A Brief Biography
of a Social Activist
Since 1975, with the publication of her 2nd book, Suzanne Arms has been challenging the status quo in how we care for childbearing women, bring babies into the world and fail to meet the needs of the mother-baby and the brain and immune development of children. While she has focused her life’s work on the Roots of Love and Violence and creating a different kind of human being, her roots lie in the peace movement and the movement to shift human consciousness. *
Arms is a visionary who gets her message out through words, images and film. She’s an inspired teacher, a passionate yet compassionate public speaker who synthesizes earth-based and indigenous wisdom, intuition and modern science with models from around the world, Her mission: optimal human development and thriving children, families and communities.
“For far too long, our approach to childbearing and the rights and wellbeing of mothers and needs of babies has been fear-based. Its hallmarks are isolation, rampant and unscientific intervention in natural processes, hyper-stimulation of the developing baby’s nervous system and profound levels of maternal – and paternal – deprivation. The mother-baby – which is one biological system – and their relationship is the crucial piece no one talks about. The problem is systemic if critical importance, because, how we treat the women who bring children into this world – with honor or neglect and abuse – profoundly influences the direction of that entire culture. Love and fear, and peace and violence, truly begin in the womb and with the empowerment or disempowerment of women. A new paradigm, rooted in earth-based wisdom and intuitive knowing and backed by solid scientific evidence is easy to bring into practice. We have the skills and tools at hand to break inter-generational cycles of abuse and neglect and to prevent and heal birth-related trauma and attachment disorders that so prevalent in modern societies, and which are the root cause of most mental and physical, learning and behavioral disorders.”
Suzanne Arms is a familiar name to millions from her 7 groundbreaking books on pregnancy, birthing, breastfeeding, bonding and adoption. Her films, photographs, plus the hundreds of keynote talks she has given at conferences worldwide since 1975 have been transformative for two generations. Many people consider Suzanne Arms to be grandmother of the Birth Movement. Her 2nd book, Immaculate Deception was named a New York Times Best Book of the Year and it’s 3 editions continues to inspire generations of parents, midwives, nurses and physicians and activists.
Arms’ perspective, which has broadened and deepened over the years, weaves history, politics, economics, psychology, epigenetics and brain development, attachment, public health, cross-cultural wisdom, eco-feminism and the feminine.
As founder-director of the Colorado USA-based 501c3 nonprofit/charity, (which Arms was urged to found in 2003) USA, she has been working to create alliances among other organizations and inform them and the public and health professionals about how the quality of the mother-baby and father-family bonds, and brain development during the Primal Period (which starts before conception and continues through to age the child’s first birthday) is a major issue for everyone.
“It is during this time that the experiences the woman and baby have form the architecture and wiring of the brain, immune system, and the foundation for love, trust and resilience. The key is to follow and support natural, biological processes, listen to women’s intuition, and transform birth and the Primal Period. Doing so is cost and resource effective and sustainable.”
Arms shows us making the welfare of every mother-baby, and their bond, the central focus of all communities and societies, is the surest path to social justice and eliminating epidemic levels of anxiety, depression, despair, self-abuse, greed. Changing how we do things at the start of life will make parenting so much easier and more pleasurable. And, along with eliminating shame-based child-rearing, education and religious practices, will dramatically lessen terrorism and war.
“As science now proves – through, neurobiology, epigenetics, psycho-immunology and attachment theory – it is during our primal period that we develop lifelong, visible patterns Love or Fear, creativity or depression, ease or anxiety, faith or alienation, health or chronic illness, and community or isolation. Until now, birth and the critical mother-baby system, have been left out of the most important discussions about how to create a better world. Generations of babies, women and men have been traumatized.”
Arms advocates for holistic, practical, sustainable, and “green” health policies and practices follow sound biological principles for full development and empower women and create actively involved fathers (co-parents), elders, and the entire community.
Birthing The Future’s most important project, The Time Is Now, is a global campaign: conducting International Symposia on The Roots of Love and Violence, International Roundtables, from which she has created a film series.
Arms has been called a “breath of fresh air” for frustrated and exhausted care providers, educators, public health and social service professionals, and a wise woman offering guidance and support for today’s parents, who are on the “front line” in caring for the world’s children.
Suzanne Arms tells the truth, and she does it with great clarity and compassion. (Her) vision, put forth so compellingly can help midwife this system right now. Like all good birth attendants, Suzanne understands the nature and power of support, understanding, and compassion. Those qualities help a woman, and even a health care system, to let go and allow the new creation to emerge.
Christiane Northrup, MD, Ob/Gyn, Author of Women’s Bodies: Women’s Wisdom
Grandmother, former pre-school and Headstart director, graduated with honors in 1965 from the University of Rochester, minoring in cross-cultural studies. In 1977, at the pioneering Holistic Childbirth and Health Institute in San Francisco, created and taught the first course on the evolution of childbirth practices. 1978, co-founded The Birth Place, near Stanford University Medical, creating a model community birthing center, where both midwives and physicians could practice, training some of the 1st “doulas”, and opening the 1st Resource Center for Pregnancy, Birth and Early Parenting.
Her film much-loved educational film, “Giving Birth”, explores the striking differences between the medical and biological/midwifery paradigms for how we bring babies into the world and care for the mother-baby. It is widely used by birth educators, doulas, midwives, and progressive hospitals (who wish train/re-train their staff in natural/physiological birth), and in university women’s studies programs.
For more information about Suzanne Arms, her speaking schedule, what she offers, and her fees, or to invite her to speak, teach or consult in your community or for your organization, call 970-946-6994 (in Colorado, USA, Mountain Time) or email her: SuzanneBirthing@gmail.com