mid`wife /mid wif/

noun mid 'with' + WIFE (in the archiac sense 'woman')   verb a person who helps create or develop something

 

Nel Da Silva is a no-bullshit woman who offers safe, uninhibited, uncensored, creative spaces for art to be born through a cervix. 

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Metapohorically; cervically avante gard speaking.

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At 21 she began her professional performance career presenting live on ABC TV. She studied acting at the National Theatre, St.Kilda whilst working in Australian and British television. She also began working as a roving performer, body artist and improvisational actor. Drawn more to the process of the performing arts, she went on to study a Graduate Diploma in Experiential Creative Arts Therapy.

 

Running concurrently with her professional career, triggered by the deaths of three loved ones, Nel entered the realm of esoteric studies. Self-lead though inspired by many mentors and teachers, she studied texts, philosophies, wholistic therapies and began Rites of Passage work. She was awakened.

 

2003 initiated Nel into motherhood which drew her studies deeper into the practice of embodied feminine wisdom. She became a fierce advocate for normal physiological childbirth, supporting all women in making informed choices for their birth and their babies. Nel began noticing that when she encoutered any woman, in any circumstance, if the woman felt safe and heard, she would share the most intimate stories from her womb. The simple act of bearing witness to her, and her sharing was profoundly healing and a reciprocal effect. BTM began gestation. 

 

Whilst early parenting Nel worked as a doula, art therapist and child birth educator. After the birth of her second child in 2006 Nel began facilitating women's personal developement groups & circles, emphasising self-lead healing and wholistic care. Centering her work on menstrual awareness & health. In 2008 she called in her daughter through a conscious conception and co-facilitated Blood Mysteries work with her whilst she was inutero. Akasha, (her daughter) was in clear communication with Nel in leading the group. The closed circle had the priveledge of journeying with the sacred femiminine in this Way.

 

In 2009 Nel had a free, home, water birth with Akasha, the way she had requested Nel to birth her. This was a challenging and indelibly rewarding process for Nel to truly work with fear and doubt, become more educated on birth and making a sound choice that was true for her and her baby. Again, this was another intiation for Nel into The Divine Feminine Mysteries.  

 

In 2010 Nel trained in Child Birth Education through the Royal Woman's Hospital. She completed courses with Jenni Blythe and Fiona Hallinan in traditional midwifery practices (or cunt whispering) from 2010-2012. In 2012 she completed her Birth Attendant training with Rhea Dempsey. She also went to Bali to assist Ibu Robin Lim (2011 CNN Hero of the Year) for 10 days in a Loving The Mother Retreat. Nel became a confident cunt whisperer.

 

She underwent many life changes through these years, from wife to single mother of three. She also had two conscious terminations in this time which deepened her ability to hold space for women when faced with life, death and love, broadening her wholistic, traditional midwifery skills. Nel now knows the Dark Mother and sits at the foot of her altar.

 

BTM was finally at full gestation in 2013 and the first Showcase was birthed at Seven Sisters Festival. As Artisitic Director of BTM, Nel is constantly inspired by the vulnerability, honesty, courage and creativity of the people who support BTM. She is in her element as Artistic Director, combining all of her passions under the one format providing a concentric flow of support to the broader community, paying it forward as an organisation that gifts their profits to the empowerment of women and families.

 

BTM is constantly evolving through creative storytelling for the

greater good. Nel is proud of her work and takes pride in it's level

of impeccability. She holds women with raw strength, integrity

and endurance.

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Now in it's fifth year and 16th round, Nel is proud to offer a unique program that focuses on subtle energies that promote health & wellbeing through the arts. 

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Humbled and inspired by BTM everyday, Nel is available to discuss any questions you may have about BTM! 

 

Email her directly: nel@birthingthemother.org