Darcia Narvaez, founder of The Evolved Nest, talks about one of the nine components of the Evolved Nest, birth, with Suzanne Arms, an iconic birth thought-leader since her New York Times’ bestselling, Immaculate Deception, in 1974.
The Evolved Nest has been integral to 99% of human genus history and provides a baseline for optimizing normal development. You can visit and learn more about the science at www.EvolvedNest.org.
The nine components of the Evolved Nest are below. Click on the links to go to the Evolved Nest’s website and learn more about the component.
1. Soothing Perinatal Experiences – include limited stress in pregnancy, no separation of baby from mom at birth, no painful procedures.
2. On-request Breastfeeding occurs for several years.
3. Positive Moving (and no negative) Touch like carrying and rocking promote neurobiological health.
4. Positive Social Climate is a welcoming community culture.
5. Self-Directed Social Play is free social play with multiple- aged playmates.
6. Multiple Allomothers refers to responsive caregivers other than mothers (e.g., fathers, grandmothers, aunts, uncles).
7. Responsive Relationships keep baby contented while the brain rapidly develops, the foundation of healthy childhood growth.
8. Nature Connection means developing caring relationships with the natural world of plants, animals and other entities.
9. Healing Practices are made routine to mend old wounds.
The Evolved Nest Explained Series is being presented on our Kindred channel as a collaboration with our sister-initiative, the Evolved Nest (see EN’s YouTube channel). Dr. Narvaez is a contributing editor for Kindred Media and president of the parent nonprofit of Kindred and the Evolved Nest, Kindred World.
Read more about birth as a component of the Evolved Nest here.
Visit the Evolved Nest’s page on Kindred, with podcasts, posts, and videos, here.
Arms is also a beloved member of Kindred’s International Advisory Board. Visit Suzanne Arms here.
About Suzanne Arms
Suzanne Arms is an internationally acclaimed author, photojournalist, visionary, and activist, and has been an acknowledged leader of the international birthing movement for over 25 years. Her 1975 book Immaculate Deception: A New Look at Women and Childbirth fueled a national movement and was named a New York Times “Best Book of the Year.” In 1995 she has received the prestigious Lamaze International Lifetime Achievement Award for her outstanding contributions to the world of birth. She does her work through Birthing the Future, based near Durango, Colorado.
Since 1975, Suzanne Arms has been challenging the status quo in how we care for childbearing women, bring babies into the world and fail to meet the needs of the mother-baby and the brain and immune development of children. While she has focused her life’s work on the Roots of Love and Violence and creating a different kind of human being, her roots lie in the peace movement and the movement to shift human consciousness.