Book

Visualizing Birth

Using the art, philosophy, and science of visualization to aid in pregnancy, labor, and birth

For thousands of years, traditions around the world have used imagery and visualization as powerful tools not only in religious and spiritual growth but in the revitalization of the human body. Visualizing Birth describes a technique for using beautiful art and images to aid in pregnancy, labor, and birth. The book explains exactly what “visualization” is and how it can be used in the context of birth. Anna Hennessey developed the book over time through her Visualizing Birth website (visualizingbirth.org), which she created in 2010 when pregnant with her second child and has maintained ever since. Many of the posts on the website are devoted to artworks and other objects or images related to birth. This book contains some of the most powerful images, ideas, and material related to visualization and birth that Hennessey has come across over the past 15 years. Over the years and many communications with members of the birth community (pregnant women, midwives, doulas, nurses, doctors, partners, acupuncturists and herbalists, and scholars working on birth, pregnancy, or visualization), Hennessey decided to create an actual book for people to look at and touch while pregnant or in labor. 

Order Your Copy

Book Details

What Experts Are Saying

A profound exploration of how the mind shapes the body’s experience. Anna beautifully weaves together the science, history, and practice of visualization for the sacred process of birth.
-Alex Schlegel, PhD, Cognitive Neuroscientist

The book is both a chronicle of childbirth and a testament to the varying ways that cultures have historically approached health, healing, and the body. It is generously filled with beautiful artistic renditions of birth and pictorial accounts of visualization. In this book, academic experience merges with the author’s lived experiences – a fascinating autoethnography.
-Ogechukwu Williams, PhD, Associate Professor, History of Medicine and Health (Africa)
University of Buffalo
 
Anna’s stunningly beautiful tome invites mothers simultaneously into the mythological sacredness and the unpretentious biological processes o the most vital aspect of human experience: birth. Her text and images, one treasure after another, ofer birthing mothers step-by-step support–as if Anna has collected ideal facets from the cosmic midwives, and concentrated them into an ethereal yet very practical birthing manual.
-Karlton Terry, Pre & Perinatal International Workshop Leader and Baby Therapist
 
Built on the foundation of her imaginative scholarship and rich lie experience, Visualizing Birth allows Hennessey to bring the theories and analyses of her earlier work into living form. She blends evocative images with practical guidance for those seeking to use visualization in their own birth experience or reflection on the power of the birthing body.
-Ann Duncan, PhD, Professor off American Studies and Religion, Goucher College

What’s Inside

Preview Pages

Take a look inside the book with these sample pages.

About the Author

Anna M. Hennessey, PhD, is a San Francisco based scholar and artist who has written widely about birth for over 15 years. Founder of the Visualizing Birth website (visualizingbirth.org) and the Society for the Study of Pregnancy and Birth (ssprb.org), as well as Co-Founder of the San Francisco Birth Circle (sfbirthcircle.org), Anna actively used visualization techniques during pregnancy, labor, and birth. She is the author of many publications on the topics of birth and pregnancy, including an academic book, and is the principal artist of the Rebirth Tunnel Immersive Art Installation project, for which she has won grants from the American Academy of Religion and the Henry Luce Foundation. Anna lives in San Francisco with her husband Toni, their two children, Kieran and Montserrat, and their dog Fergie.

Get Your Copy Today

Join the many who have followed Visualizing Birth over the years.

Order Now