The midwives will leave their homes, their families and loved ones for hours and even days on end, to watch over mothers-to-be in their time of need, at any moment. They carry their experience in their hands (literally so), their serenity in their voice and transmit confidence and reassurance through their storytelling and experienced ways.
The midwife is much more than a person assisting a birth. She is a mother, a daughter, a storyteller, a priestess, a confidante...she is the incarnation of every woman in the riverbank community.
This project is also the result of a personal journey the search for a sense of belonging. In the case of the riverbank communities, there is a sense of place, there is a sense of self contained in each and every one of its members.
I dedicate this exhibit to the midwives, the ones i called Maes de Umbigo, the ones who taught me to see the dignity in the cry of a newborn life borne in the rainforest.
Stephanie Pommez
In memory of Dona Dorca,
to whom I am forever indebted
for teaching me to see beauty and find dignity,
to celebrate a love of life in its gestation.
