Michael Stark, Jackie Chang, Jan Tritten, Robbie Davis-Floyd, Sarah Buckley, Peggy O’Mara, Sara Wickham, Lesley Page

A panel of some of the world’s leading experts on birth shared the stage at the close of last month’s Mid-Pacific Conference on Birth and Primal Health. Their assignment? Offer a vision of birth in 4012.

Here sitting at one table were such folks as Peggy O’Mara, Sarah Buckley, Robbie Davis-Floyd, Michel Odent and other heavy-hitters in the birth world — including the president of the Royal College of Midwives, Lesley Page, and Michael Stark, president of the New European Surgical Academy and “father” of the Misgav Ladach method for Cesarean section. With a gathering like that,  you’re going to hear many intriguing ideas about how birth will evolve in the next two millenia.

Some visions of birth in 4012 were inspiring, some were challenging, one was utterly bleak. But the most stunning moment emerged when Laura Uplinger came to the podium. Laura is a world citizen who has spent most of her adult life devoted to sharing education about the power of prenatal life. (She had spent most of this conference in a booth tirelessly translating dozens of talks from English into Spanish for the large South American contingent of attendees.)

Laura closed the panel with a vivid portrait of the future of as if she were reporting from that future. (more…)