My Home Birth: A Graphic Graphic Memoir by Christen Clifford & David Heatley
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
If you want to publish a story about motherhood the week before Mother’s Day and not be a hideous cliché, it better be good. It better be vivid and real and personal and unique. Something like a totally raw comic strip about home birth, complete with shit and placenta, hatred and love, Facebook, The Daily Show, and hot naked photos of the majorly pregnant author. We thought you’d like that.
Christen Clifford is a fearless writer who has appeared on SMITH before as well as on stage and in many other publications. Her intensely confessional works are so intimate and honest they elicit more me-toos than TMIs. She met cartoonist David Heatley on the playground, as creative New York parents are wont to do, and read his graphic memoir in bed the day after baby Vera was [home]born. Christen immediately saw the story of her daughter’s birth in David’s child-like, evocative style. Now, quite fortunately, we can, too.
David Heatley’s book My Brain is Hanging Upside Down was published by Pantheon Books in the US and Jonathan Cape in the UK in 2008. Three foreign language editions are scheduled to be published in 2009. His performance for the 2008 tour, which included music, slides and breakdancing is documented on Google’s author channel on YouTube. A mini-LP soundtrack for the book, produced by grammy award-winner Peter Wade, was released by WonderSound Records in October ‘08. He has drawn covers for The New Yorker and sometimes collaborates on comic strips for the New York Times with his wife, the writer Rebecca Gopoian.
Christen Clifford is a writer and performer in New York. Her writing has appeared in SMITH’s Memoirville, Nerve, Salon, Identity Theory, Evergreen Review, and the Huffington Post, and is anthologized in Everything You Know About Sex Is Wrong (Disinfo Press). Her solo performance, BabyLove, premiered in Slovenia and later ran for three months Off Broadway at 45 Bleecker in 2008. She has performed at The Moth, PS 122, The Public Theatre, Town Hall, Galapagos, Classic Stage Company, and Joe’s Pub.
Photo by Justine Cooper Photography
Love this! It’s raw, sweet, profane and uncensored…just like giving birth. Bravo, Christen & David!
Awwwsome. My favorite part: “Somehow I’d forgotten that the pain was going to be diabolical no matter the location.”
So glad you stopped by my site and left this link. I needed it today. Baby fever getting the better of me.
David, love the illustrations, too.
Well done. More, please.
Miss Ive
Great birth story, well drawn!
I actually laughed out loud. The “roving neanderthal” frame was hilarious. I’m thinking a comic compilation of birth stories called “Placenta and the Roving Neanderthal” would be great…
I also really loved the “roving neanderthal” frame.The drawing was great. I loved the story also.
I loved the squash and the computer game. I laughed so hard - WITH you, not at you, at the normalcy. Thanks for documenting and sharing. Joy to you and your family.
Wow, that felt like more of a psychological profile of the storyteller than the tale of her homebirth. Honest, but kind of disturbing - all of the self loathing and doubt (I’m not good enough, demanding assurances and shooting them down, etc)… that made me sad. It was a bit more revealing of a total stranger than I expected… is that the point? Yikes. Very brave and heart-rending.
The end result was beautiful, and congratulations. Looked like a happy “baby-moon”!
(I homebirthed as well, bee tee dubs. I know you can say some crazy sh*t, but WOW this was so very sad).
On mothers day had to take another read/look. I appreciated the honesty, humor and joy. The needlepoint title is fantastic - just can’t get enough needlepoint. Thanks Christen and David!
[...] Read the rest at Smith Magazine. [...]
I LOVED this! I had three kids, 1 - induced, 2 - at home (2 days!), 3 - 10 minutes after I got to the hospital. I found the website for orgasmic birth, and was so inspired, I reviewed my birth stories . . . yeah, the pain is daibolical no matter where I am! LOL! I so related to all of that! Ok, my last birth was actually the easiest, but still . . . I dont think its sad at all, its (dark) human nature.
I birthed with Martine and Karen too. I loved being home, but I truly hate giving birth. Diabolical pain is the right expression. I appreciate this story and the drawings so much. thank you!
Whoa. This is hilarious. I will pass along to anyone planning a home birth. I love it. Brilliant at the end; uploading pics. We’ll pay you a $1000 to sleep on our couch!!!!!! So good. So good.
Wow, fearless and unsentimental (though I wouldn’t have minded a a tad more sentimentality). Heatley was the perfect choice to illustrate this tale. Bravo, bravo
This made me laugh, get teary eyed and scared…i’m due in a few days and having a home birth also. Kudos for using the names of real NYC homebirth midwives!
[...] My Home Birth: A Graphic Graphic Memoir. Christen Clifford and David Heatley. Smith Magazine, May 2008. [...]
blow it out your hairdo, dee.
[...] have Slope writer/performer Christen Clifford writing comics about home birthing. Erykah Badu twittered from her Brooklyn home-birth early this year. Brooklyn midwives are reviewed [...]
Ha ha great. Just off to bookmark this!
That was creepy, but also beautiful in some strange way. Thanks for sharing your experience, it was kind of educational for me.
[...] and Momasphere, Ellen Bari of Momasphere, Daria and Zach of Bookcourt, and my many peeps including Christen Clifford and Claire Cavanagh, founder of Babeland and supplier of G-spot, clitoral and emotional orgasms from [...]
Fabulous cartoon… But why oh why did you end up in the lithomy position (one of the worst positions to give birth in)? Was it your choice, did you really feel more comfortable that way?