The Birth Stories Project - funded by the National Lottery Community Fund

The Birth Stories Project funded by the National Lottery Community Fund is part of a powerful movement to bring birth stories into the light, to create healing, and to push for change in the maternity system.

At the Sacred Birth Centre, we believe every birth story matters. Yet right now, 1 in 3 women in the UK describe their birth experience as traumatic. We know it doesn't have to be this way. Our Birth Stories Project invites people to safely share their experiences, regardless of when the birth took place or whether there story is positive, challenging or transformative. By collecting and sharing these stories, we can break the silence around birth trauma, build awareness, and advocate for better, more compassionate maternity care.

What the workshop will provide for you

In this workshop you will be able to share your birth story (whether a mother, birthkeeper/doula, midwife, partner or other) through art as part of a communal canvas. The facilitators Sarah Slaughter (artist) and Samsara Tanner (professional facilitator and Doula Mentor) will facilitate the creative process in a safe and supported space.

Stories can therefore be shared and expressed in a community space, through painting, drawing and sewing (you choose what is right for you). Participants are welcome to bring babies in arms only along to the session (as we cannot provide child care for toddlers and older children).

The communal canvas will be part of the Birth Stories exhibition in the late Spring/Summer of 2026. The exhibition will include art from four different workshops and also words and spoken words from online poetry sessions. The art and words will also be included in a book linked to the project hopefully (subject to further funding be available).

We will collate the findings and insights gained from the project to contribute to our advocacy for more compassionate and respectful maternity care.

About the facilitators

Sarah Slaughter (artist)

Sarah's favourite subject matter revolves around Motherhood. As a mother of two young children, the process of pregnancy, birthing and bonding with a child is depicted in many of her paintings. She sees this as a healing process for her birth journeys. 

Both Sarah's planned home births resulted in medical emergencies and since then, the urge to paint about pregnancy and birth have become the focus of her art.  Sarah is passionate about supporting maternal mental health and well-being and her art gives her the opportunity open conversations around these matters with other Mothers.

Along with her art prints and originals, Sarah offers pregnancy and birth commissions, placenta art and runs workshops supporting Mothers working through their birth journeys.

Sarah's Art can be seen via Facebook or Instagram at 'The Art of Sarah Slaughter'.

Samsara Tanner (doula and mentor)

'For over 35 years I have had the honour of being witness as a traditional birth attendant and doula to the journey and stories of women and their families as they come to the altar of Birth. 

The natural & mysterious process of birth as a rite of passage and the postpartum support by her community as women enter the new pathway into Matrescence seems to have been forgotten & lost in this disconnected & driven world. A woman's trust in her own body, her wild and feminine intuitive knowing has been eroded. Her protective voice silenced in the dominant industrialised medical system. 

I offer a safe space for your birth story to be heard and to support your healing journey to begin. 

For many people there is grief and guilt. I offer a safe space as together we gently enquire into what the body holds and how with somatic awareness we can allow it to tell its own story'.

https://www.sacredbirthcentre.org/event-details/birth-stories-project-art-workshop