Earth Mother

I cannot escape my body. I am a woman with a legacy that stretches back through evolutionary time, from one hominid species to the next. Not all, but many of us have experienced the trials of giving birth. It is grotesque and humbling. It’s momentous and agonizing. After birth, the smell of blood glues itself to us for weeks on end. Our body loosens as water, baby, and placenta are all leached away. Our breasts become heavy like rocks and our sore nipples spew rivers on our beds. We become feverish with infected milk ducts and swollen veins. This is what it felt like to be an embodied new mother. And this new reality informs us over and over of our deep and inescapable connection to the earth. I am giving birth and smelling death all in one breath.