Death midwifery is an emerging field that offers holistic, compassionate support to individuals and families during the dying process. Like birth midwives, death midwives provide guidance, emotional support, and practical help at the end of life. We are the water that flows between the rocks of the medical profession and the funeral industry. We fill in the gaps.
The role of a death midwife involves a wide range of services tailored to meet the unique needs and wishes of the dying individual and their loved ones. These compassionate services can include offering emotional, spiritual, and practical support, fostering open communication to resolve any lingering issues, aiding in legacy projects such as crafting letters or recording cherished memories, and ensuring that the environment of the deathing is serene and comforting for the person’s final moments.
Death midwives partner with hospice teams, healthcare providers, and family members to address the individual's physical, emotional, and spiritual needs during the dying process. They may also help with practical tasks such as creating advance care directives, making funeral arrangements, and providing respite care for family members.
A key aspect of death midwifery is the emphasis on empowering individuals to have agency and autonomy in their end-of-life decisions. Death midwives strive to create a safe and non-judgmental space where the dying person can communicate their preferences, concerns, and expectations, ensuring that their choices are acknowledged, respected and honored.
Death midwifery aims to normalize discussions about death and dying by encouraging open and honest conversations. By educating and supporting individuals and families about death and the dying process, death midwives assist them in approaching this aspect of life with greater understanding and calm.
In conclusion, death midwifery offers a compassionate and holistic approach to end-of-life care that acknowledges the dignity, autonomy, and individuality of people during the dying process. By offering emotional, practical, and spiritual support, we contribute to a more serene and meaningful experience for both individuals nearing the end of life, and their families. As the understanding of the advantages of death midwifery expands, it has the opportunity to influence cultural perspectives on death and dying, promoting more compassionate and dignified end-of-life care for all by connecting with individuals and families as someone who is able to walk through that final journey with strength and grace. Our training is intended to provide both individuals and professionals with the tools that will make this possible.
Our Mission
We death midwives are typically neither medically trained, nor are we funeral directors. We provide information, we advocate, we facilitate, which means that we make it easier for you to care for your own Beloved dead to whatever extent you wish, within the laws of your state. We offer tools and materials that empower families to make decisions without being intimidated by the current systems, which are unsustainable, impersonal, and expensive. Our mission is to provide holistic, non-medical, emotional, spiritual, and practical support for the dying and their families. We are proudly reclaiming end of life choice.
