Drawing birth stories: how art can help healing
Tamara Blakemore creates beautiful and moving drawings that illustrate women’s birth experiences. She explains the importance of honouring women’s experiences through art
Hello readers, I am Tamara. I am a mum on maternity leave with my daughter. Recently I felt this pull to pick up a pencil again. I’d always loved drawing and painting, but life gets busy doesn't it? Suddenly, in this strange postpartum time, I began to get creative again.
Because I care so deeply about birth, I started drawing birth stories. At first it was just me, playing with paint and pen, trying to capture something of the power I saw in those moments. I didn't set out with a specific plan or project. I certainly didn’t imagine where it would take me.
But then something surprising happened. Women began messaging me, asking if I would draw their births. Some were proud, positive experiences, home births, elective caesareans, moments they wanted to hold onto forever. Others were very different, miscarriages, stillbirths, traumatic births. Things I hadn’t really thought about drawing before. That stopped me in my tracks. I realised that birth art couldn’t just be about the “good” stories. The harder ones mattered. In fact, they mattered even more.
It also made me turn inward, back to my own second birth. For years I'd hidden it away. I'd had a postpartum haemorrhage, and I’d always felt ashamed on how that birth went, like it was something to not be proud of. I pushed it to the back of my mind. But through listening to other women, and drawing their stories, I began to see the power in honouring all births, even the ones that hurt and I’m so honoured to be able to provide my art as a form of healing for many.
Thanks to www.photographybyneve.com, who provided the photograph of Tamara for this blogpost.
You can see Tamara’s beautiful drawings on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tamarablakemoreart/
