About Us
Love Delivers began with a website in order to sell one of our first films – BIRTH DAY. It was 1999 and the site was called HomeBithVideos.com. We had been showing this 10 minute video privately in Cambridge, MA to professors, friends and midwives who urged us to share it more broadly. So we incorporated in Lexington – home of the American Revolution – named ourselves Sage Femme and chose Love Delivers for our motto. Headquarters moved to California in 2004 where we became a nonprofit organization. In 2011 we changed our name to our motto – Love Delivers. We believe that love is the primary cause of pregnancy and birth and that we can depend upon it for delivery.
Our new motto:
Love Delivers: Always Has, Always Will.
Millions of people have seen our movies.
How do we know this?
BIRTH DAY, which is in 14 languages, was installed in the reproduction exhibit at The Museum of Science in Boston. The museum was open 7 days a week and it is likely the video averaged a dozen people every day for more than 15 years. That’s about 70k people. It was screened in film festivals in: Cadiz, Spain; Havana, Cuba; Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Philadelphia, PA; New York, NY; Northampton, MA; Tiburon, CA; and Motherbaby International Film Festivals in Oregon, Bermuda, Costa Rica and Michigan. There still are countless screenings at birth centers, hospitals, doula workshops etc. A fan in Jounieh, Lebanon pointed out that Birth Day – the entire film – had been illegally uploaded to YouTube three times. We eventually had YouTube remove it to protect our copyright and the rights of distributors. But before it was removed, we noticed that it got close to two million hits.
We do not require a separate license for public screenings which makes our documentaries very affordable for classroom and training sessions. The Tzu Hui Institute of Technology in Taiwan purchased the video HOMEBIRTH from one of our distributors. They asked the distributor about the licensing fee and were told that it came with the video purchase. The Institute could not believe this good news and so asked the distributor, Midwifery Today, to have Love Delivers write a letter authorizing their public use of the video. Of course we did, with pleasure.
MISS MARGARET, about a Granny Midwife from Eutaw, Alabama, took over 10 years to produce. While it was in development, more than one professor contributed to its creation so it could be shown in their class. Now it resides in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
FIVE COUNTRIES, SIX BIRTHS, SEVEN BABIES (5,6,7) is a compilation of home birth videos. It all started when a pregnant Shirley Tokheim, her artist husband, Brooks Anderson and their two children decided to spend a year in Provence – he to paint and she to take care of the kids and give birth.
Brooks set a video camera on the window sill while he held Shirley as she labored to give birth. The midwife and I attended. With open hearts they gave the footage to me and that was the start of this organization.
In 2007 I filmed two home births in Guatemala. It was a challenging time for filming in that babies were being stolen, mothers and midwives were being bribed in order to feed a demand for babies from couples in richer countries. I saw mothers hold on tight to their babies and go out of their way to avoid me and my camera. Finally, I gained the trust of two mothers and filmed them giving birth.
Danielle Centeno asked me to film the home birth of her twins in 2008. When I got the call that she was in labor, I flew down to Southern California. Her father picked me up at the airport saying, you better have your camera on when we arrive. I did and the twins were born an hour later.
Luna’s waterbirth was filmed in Costa Rica and Inanna’s water birth was filmed in Bermuda. All beautiful, planned home births generously shared with a world hungry for a better way for babies to arrive.
Birth touches something so deep within a woman that few words can describe the feeling. At once there is intensity when the baby is pushing its way forward and then joy beyond belief when the baby is looking in your eyes and recognizing your voice and face together for the first time. Birth the way Mother Nature designed it is, to the human sense, miraculous.
And at that miraculous moment, things can shift. Mountains of preconceptions can be removed. As one midwife said, “Birth is a moment of truth and it belongs in the hands of the mother.” We screened one of our first films, FOR TAMAYA, at the Fine Arts Museum in Boston. Afterwards I recognized a woman in the parking lot of the museum. She was pushing her newborn in a stroller. I knew that she wanted to be a doula based on the exceptionally loving care she received from her doula in the hospital. When we spoke after the screening she said, “I used to think homebirth was the alternative. Now I realize that it is the STANDARD and everything else is alternative.” Her heart was touched and her thoughts shifted. She determined to have a homebirth with her second child and she did. Unlike his sibling, that baby was born safely into the loving arms of his mother, without drugs or any other interventions. It was a beautiful experience with just her husband, the midwife and a birthing pool.
What does the future hold? What do our children know about birth? Our next film NIA AND GRIFFIN will explore the lives of two home birthed kids born 13 and 17 years ago on opposite sides of the US. You can follow their progress and the development of the film in the Love Blog. It is said that only about 1% of births happen at home in the US. We know there would be fewer interventions more satisfaction and lower healthcare costs if we increased that percentage. Diana
Keniece Ford El, Director.
Keniece is the mother of two brilliant homebirthed teenagers. She has two masters and is working toward her PhD in Integrative Health.
She is also a practitioner of Chinese medicine, an acupuncturist and an advocate of women’s wellness.
Keniece is a singer, lyricist, composer and owner of a boutique music label.
Josh Keppel, Camera
Josh is husband to Amy and dad to Lazlo, cameraman for NBC and all around good neighbor and fun person to know.
Clara came to Love Delivers as a student intern. She quickly threw herself into major operations demonstrating a profound ability to take on board work. Clara holds a BA in Communications, is an athlete, world traveler, and soon to be realtor. She plans to expand the reach of Love Delivers through social media and live events.
Diana is a wife and mother of three homebirthed children. She began her journey into midwifery filming births along the way. In Texas, she met a very pregnant Naoli Vinaver, offered a camera to her and that was the beginning of BIRTH DAY, her first professionally produced film. A nonprofit organization was created after that and three other films followed. Her documentaries have been viewed by millions.
“I feel fortunate to have landed in the birth world. There is so much work to be done and so many good people doing it. It makes life a never ending blessing.”
Emily is a mother dedicated to educating others about the joys and opportunities of home birth. She gave birth to her beautiful babes at home and considers it the best decision for her family, for her babies and for her body She is a world class photographer who loves being around the tiniest babies. Emily has been a proud board member of Love Delivers for many years. You can watch a video of Emily telling the story of Jolene’s birth on WorldBirthHub.com. It will warm your heart.
Godwin Jabangwe, Writer
Godwin Jabangwe is originally from Zimbabwe. He joined Love Delivers as an intern in 2009 working as a filmmaker and graphic designer.
In June 2017, Godwin graduated from UCLA with a masters in Screenwriting. He won many awards and scholarships. He now works for Netflix and is soon to see Tunga, his first musical animation
produced. Love Delivers is so proud and delighted to have Godwin’s
counsel and help with our films.
