What's a Matryoshka?

Matryoshka Midwifery was named one day when my daughter and younger son were playing with a set of Matryoshka Dolls (also known as Matrushka and Matreshka Dolls) and had each doll give birth to the next doll. As I listened to their play, sometimes they would cheerfully say, "I'm having my belly cut open to have a baby!" and sometimes the doll babies were born in a more... traditional way. It struck me as a beautifully archetypal representation of birth, that also includes those people who need cesareans, who so often feel as if the technological aspect of their births exclude them from the rich and ancient history of birth. Via the image of the mother opening, at her middle, that the iconic dolls portray, we can all share in the work of OPENING that is birth, each in the way or ways that we have opened.