January felt like a conceptual month, reflection on the past and present while wishing certain things of the future. I went to three births in December, three more in January. There's this strange melodic rhythm to birthwork that appears on the surface to contain no sense of logic until it reveals itself, like a lunar ebb and flow...

I've been supporting birth for ten years, and the transition into a new year brings some deeper meditations on what has changed in my experience of birth since crossing this decade threshold. When I started attending births in my early 20's, I was eager to learn and ravenous to understand the process of labor and how this strange role made sense for my life...

When I was born, my parents decided to plant my placenta. They chose a spot near the entrance of the house, not far from the room where I was born. Above the place where they buried my placenta they also planted a dogwood tree...