in 2019 (NCHS).
Outcomes are strong: 90% of women achieve their planned home birth, with lower neonatal mortality than U.S. hospital averages (Journal of Ethics).
Midwifery-led care could prevent over 80% of maternal and infant deaths globally (TIME).
Reintroduce ritual and ceremony
- Create sacred birthspaces: candles, music, flowers, and symbols that anchor you in reverence.
- Host blessingways, postpartum ceremonies, and ancestral rituals to honor thresholds of transformation.
- Invite birth and postpartum doulas, grandmothers, and birth circles to witness your journey and hold the energy of trust.
- Prepare for this scared rite of passage through childbirth education outside of a hospital setting and prenatal yoga practices
Invite the feminine back in
By restoring Mary Magdalene’s voice and rehumanizing Mother Mary, we reclaim a deeper truth:
Birth is not just medical. It is mystical.
It is an inner ascension, fueled by oxytocin, opening paths to ecstasy, creative power, and trust in the body’s innate wisdom.
This reclamation is urgent.
When systems fail and stories omit, women suffer.
But when we reclaim our narrative, we rebuild trust in ourselves, in our bodies, and in the sacred continuum of birth.
A return to origin
Birth was never meant to be feared.
Birth was never meant to be hidden.
Birth is ceremony.
Birth is power.
Birth is sacred.
The nature of matter is resolved into the roots of its nature alone.
- The Gospel of Mary, 2:7–10
By weaving back the stories erased, Mary Magdalene’s teachings, Mother Mary’s humanity, the midwives’ wisdom — we return to what was never truly lost: the remembering that our bodies are holy, our wisdom is ancient, and birth is divine.
Continued reading
Not something to "get through" - Reclaiming the sacred birth
You will not learn everything you need to know about birth - Everyone's story is unique. Through knowledgeable and loving support you will receive what you need, when you need it.
Birth is more than getting baby out - Physiology at it's best wants mother and baby to meet in a specific neuroendocrine state.
Get out of the hospital - and return to your home or birth center