Culture is Dynamic; Birth is Universal is the tagline of Wombs of the World, whose mission it is to promote cross cultural sharing of indigenous practices. In October 2025, I traveled to Germany to their first international summit in order to be exposed to birthing practices from around the world. I wanted to learn, connect, as well as support Birth Matron, who had trained me in belly binding. I saw their tagline come to life when I was among 150 participants representing countries and cultures from far and wide. Immediately, we connected in our desire to support healthy births and thriving moms and babies.
How It Began
On the first day, the summit started with a beautiful opening ceremony outdoors led by Mama Mila from Ecuador, an amazing midwife and hero in her community. A native of the Kichwa community, she presented in her native language, being translated by another midwife into Spanish, translated by another midwife into English. Amazing! In the ceremony, she welcomed everyone, grounded us into our first mother, mother earth, and shared blessings for a beautiful time together.
The day began with presentations from the three main speakers, Salwa Salim and Mama Gie of Birth Matron, Mama Mila and Partera Martha from Ecuador, who shared Rebozo practices, and Partera (midwife) Sandra and Partera Yu who presented on the connection with our divine feminine. Each day these presentations were available to participants for half the day. The other half were mini workshops on topics like birth story/trauma, placenta art, Sarashi, the Japanese art of binding, the healing power of birth, and more.
My Favorite Moments
One of my favorite moments, aside from connecting with these soulful women, was an impromptu mother’s blessings. One of the midwives came to know we had a few expecting moms amongst us and made the recommendation. So, that morning, flowers were purchased and the women sat together and made garlands and crowns for the ceremony (see pictures/videos). The five expecting women were brought to the circle, supported by friends, who stood in representing their parents. One birth worker sang a tearful melodic song, Know That You Are Loved. Meanwhile the parteras (midwives) blessed these women and their wombs with loving touch, flowers, incense, and loving intentions from everyone in the room.
What If Birth…
“This was the most respected I’ve ever felt in my life”
One of the mamas said “this was the most respected I’ve ever felt in my life”; something that still gives me goosebumps.
Just today, I read yet another article about the impact of stress on the fetus during pregnancy. Can you imagine if everyone expecting woman in the world felt this love from her community every single day? What would her pregnancy look like? What would her baby be like?
That day, I attended the workshop on the divine feminine, which pushed us to reconnect with our bodies and our divinity. It certainly got us out of our comfort zone and feelings. We reconnected with our bodies and our feelings with dance movements, which we have suppressed in our toxic masculine world.
Another favorite moment that afternoon was during the story sharing portion where we shared our experiences in birth for ourselves and our clients and shared evidence based practices that improve outcomes. I shared the Ayurvedic, indigenous Indian practices, such as baby massage, confinement, and nourishing foods.
We ended the day with a womb clearing where Partera Sandra led us through a collective and individual clearing of our wombs.
As you can tell, there was a lot of energy giving and sharing and receiving needing rest and recovery from each of us.
Nerding Out about Birth
I was ecstatic about going to the Summit, because it combined my favorite things like travel, culture, and birth and postpartum. It was “right up my alley” and I LOVED connecting with women from around the world, sharing stories, sharing cultural practices, and learning so much. We danced, learned, taught, cried, and laughed with complete strangers with whom we didn’t always have a shared language. But, the language we did share, was a deep passion for birth work and love for birthing mamas and babies. It was an amazing opportunity that I will carry with me forever.
A huge thanks to the venue for hosting us, being down with everything, and providing delicious vegetarian meals and to Germany for having us. I can’t wait until next time!
Here are some pictures below and my Instagram video from the revolutionary event. Would you attend?
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