Being produced in theaters across the country on this Labor Day weekend, Birth is a play about being pregnant from start to finish and even after, by Karen Brody.
Here in Cincinnati it’s at the Know Theatre, presented by Birth & Beyond: Advocates for Woman Centered Healthcare. You can check out their website at www.birthnbeyond.org.
In the meantime – back to the play. I was there because I like edgy / different theater – and because my friend Bet Stewart is the director. Also because several other play-going women friends of mine wanted to go. So we all had dinner at Lavomatic – meaning we got there early enough to get a great on-street parking space – and then on to the theatre.
All of us in my group related to the many and varied stories, even though most of our pregnancies and births were long, long ago. The play begins with discussion of how dogs and cats – mammals, as are we – give birth. They want quiet, dark, calmness gentleness. Not the Lucy and Desi craziness of too many delivery rooms. It goes on with eight stories, well intertwined and well pace, with lots of humor, about actual births by actual women.
Even the good birth stories on stage were not very good – most experienced their deliveries as having been arranged to meet the needs of the doctors (whether women or men) and staff. Though they didn’t figure that out until later. The ending is of a great birth – loving, quiet, gentle, celebratory. And left us all feeling great, and knowing what we all need to work toward for our daughters, grandaughters and friends – all those next generations.