singing the bones
lorna davies
A version of this article was also published in
Midwifery Matters
Singing the Bones is a play about the wonder, strength
and the politics of childbirth. Caitlin Hicks, a Canadian
based in British Columbia, is the playwright, co-director
and sole performer of the production. She uses the
stories of three women, Meg a passionate midwife, who
believes in the spiritual and healing power of birth,
Nicole, a strong and vulnerable mother who is searching
for a birth experience uninterrupted by technological
intervention, and Sara, the compassionate obstetrician.
The lives of the women are irrevocably linked, and so
weave a tale, which takes the audience from hope to despair,
from betrayal to acceptance, from confusion to lucidity.
The title of the play comes from the legend of La Loba,
an old woman in the desert who gathers the bones of wolves.
When she has gathered a complete skeleton, she sings
over the bones, and a new wolf springs to life.
Caitlin sees Meg the midwife in the play as La Loba.
She sings over the bones of past traumas, gathering and
loosening real skeletons, speaking of unspeakable things
which must be spoken of before any birth can begin.
She frees us to heal and move on.
The imagery used by Caitlin Hicks is striking.
Her opening and closing soliloquies, include the phrase
"the window to the universe is open", a tremendously
powerful metaphor, which left the hairs on the back of
my neck standing. The parallels drawn between a fascist
regime and the practice of obstetrics leaves her wide open
to criticism, but it certainly serves to grab our attention.
Her reassurance that one teardrop may have a ripple effect
is similar in its message to the Quaker candle metaphor
and does serve to offer consolation to those in practice
who feel at times that they are a voice in the wilderness.
Caitlin Hicks is without doubt, a storyteller of great
skill and mastery. Increasingly in midwifery, the power
of story telling is being recognised as having a positive
and liberating effect, not least in encouraging reflective
practice. Kirkham (1997) believes that our life experience
is only rendered meaningful and coherent if it is created
from stories.
"Listeners absorb the story through the web of their own
view of the world and by links with their own stories."
Traditionally, storytelling was the way in which women
were prepared for the birth experience and were able to
make sense of the experience from the reflections of those
who had been there already. Caitlin Hick's insight is
remarkable. She spent four months working with a midwife
in order to give her greater knowledge and understanding.
The results are breathtaking. Her performance decrees
the captive attention of the audience for two hours.
In our own sphere of practice as midwives, we recognise
the importance of encouraging the woman time to talk
through her birth, to 'tell her story', but in practice
we all too sadly recognise that the reality of poor
staffing levels frequently results in a story never told,
or made meaningful. We are criticised for not providing
opportunities for women to meet up with other new parents
after the birth of their babies, another lost opportunity
for women to get together and tell their birth stories.
A pointed reminder that I was given as a result of
experiencing Caitlin's amazing play, was the reaffirmation
that midwives as women need to debrief, or defuse as much
as the women that they support during this period.
Some years ago when I applied to the National Childbirth
Trust to become an antenatal teacher, I was invited to the
home of the local tutor, for what I imagined was going to
be an interview. I was surprised when she asked me to
talk about my own birth experiences. I was even more
surprised how cathartic it was to talk about some aspects
of the experiences which I realised I had locked away
for some time.
Within the NCT philosophy, it is considered to be
unreasonable to expect you to cope with other peoples
'baggage', when you have not unpacked your own. However,
in midwifery, at least in my own experience, we do not
actively encourage this practice. Caitlin's play
hypothesizes that there are potential time bombs
ticking away in midwifery practice. These days a midwife
is expected to be self-aware (Hammett 1997).
Burnard (1994) believes that self awareness is bound up
with other relationships and therefore it cannot be
forced upon the individual but must be sought by her.
If the midwife needs to understand the needs of women she
first has to understand her own needs and her own agenda.
Birth - like death - in our society remains a taboo
subject, although we may not recognise it as such.
We may imagine ourselves to be liberal and permissive
in our attitudes and responses to the act of procreation.
It seems that almost other every night an image of birth
invades our living room from the television screen.
But in reality, what we see is usually not birth, but a
parody dramatized and sensationalized beyond belief.
Likewise, pregnancy is frequently portrayed in a sterile
and superficial way. We can observe the physical
manifestation of pregnancy, but we are rarely invited to
scratch the surface and discover how the woman really
feels, or how we feel about it.
Occasionally, an image will seep into our consciousness
and challenge us to critically analyse our own responses.
This can be a painful and disturbing experience.
In Singing the Bones, Caitlin Hicks manages to achieve
this phenomenon by producing a performance that is raw
and at times savage in its approach. I would recommend
that all midwives make the effort to view this spectacular
production if given the opportunity to do so.
As a post note, Singing the Bones has now been produced
as a film and will be available on release in the near future.
For further information access http://www.fatsalmoncinema.com/