This excellent video presents birth images dating from thousands of years ago, commencing with fertility carvings that date as far back as the Ice Age 20,000 years ago.  The narrator describes how these images, which come from different time periods and cultures of world history, suggest a commonality present in how humans have approached, experienced and represented the act of birth over time.  The wonderful discussion of birthing postures, which are simiarly present in a wide variety of the images shown, for example, helps to demonstrate how humans of the past learned and shared in their knowledge of effective birthing techniques.  Likewise, a deep history of midwifery and female attendance at birth becomes clear when one notes all of the images from the past that depict women as both present and physically supportive of the birthing mother. 

The video includes several images discussed previously on this blog, such as those of Tlazolteotl, the 12th century CE Aztec goddess of birth; and Kali, the Hindu goddess representing the female principle.

This video is extremely helpful to the pregnant woman, showing her images of birth that span the course of human history, reminding her that the birth of her own child is an experience that she shares with the many women who lived before her.