Why Stories Matter: The Birth of The Loom Collective

By Daphne Morgen

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been drawn to stories—not the polished ones we tell at dinner parties, but the quiet ones. The messy, honest, soul-stirring stories that live beneath the surface.

The ones that shape how we see ourselves, even when we never speak them aloud.

I’ve spent the past 20 years in storytelling spaces—working with youth and adults in addiction recovery and mental health, with incarcerated war veterans, with people navigating displacement, war, and systems that weren’t built to hold them. I’ve held space for stories of migration, grief, family, survival, and love.

And in every one of these spaces, I’ve witnessed the same truth:When people are given space to share their stories—in their own voice, in their own time—something shifts. There’s a reclaiming, a returning. There’s healing.

So when I gave birth, I thought I knew how to process it. I thought I had the tools. But birth and postpartum brought me to my knees in ways I wasn’t prepared for. The story I expected and the story I lived didn’t match. And in the early months of postpartum, there was no space for me to name it—only pressure to be grateful, to keep going, to “move on.”

But our stories don’t go away just because we stop telling them.They live in the body. In the breath. In the quiet ache of things left unspoken.

The Birth Loom: A Place to Reclaim What’s Yours

I created The Loom Collective because I believe that storytelling—when it’s held with care—can be a radical, healing act.And I created The Birth Loom as the first offering of this work, because I saw how many birth stories were being carried alone.

Whether your birth was beautiful or brutal, empowering or unexpected—or all of the above—it’s your story. And it deserves to be witnessed.

We live in a time where birthing people are losing autonomy over their own bodies. Systems and governments are failing to protect them. From reproductive care to labor and delivery, choices are being taken away. For centuries, patriarchal systems have dictated how birth should look, feel, and be remembered.

The Birth Loom is a space to reclaim that story.To say: “This is mine. This is what I lived. This is how I remember it.”

Our workshops are not about performing your story. They're about returning to it, slowly. They're about sitting with what’s still tender, or proud, or confusing. They're about putting words to what the body remembers.

Through guided journaling, movement, mindfulness, and optional sharing, we create a space that’s gentle and grounded—and deeply human.

A Story to Hold. A Story to Share.

Each participant receives a printed Birth Story Reflections™ journal, filled with prompts to help you explore your birth in layers. Some people come just to write. Some come to share. All are welcome.

What emerges is not just a story on paper—it’s a story reclaimed.

And sometimes, that story becomes something you offer to your child. A way to say, “This is how you came into the world. This is what I held. This is what I carried. This is what I survived.”

Why Storytelling Still Matters

Because so many of us were told our stories didn’t matter. Because we’ve been gaslit, silenced, or reshaped by someone else’s version. Because we deserve to speak without being fixed, without being doubted. Because being witnessed in your truth is a form of repair.

You don’t need to have the “right words.”You don’t need to remember everything.You just need to start where you are.

If this resonates with you, I invite you to join us.

Join the Workshop

Order the Journal

And if you're not ready yet, that’s okay. This space will be here when you are.

With care and in solidarity,

Daphne