Sacred Pregnancy

Ann W. Duncan’s Sacred Pregnancy: Birth, Motherhood, and the Quest for Spiritual Community examines the growing number of American movements that blend business with spiritual and religious approaches to the reproductive health of cisgendered women. It takes its point of departure from a contemporary perspective that the birthing process offered in clinical settings is devoid of or ignores holistic care approaches. The increase in the medicalization of childbirth parallels an increase in disaffiliation from traditional religion, causing women to seek innovative means of creating community and meaning in pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering. The case studies Duncan offers reveal how new forms of spiritual communities in the United States walk the line between religion, feminism, and business.

From Oregon to Florida to Washington, DC, and from in-person workshops to online training and support, Duncan analyzes the growing number of movements blending business with spirituality to create ritual and rites of passages related to women’s reproduction. The book acknowledges the shifting religious landscape, from traditional religious believers to religious nones and those who identify as spiritual but not religious (SBNR). The case studies demonstrate that this shift does not necessarily present a complete secularization or a clean rejection of religion. “For example, the Sacred Living Movement (SLM) deploys terms such as sacred and divine frequently but without the use of any sacred scripture or prescriptive or required worldview,” Duncan notes (69). Though this movement reports a lack of religious doctrine, it does point to a clear philosophy of pregnancy and motherhood, one that rejects pregnancy as simply a medical/physical condition. This new cultural feminism is also different from the paradigm of “natural mothering” (70). For instance, SLM’s Sacred Pregnancy retreat focuses much more on the mother than the baby. Rituals at these retreats include a Blessingway (spiritualized baby shower), belly casting or belly painting, and activities meant to glorify a mother’s pregnant body in such a way as to empower and prepare her for the new life phase of motherhood.

To understand the religious dynamics of these new movements, the first chapter gives a historical overview of the many socially constructed paradigms of motherhood, from the model developed byChristianity to those offered by first wave to third wave feminism. The chapter also details contemporary changes to America’s religious dynamics resulting from the country’s diverse demographics. Chapter 2 reviews theories behind the growing  religious nones and SBNR movements, and how leaders and participants unaffiliated with a traditional denomination freely ascribe spiritual meaning to otherwise secular or medical activities in spiritual birth movements (65). Chapter 3 addresses the various movements studied by Duncan that recognize pregnancy as a rite of passage deserving of ritual, something missing in the modern world. To create a sense of space and community, spiritual birth movements refrain from endorsing specific interpretations of pregnancy, enabling women to offer their own interpretations and create their own meaning. Duncan argues that the lack of any “doctrine,” coupled with services offering ritual, spiritual meaning, and community, are what make these movements attractive. Though these movements aim to universalize their services, they are not without limitations or exclusions, especially related to gender identity,  ability to conceive, and financial accessibility.

Their reluctance to embrace a specific dogma makes these movements unique and distinct from traditional religious and secular birth organizations. Making motherhood a spiritual experience, while at the same time resisting religious labeling, is achieved through a mild to blatant form of cultural appropriation Duncan calls “blending and borrowing” in the fourth chapter—something which SLM’s leader, Anni Daulter, is fully conscious of and unapologetic about (124). The growing number of Americans who are reluctant to affiliate with organized religion are drawn to this religious blending and borrowing, which “underscores the universalism at the heart of these movement’s worldviews” (100). Part of the appeal resides in the movements’ inevitable exclusion which accompanies and leads to a potential list of radicals such as radical polytheism (101), radical openness (103), radical inclusion (123), and radical internal transformation (125).

Still, Duncan’s astute critique recognizes the power dynamics at play. The movement’s leaders are primarily white middle and upper-class American women who are utilizing concepts from traditions that have long been marginalized, and despite their eschewal of doctrine, never hesitate to articulate their own philosophies and worldview (131). One cannot help but notice that these groups consists of financially and culturally privileged women who control entry into a movement that supports and justifies their neoliberal ethic.

Furthermore, these new paradigms of spiritual and religious community itch at the problem of definition. As sacred spaces are redefined and spiritualities are enlisted as businesses, terms like “spirituality” become fuzzier(150). Chapter 5 describes precisely how the marketing and commercialization of new, non-organized spiritual communities affects the religious landscape and its defined borders. Spirituality is not the only definition at stake in the project. Spiritual birth movements also unsettle definitions of religious experience, motherhood, and feminism. Medicalization is quite frequently on the chopping block for these communities. Throughout the book, phrases and terms arise such as “overmedicalization” (111), “elevated from the medical” (109), “individualized medical procedures” (114), and “skepticism of medicalized birth” (97). Yet, the book lacks empirical evidence of what exactly the dissatisfaction is concerning spiritual seekers; neither does it provide evidence for what kinds of empirical medical outcomes arise due to the spiritual birth movement experience. As an in-hospital labor and delivery nurse, I am always happy to provide chaplain services, invite and cooperate with a birthing mother’s doula or midwife, and use any kind of language or description, sacred or otherwise, to help provide her or them with a positively memorable labor experience. I understood the spiritual birth movements’ potential supplemental benefit, but it is not a replacement for standardized medical care.

This book reads excellently for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in religion or women’s and gender studies. Duncan’s work possesses an objective approach with a sympathetic tone and leaves just enough room for future critical theorizing and research.

Yvonne Candelario is a registered nurse and PhD candidate in philosophy and religious studies at the University of South Florida.

Yvonne Candelario

Date Of Review:

January 31, 2024