SOMETHING DIFFERENT ~

This album is Amanda West, not as a highlighted singer-songwriter, but as a mother, in a circle of mothers, a song leader in a community of friends, a healer in a world of pilgrims finding their way home. The voices of this album blend together into the single voice of community, of sisterhood, of earth and mother and memory.


HOW TO ~

To listen, we suggest you find a comfortable place, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and center yourself inward. Imagine you are sitting within a circle of strong, wise, women and mothers who are holding you, and singing with you, and for you. Allow your heart to soften and open, then allow your own voice to rise and join the circle.

This is what these songs are for.



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ~

We have done our best to trace and acknowledge the origins of each of these songs. If you have any other information for us, please do let us know. We are always learning and always grateful to be able to honor all who have laid the path before us.

These songs were recorded in one sweet afternoon with a group of eight mothers, several of whom were pregnant at the time, infusing these recordings with the sacred energy of connection to the liminal spaces of beyond, in between, and within.



A LITTLE MORE ABOUT WOMB SONG ~

Started in January of 2014, Womb Song has been a place where my paths of music and motherhood could fully come together. The songs offered here and the practices that go along with them are exactly what I was looking for (and yet did not know it) while I was pregnant with my first child.

After leading these prenatal singing circles for nearly 5 years, I was blessed to be able to sing these songs through my second pregnancy, birth and post partum time, and can now speak first hand to their ability to ease, empower and heal.

Co-created with Megan Jacobsmeyer, Womb Song has been a regular meeting place for pregnant women and birth workers around the Santa Cruz and San Fransisco Bay Areas to come together and sing through the journey of pregnancy, birth and postpartum. We drew the name from a community songleader in the UK, Maya Waldman, who led the first Womb Song circles at Westminster Hospital in London. Maya gave us her blessings to carry on here in California. You can read more about Maya and her wonderful work here: naturalvoice.net/practitioner/mayawaldman

Completely taken with this whole idea, I went on to do further research on the history and science of prenatal singing. My findings came together in a chapter in the book "Music of Motherhood," published by Demeter Press in 2017. {Available here: demeterpress.org/books/the-music-of-motherhood-history-healing-and-activism/} Further writings and offerings are in process.

After many challenges to time, energy and availability (including but not limited to a global pandemic), I am delighted to finally be able to offer these songs into the worldwide digital realms for all to enjoy.


with blessings & gratitude,
- Amanda West, July 2021


To learn more and stay connected visit www.wombsong.com


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Deepest thanks to the many families and birth-workers of the Womb Song community who keep our candle burning.

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