'The her-story of women’s work ~ a handmaid’s tale'

Saturday, 12pm

Down through ages, the wisdom of the feminine, as expressed in midwife-ly and healing arts, has been appropriated, plagiarised, marginalized, subordinated and even criminalized. We explore the significance of this for doulas, birth-keepers and healers in the modern paradigm, and identify power strategies currently exerted by the dominant medical model. We examine creative and outrageous ways and means by which these strategies might be matched or countered by contemporary women, and those who support them, so that autonomous birthing and parenting alternatives might be preserved.

About Julie Bell

Julie Bell has been, at various times, a Registered Nurse, birth passionista, herbalist and now founder/owner of Blissful Herbs and author of the Melbourne Doula blog.
As a doula and volunteer humanitarian worker, Julie attended births in Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Nagaland, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States before returning to Australia to live.
She is the mother of  four babies, all born at home, in 3 different countries.
It is the passion of Julie’s life to support women in realising their personal power and learning to wield it unapologetically. It is the joy of Julie’s life to be allied with a remarkable cohort of creative and inspiring women who are a force of love and change in the world. Birthing rights, women’s rights, human rights and the environment are causes never far from Julie’s heart.
A friend recently described Julie as “one of the most staggering and formidable people I have ever met”. Julie however, regards herself as a plodder, who “tried hard”. On her Instagram account @blissful.herbs which has a following of 36K, she writes “Expect radical. Do not expect tame.”
Into her 50s and beyond, Julie intends to continue to live radically, wage peace and make revolution.