Giving Birth in a London Slum, 'THE WHITECHAPEL WOMAN' Birth Undisturbed Part 2

In the second installment of photo series "Birth Undisturbed", we go back a century to the scene of a poor London woman in 1911 birthing in a squalid, waterlogged bedroom. A chance phrase she uttered to English doctor Grantly Dick-Read, that birth wasn’t meant to be painful, led Dick-Read to explore that in the absence of fear, the body's natural endorphins can replace the stress hormones that cause pain. He went on to write the most influential book on childbirth of the last century, 'Childbirth Without Fear' in 1942, with the passage describing his encounter with this nameless destitute woman becoming famously enshrined in birth philosophy. Birth Undisturbed is a fine-art photography series by Natalie Lennard depicting childbirth through the world and history to enlighten, inspire and inform. From ancient to modern, and squalid to famous, the series uses fictional narrative photography to depict birth at its most primally powerful, highlighting key figureheads and writers in birth philosophy and telling stories of women both real and imagined. With a global maternity and birth crisis, its timeliness is ever more appropriate in its ambition to rebalance the power dynamic in birth. “It is as great a crime to leave a woman alone in her agony and deny her relief from her suffering, as it is to insist upon dulling the consciousness of a natural mother who desires above all things to be aware of the final reward of her efforts.” ― Grantly Dick-Read http://www.birthundisturbed.com/the-whitechapel-woman Film by Beyond Content. Production by Natalie Lennard.