Soul midwifery
Non-medical holistic companions to facilitate a gentle and tranquil death
As Felicity Warner, the founder of the world-wide soul midwives’ movement, writes in her book Gentle Dying, ‘A good death is an extraordinary, moving and sacred experience. It can also have a healing quality, not only for the person who is involved but their families, friends and the wider community.’
We all die, but there are good deaths and not such good deaths. Most deaths are efficient, clinical, institutionalised. Soul midwives ensure that death is a dignified and peaceful experience. In traditional cultures death is often regarded as an important rite of passage, an initiation, a journey across a spiritual threshold. Soul midwives are able to draw on these ancient skills and traditions, applying them to our modern world and using them to ease the passage of those who are dying.
Soul midwives lovingly assist and accompany a dying person on their journey, providing their services within a home, hospital or hospice. There are at present soul midwives working in the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.