FREE LIVE CEREMONY · SATURDAY 31 OCTOBER
Witches & Midwives
An evening of untold history, uncomfortable truths, and ancestral remembrance.
THEY TAUGHT US TO FEAR THE WITCH.
THEY NEVER TAUGHT US WHO SHE REALLY WAS.
Before she became a Halloween costume, she was the woman people turned to at birth, death, and the thresholds in between.
So how did the women once trusted with life’s most vulnerable moments become figures of fear. What does that history have to do with the way we experience birth today?
This Samhain, we’re going back to the source.
Join me for a live evening of untold history, uncomfortable truths, and ancestral remembrance. We’ll separate the facts from the myths, explore what happened to women’s authority in birth, and journey back through the stories we’ve inherited.
Let’s question what we’ve been taught, remember what deserves to be remembered, and decide what we want to carry forward.
In the late 1480s, a German inquisitor named Heinrich Kramer published one of history’s most notorious witch-hunting manuals: the Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer of Witches. He singled out one woman as particularly dangerous: the midwife.
Women entrusted with bringing children into the world were accused of serving the devil. You’ve probably heard the story that followed: thousands of midwives burned at the stake for what they knew.
Except the historical records tell a different story.
Midwives weren’t systematically hunted as witches in the way we’ve come to believe. Many remained respected and trusted members of their communities.
So why does almost everyone know the story of the burned midwife, but so few know the history of how birth actually changed hands?
And what happens when we mistake a powerful story for historical truth?
This Samhain, we’re going to look at it all: The women. The accusations. How authority over birth changed. And the stories we’ve continued to tell about all three.
Reclaiming women’s history means being willing to question even the stories we wish were true.
I AM VANESSA
For 15 years, I’ve worked with women, babies, and families through some of life’s most profound transitions, bringing together my clinical background in pediatric osteopathy, birth work, and ancestral practice that was passed down from my shamanic mother.
I’ve spent years in clinical environments, alongside midwives, and in the intimate spaces where women become mothers. And I’ve seen what happens when we treat the physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of birth as though they have nothing to do with each other. My work refuses that separation. I believe in clinical knowledge. I believe in ancestral wisdom. And I believe both deserve rigorous questions.
That’s why I founded Rising Mother: to educate women and doulas who can understand the physiology, navigate the systems, recognize the complexity, and remain deeply human in the middle of it all.
I don’t believe we honor women by inventing a more beautiful history for them. I believe we honor them by taking their actual lives seriously.
This Samhain, I’d love to share that work with you.
WHY THIS
NIGHT?
Before Halloween had plastic broomsticks and green-faced witches, there was Samhain.
An old Gaelic festival marking the transition into the darker half of the year. In folklore it's associated with the living and the dead coming closer, with endings, remembrance, and the turning of seasons.
Now, we find people dressed up as a caricature of a woman who frightens children, lives outside the village, and cannot be trusted.
But the history of women who worked with birth, death, healing, and the unknown is far more interesting than that caricature.
On the night we dress up as witches, we’re gathering to ask who these women actually were.
I want us to make space for the women who came before us, whose names we may never know, but whose lives made ours possible.
WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS HAVE TO DO WITH YOU?
Maybe you've never given birth. Maybe you've attended birth a hundred times. Maybe you’re simply the woman people turn to when something important is happening, even if you don’t quite understand why.
Either way, you live in a world that has very strong opinions about women’s bodies.
Who gets to make decisions about them. Whose knowledge counts. What makes a woman a credible authority on her own experience.
Those ideas didn't fall from the sky. They have histories and dates. When you begin to understand how they developed, you gain something truly valuable: the ability to distinguish what you actually believe from what you’ve simply inherited.
I am not here to convince you that birth was once perfect, that modern medicine is the enemy, or that your ancestors possessed some secret knowledge we can magically recover.
I want to be asking better questions.
And make room for the real answers to actually change something.
FREE LIVE SAMHAIN CEREMONY
SATURDAY 31 OCTOBER
THIS IS FOR YOU
IF YOU ALREADY WORK IN BIRTH
You’re a doula, midwife, nurse, birth photographer, or another professional who has witnessed what happens when a woman’s voice gets lost in the room. You want more than slogans about empowerment. You want context, historical accuracy, and a way to hold the complexity of birth without losing its humanity.
IF YOU'RE CONSIDERING BECOMING A DOULA
Something about this work keeps calling you back. You’ve looked at trainings. You’ve wondered whether you have what it takes. Maybe you haven’t told anyone you’re considering it. You don’t need to have decided anything before coming.
IF YOU SIMPLY FEEL THE PULL
You’re curious about women, birth, ancestral knowledge, and the parts of our history that rarely make it into ordinary conversations. You don’t need to be pregnant, have children, or intend to become a birth worker. Curiosity is enough.
THIS IS A CEREMONY
I don't do webinars, because I'd fall asleep myself. For 100 minutes, we gather live, with candles lit and history on the table.
01 · OPEN THE CIRCLE
You light your candle and call in a woman from your lineage.
02 · FOLLOW THE RECORD
What the Malleus Maleficarum actually says about midwives, and where the familiar story came from.
03 · MEET THE WOMEN BEHIND THE STORIES
How authority over birth changed hands, across different places and centuries.
04 · JOURNEY THROUGH YOUR LINEAGE
A guided shamanic dream journey into the fears and beliefs about birth you may have inherited. No belief in the supernatural required.
05 · HONOR WHAT CAME BEFORE
A simple ritual for the women in our lineages, and what we choose to carry forward.
06 · CLOSE THE CIRCLE
Space to share, witness one another, and leave with a question you hadn't thought to ask before.
FREE LIVE SAMHAIN CEREMONY
Saturday, 31 October 2026
17:00 Madrid, Berlin, Paris
16:00 London, Dublin
12:00 New York
09:00 Los Angeles
Duration: 100 minutes
Location: Live on Zoom, wherever you are
Language: English
Investment: Free
The ceremony is participatory, and I encourage you to have your camera on so we can witness one another. You can arrive exactly as you are. Children in the background are welcome.
For the guided journey, you’ll want approximately 30 uninterrupted minutes. If you’re parenting that evening, plan for that little pocket of time in advance.
What if I can't make it live?
Register anyway. The historical teaching and guided shamanic journey will be available to everyone registered for 5 days after the ceremony. Of course, there’s something special about gathering live. The shared ritual, the presence of other women, and the opportunity to witness and be witnessed are experiences a recording can’t fully recreate. Personal sharing will never be included in the replay. So if you can, come live. And if life has other plans, the journey will still be waiting for you.
A FEW THINGS YOU MIGHT BE WONDERING
Once you register, I’ll send you a preparation guide and you will get a reminder before the event.
Not at all. I’ll guide you through everything. You don’t need prior experience with ritual, meditation, or shamanic practice.
Yes. Bring your questions. The historical teaching is grounded in research, and the ceremony is an invitation to explore, not a requirement to believe.
No. You’re welcome to participate without speaking during the sharing portion. Being present is enough.
Yes. The historical teaching and the guided ancestral journey will be recorded and available to everyone who registered for the days after. Personal sharing will never be included in the replay. But there's something special about gathering live and experiencing this circle. If you can, come live!
Yes. Completely.
At the end, I’ll briefly introduce my English Full Spectrum Doula Training beginning in January, for anyone curious about taking this work further.
There’s no obligation. The ceremony is yours regardless.
You’ll only need three things: A candle, an object that holds meaning for you, and the name of a woman from your lineage you’d like to remember. Someone you knew, someone you’ve heard stories about, or simply someone you’d like to honor. Find a comfortable place where you can settle in. That’s enough.
Some stories deserve to be questioned.
And women deserve to be remembered.
On 31 October, while the world dresses up as witches, we’ll gather to look beyond the costume.
To meet the history.
To honor the women.
And to consider what we want to carry forward.
There’s a place in the circle for you.