Introduction to the Birthing  From  Within  Keepsake  Journal

This excerpt from the Keepsake Journal is a letter from Pam England to parents.

Dear Parents,

What more intimate a gift could you create for your child (and grandchildren), than a living, candid and colorful chronicle of the planning, happenings, dreams and love you showered on your unborn or newly born child. Your Keepsake Journal, an indispensable companion designed to complement your labyrinthine journey through pregnancy and the first year postpartum, includes pages for your reflections and notes from childbirth classes. In time, this record of words, sketches/paintings, and photos will become a family heirloom-archive treasured not only by your children, but their children and grandchildren, too!

Although you can begin your journal anytime during pregnancy, if you are fortunate enough to acquire the Keepsake Journal early in pregnancy, it's best to begin with Section One. The first seven sections in your Keepsake Journal record your musings and learnings about birth from various perspectives (mother, father, baby, and culture). Sections Eight and Nine pave the way for a gentle and concious transition to parenthood.

Labyrinths depict the universal story of every initiatory event. Each section page is illustrated with a womb-shaped labyrinth to portray your step-by-step journey through pregnancy, labor and birth, and the return postpartum. Life and birth never unfold in a straight predictable line to achieve a certain outcome. Rather it is labyrinthine like this: there is only one entrance, which is also the only exit. The continuous convoluted path (unlike a maze with blind alleys) requires no prior knowledge, no thinking or planning; it only asks of us to have the faith to move forward by taking one step at a time: the path leads to the center, the goal, then leads us out again. Walking a labyrinth is not as mindless as it sounds; just as you approach the center (goal) the path takes you away on an unexpected hairpin turn. It is as perplexing and frustrating as labor and life, challenging us to choose faith over control or doubts.

Gather a pouch of pencils, colored pens, magic markers, and, my personal favorite, watercolor pencils, a small paintbrush, and a little bottle of water, so you can work in your journal anytime and anywhere the spirit moves you. Write freely from your heart; the paper is sturdy enough for you to draw or paint directly in your journal. If you are making a larger painting or sculpture of one of the assignments, make sketch or digital photos of your birth art and paste it in your Keepsake Journal. When you draw, feel free to turn the journal in either the vertical or horizontal direction.

Happy Journaling,

Pam England
December 10, 2003
Albuquerque, New Mexico