Diary of a Death Midwife

Before every Death Doula training, students are invited to write a letter explaining what draws them to the course. I am touched, surprised and intrigued by the responses which help give me a sense of the group. David Phinney, a recent student wrote his letter after...

Death Midwifery for animals is much the same as it is for humans - we help create a sacred container for dying to happen with ease and grace and we guide the family through rituals to help process grief.   I have known and loved this beautiful Gypsy Vanner mare...

Rufus was a caretaker, of plants and dogs and sheep and chickens – he tended to things and helped them grow. Rufus was a loner who loved to sit by the fire and listen to the radio, he enjoyed lazy strolls through the forest and riding his electric bike to town...

I recently received a rather curt email from a birth midwife asking all of us who support others at the end of life to stop using the terms Death Doula and Death Midwife. She wrote:   "Please stop using the word midwife and doula in the dying context. We wouldn’t...

Regine was a free spirit with a passion for life and a love of the ocean. Her friend Kato Wittich contacted me and asked if Sacred Crossings could help carry out her wishes for a home funeral and full-body sea burial.   "I read Regine the option for sea burial...

Nella stared at her fish floating on the water in their bowl. I was struck by her silence... so I stood quietly beside her and stared too.   Perhaps it was disbelief, shock, sadness, fear maybe? I couldn't tell, but something was happening to her consciousness as...

Caring for our loved ones between the time of death and burial or cremation, is an ancient tradition that can be traced to earliest civilizations. During the past 100 years however, this once family-directed tradition has been gradually taken over by professional...

Stacy, a birth doula, wife and mother of three beautiful girls called me - she was crying - her 18-yr old daughter Zoe was dying.   “I birthed her in, I need to birth her out,” Stacy declared emphatically. "Can you help me?" Her own experience of death when she...

It was certainly not my life plan to be a death midwife. Born and raised in rural England, I trained as a music teacher for special needs children and put myself through college working as a nursing assistant.  After a year in the classroom I was safely within the...

A short film illustrating the home funeral process.   Dorothy called Sacred Crossings because she wanted put her things in order. She had a heart condition and cancer but at 95 she felt it wasn’t necessary to have treatment, “I’m going to die anyway so what’s the...