Birth art
Birth art is an active, gentle exploration process that lets parents and parents-to-be to explore some of our deeper beliefs and feelings around pregnancy, birth, and parenting.
Why birth art?
When we make art, our brain waves slow down, moving us out of the neocortex and into the creative, intuitive mind—the same part of our mind we go to during labor (doulas and midwives call this ‘labor land’).
Making art in prenatal preparation lets us explore our deepest beliefs and expectations of birth, gently tapping into our subconscious and intuition. By engaging with our inner voice through creative expression, we can release emotion, recognize and move through fears, and even find hidden strengths that have been waiting to be uncovered.
Birth art is an chance to explore how you move through the unknown, and how you keep going when things don’t look exactly like you imagined. In that way, it’s a wonderful preparation for birth itself.
N. A.
“Sara held a safe and gentle space in which to explore my own stories around birth as something dangerous. Through my birth art session, I began to create a new relationship to birth, feeling into its potential as a multi-faceted experience full of beauty and mystery.”
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A. S.
“Birth art therapy with Sara offered me a safe and supportive space to explore my fears. From the very beginning, she created a warm, welcoming, and confidential environment that allowed me to go deep. She offered a thoughtful prompt to guide our session, and helped me focus not on the outcome, but on the emotions, memories, questions, and pain that were surfacing.”
FAQs
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We’’ll meet together, in person or over Zoom, and I’ll ask you to share with me what topics relating to pregnancy and birth you’re currently thinking about. Next, you’ll have about 20 minutes to sketch in response to a prompt I’ll share with you. In the moments you find yourself getting stuck—unsure what to do next, or facing the unknown—I may offer a gentle nudge to go deeper. What might be missing in the drawing?
Once your drawing time is up, I’ll help you transition back to the verbal mind with some journaling prompts. Finally, we’ll take a moment to reflect on what feelings have come up for you.
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If we meet in person, I’ll provide all the supplies needed for the session.
If we instead meet over Zoom, I’ll ask that you bring a large sheet of paper (11×14”) and a drawing medium to the class. I’ve found chalk pastels are best to work with for this kind of practice because they allow for expression without getting fixated on small details. That said, birth art can still be meaningful when just done with a pen—so if you can’t access chalk pastels, we can find another medium.
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Yes! It’s not uncommon to worry that we aren’t “creative” or “artistic” enough to benefit from birth art. But these sessions aren’t about making something beautiful or polished, but about engaging with the messy, uncertain, and unfinished parts of ourselves. In many ways, this can be a useful exercise in letting go, listening to our intuition, and surrendering to the unknown—a good preparation for birth itself.