Soul Midwives UK
“A good death is an extraordinary, moving and sacred experience. It can also have a healing quality, not only for the person who is involved but their families, friends and the wider community.”
Felicity Warner: ‘Gentle Dying’
- Holistic and spiritual End of Life care
- Community based
- Soul Midwives In Residence
- Soul Midwives in hospitals and care homes
- Campaigning for compassionate care of the dying
- Award Winning Care
- More than 800 Soul Midwives trained in the UK
What do Soul Midwives do?
Soul Midwives are non-medical, holistic companions who guide and support the dying in order to facilitate a gentle and tranquil death.
Soul Midwives (both men and women) regard every dying person as if he, or she, is the most important person in the world. All are cared for as if they are a cherished family member.
They offer a range of gentle therapies to soothe and reassure and are skilled advocates and advisors.
They are non-denominational in their pastoral support, encouraging deep conversation, with love and dignity.
Their work may begin from point of diagnosis and continue until the final day of life, with encouragement and support to live life fully, until the end.
Soul Midwives are helping to transform the personal and collective experiences of dying and living, within the community, by helping anyone facing the end of life to experience a tender, peaceful and conscious death.
Soul Midwives:
- Listen, provide gentle therapeutic techniques and ensure compassionate care at all times
- Work holistically with the dying person
- Keep a loving vigil
- Create and hold a sacred and healing space for the dying person
- Recognise and support the individual needs of the departing person to enable a tranquil death
- Use sound, touch, colour, scent and other gentle techniques to help alleviate pain and anxiety
- Support families and loved ones
- Provide support and advocacy
The Soul Midwife’s most important role is to provide comfort, continuous support and reassurance in helping a dying person to experience a tranquil and dignified end to life.
A New Way of Dying
We all die. But there are good deaths, and not such good deaths. Most of us hope to die, pain free, at home, with our loved ones around us, given the choice. But not many of us actually achieve this. Most modern deaths are, at best, efficient but clinical, institutionalised, functional and soul-less. Soul Midwives ensure that death is a dignified and peaceful experience.
In traditional cultures around the world, death has always been regarded as an important rite of passage, an initiation, a journey across a spiritual threshold. Modern Soul Midwives are able to draw on these ancient skills and traditions, applying them to our modern world and using them to ease the passage of those who are dying.
Soul Midwives lovingly assist and accompany a dying person on their journey, and can provide their services within a home, hospital or hospice.
“Those who have the strength and the love to sit with a dying patient in the silence that goes beyond words will know that this moment is neither frightening, nor painful, but a peaceful cessation of the functioning of the body.”
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
The 12 Principles of Soul Midwifery
- To work as non-medical holistic companions who guide and support a dying person in order to facilitate a gentle and tranquil death.
- To support and recognise the individual needs of the dying person and ensure they feel loved and supported.
- To create and hold a sacred and healing space for the dying person (whether in a hospital, a hospice or at home).
- To respect and honour a dying person’s religious/spiritual or atheist/agnostic beliefs and practices.
- To work as non-denominational, multi-faith practitioners who honour the dying person’s beliefs about life, death or the afterlife.
- To listen, provide gentle therapeutic techniques, and ensure compassionate care at all times.
- To ‘serve’ our friend; not aim to ‘fix’ or ‘rescue’.
- To give healing, using sound, touch, colour, scented oils or other gentle techniques to alleviate pain and anxiety.
- To keep a loving vigil.
- To work holistically with the spirit and soul of our friends at all levels and stages of transition.
- To support families and their loved ones, giving loving care with a human touch.
- To provide comfort, continuous support and reassurance in helping a dying person to experience the death that he, or she hopes for.