by Lucy Corkhill

My Heart Flies

My heart is so joyous,

My heart flies in singing.

Under the trees of the forest,

The forest, our home, our mother.

In my net I have caught

A little bird,

A very little bird,

And my heart is caught

In the net with the little bird.

Pregnancy song of the Efe peoples

Cast your mind back through time, to a place in history when the Great Mother was revered and honored in rituals and ceremonies. A time when as a pregnant woman, you would be the focus of joyful celebration and deep respect. You would spend your pregnancy intuitively listening and communicating with the new life growing inside you. Your community would surround you with love and protection and help you celebrate your journey. You would have midwives attending your needs and your mother, grandmothers, aunts and sisters would be there to teach you all you needed to know. Your birth would be rejoiced in as a transition for you and your partner into parenthood and your baby’s auspicious day, and there would be feasts, rituals and ceremonies in all of your honor. (more…)