The Modern Mind

These are sculptures from the Neolithic period and are about 27,000 to 20,000 years old. They depict women who are pregnant or had children. In fact the one on the right, when extrapolated, is thought to be a pregnant woman squatting as if in labour. What is interesting is their concept of what is a beautiful body is completely different from ours. Then, fertility and focus on raising offspring was important, and acknowledged, by the celebration of the pendulous breasts, sagging abdomen and fat filled thighs of a woman who has reproduced. Now it is the androgynous, stick thin, child like, shape of fashion models and celebrities; a shape that is impossible to achieve and maintain without compromising ones health.
However - enough moralising.
I love them because they give me a link to those women, thousands of years ago, whom had the same concerns and worries the as women I see today. They were reassured by the local/tribal 'wise woman' who consoled them in the same way I do for my women.
Midwifery, the most ancient art and skill of all time. A craft I am proud to be part of; proud to be linked to those midwives of 27,000 years ago; proud to know, that in the future, there will be midwives doing exactly the same as we, neolithic and modern midwives, have been doing for aeons.