Suzanne Arms

Suzanne Arms is an international speaker, teacher, author, photojournalist, visionary and grass roots activist for progressive social change.

For nearly fifty years, Suzanne Arms has been a respected and familiar name to many women, parents, midwives and health care activists around the world because of her 7 groundbreaking books, films, photographs, the hundreds of keynote talks she’s given at conferences on 5 continents.

In 1975, her 2nd book, Immaculate Deception: A new Look at Women and Childbirth, was named a New York Times “Best Book” of the Year and ignited a movement. Her work – and focus of Birthing The Future®, the non-profit/charity she founded – centers around the “primal period”, the roots of love and violence, preventing early trauma, and creating peaceful, healthy societies. The key, she teaches, is to transform how we bring humans into the world and “hard-wire” the brain, to empower women and foster strong mother-baby bonds, so that we can become a species based in trust and cooperation rather than fear, defense, aggression, illness, loneliness and despair. 

It is Suzanne’s personal journey to heal and evolve that has fueled her work in the world. Central to this journey was the longterm sexual abuse she experienced from her war-traumatized father, the secrets and lies held within her family, intergenerational trauma, and the traumatic birth of her only child.

Arms’ activism began during the Vietnam War era, counseling young men about the draft, helping organize The Spring Mobilization for Peace and Vietnam Summer – which held public meetings in town halls across the country. While running one of the first HeadStart programs  for underprivileged pre-school children in San Francisco, she volunteered with the American Friends Service Committee on their project to end capital punishment, and in the grassroots anti-nuclear work led by Australian pediatrician Helen Caldicott.

In the 1980s Arms was an early proponent of the movement to create sustainable communities, including multi-racial and intergenerational co-housing. Preventing early psychological trauma in children, and breaking cycles of dysfunction and abuse in families and communities, so people could move from merely coping to thriving, and empowering women and parents have always been key to her work in the world. That, and studying how other cultures, especially indigenous ones, have kept people healthy and dealt with conflict have informed her lifelong pursuit to understand the roots of love and violence and find workable solutions to conflict.

Arms co-created one of the first midwife-run community birthing centers in the world (in Palo Alto, CA).

In her personal life, Arms has pursued various alternatives to pharmaceutical drugs – art, yoga, psychotherapy, body work and spiritual practices – to deal with the impact of child abuse, bi-polar disorder, and depression in her own life. She brings to her work a deep  understanding of personal, intergenerational, cultural and historical trauma to her passion for creating non-violent families and vibrant communities. This is in part what led to her, starting in the 1990s, to teach and lead sacred circles for deep dialogue, nurturing and community-building and problem-solving, a form that indigenous peoples have long used. 

As a wise woman elder and, grandmother, Arms weaves a tapestry of knowledge from earth-based wisdom and intuition to cellular biology, neuroscience, including ecology, grass roots activism and the sacred feminine. Her desire is to help others connect the dots between seemingly unrelated issues and work with greater understanding of the critical and long term importance of the primal period, regardless of what their primary focus is.

Arms is an inspiring speaker who understands the sense of overwhelm that many progressive people feel today and helps guide others in balancing their lives so that they can be actively involved in finding solutions to this planet’s man-made problems.

Suzanne lives and works in Boulder, Colorado, USA and directs the non-profit (charity) she was urged to form in 2003,  called Birthing The Future® (BirthingTheFuture.org). She is a founding and active member of The Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children. 

To speak directly with Suzanne Arms, email her @: SuzanneBirthing@gmail.com

See https://birthingthefuture.org/ for more information, and resources – including inspiring educational films and other media designed to help people make more conscious decisions and inspire them to take an active role in social change.