Thread

'I start to see my own experience not as a woeful result of a system or a body that has let me down, but as a birth experience as ancient, rich and potent as any other kind of birth.'Back in 2017, journalist Hannah Marsh was about to give birth to her son after months of preparation, reading and hypnobirthing classes. Following thirty hours of induced labour, Hannah was quickly acquainted with a caesarean section: a process she had not physically or emotionally prepared for. In an attempt to heal, Hannah began interrogating the following questions: why do the words 'caesarean section' bring up feelings of doubt, shame and judgement for some, but a sense of safety, relief, validation and reassurance for others? Why are those two powerful words rarely spoken of in the ecstatic tones with which we celebrate so-called 'natural', or vaginal birth? Why is the procedure rarely called 'beautiful', or associated with an innate sense of feminine power? Working her way through history, culture, and folklore, it wasn't long before Hannah stumbled upon the pioneering voices and fascinating tales history seems to have forgotten. Take Koronis, mother of Aesclepius, the Greek God of surgery, or Dr James Barry, born Margaret Anne Bulkley, who performed an early and rare successful c-section, in which both mother and child survived, in South Africa in 1826. Weaving in the arc of her own experience, a journalist's insatiable curiosity, and the stories of both contemporary and historical women who endured and drove developments, Thread is an unflinching but compassionate examination of a procedure which is much more than surgery and medicine.

Hannah Marsh is a journalist; she has written for The Telegraph and The Independent. Born into a medical family, with two Oxford University professors and scientists as parents, and an international community of scientists, researchers and specialists around her, Hannah defied the family convention to carve out a career in writing and the arts.Hannah gave birth via Caesarean in 2017. After being diagnosed with PTSD following the birth, discovering more about the procedure, and its history, became both a fascination and a key part of her healing. She first wrote about her discoveries in a personal essay for online culture magazine Demented Goddess in 2019.Writing about women and gender has long been a focus for Hannah; she wrote a series of columns for The Independent focusing on feminist and gender issues and she has penned columns for The Vagenda. Hannah explores the Caesarean experience with a journalist's tenacity, curiosity and eye for a story, a scientific edge and a storyteller's creative approach, giving new life to forgotten women's voices.