India part 1

I’ve been traveling through India for almost two weeks now and I came here not knowing what to expect at all. I had no idea if this idea in my head was even possible. Sometimes, during my studies, it felt way too big: a midwife traveling around the world to document birth cultures… without ever having studied film. But this idea didn’t leave me alone for the past three years. It kept whispering: go, go, go.

I asked myself so many times: Is this too big for me? Can I really do it? What will people think? How do you travel to a country where you don’t know anyone, don’t speak the language, and still find women who are willing to share the most intimate parts of their lives?

And honestly, the first eight days were really hard.I reached out to birth workers, scheduled interviews that got canceled last minute, I got food poisoning, was sick and alone, calling my mom saying, “I want to come home.”But my mom believes in me. Just like my friends and to be honest, their support means everything to me.

With their help, I found the courage to start this journey in the first place and now they helped back on my feet again. I began interviewing the first women and something inside me shifted.

Women who are pregnant, women who have just given birth, families who opened their homes and hearts to me. They let me into their daily rituals, their beliefs, their memories. I heard everything from:

“Everything was perfect during my pregnancy, I loved it,”to“We oil-massage the baby every day and paint the evil eye to protect it,”to“I was married at 13 and had three home births with the village midwife. I had to keep having children until I had a boy.”

Some stories were soft.Some were painful.All of them were deeply human.

I keep writing down everything I learn and experience, capturing every detail so I won’t forget, and I just started editing my very first vlog for YouTube.

Nothing has gone as planned, and so far after two weeks, the journey has been more inspiring and challenging than I ever imagined. My head is spinning in the best way, and I’m learning to surrender to the process.

So far I’ve interviewed eight people:

• 3 pregnant women

• 4 women who gave birth

• 1 gynecologist

I’ll keep you updated thank you for all the support. It means the world. <3

Interviewing women near Belgaum, India with my sweet translator Aditi.