In the last few years, we have undoubtedly been experiencing a kind of Nicole Kidman-aissance. It’s not that she wasn’t already iconic, but since taking on the role of Celeste in Big Little Lies, she has transcended her own stardom, becoming embedded in our everyday pop culture in ways that we could have never imagined. Consider Babygirl, or the now-legendary AMC Commercial where Kidman exclaims “Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this.” Her new modus operandi is to make sure to keep us on our toes at all times; we’ll never know what she’ll say or do next.
During a recent talk at the University of San Francisco, the actress revealed that she has been training in the art of becoming a death doula, an idea that occurred to her while she was dealing with her mother’s ailing health and eventual passing in May of 2024. “She was lonely, and there was only so much the family could provide—between my sister and I, we have so many children and our careers and our work… Wanting to take care of her because my father wasn’t in the world anymore,” she was reported as saying. “That’s when I went, ‘I wish there was these people in the world that were there to sit impartially and just provide solace and care.’”
As she soon discovered, those people do exist, and they are known as “death doulas” or “death midwives,” echoing the name of the people who have traditionally done the work of helping mothers bring babies into the world. The International End-of-Life Doula Association defines a death doula as “a nonmedical companion who provides support” and “advocates self-determination, and imparts emotional, spiritual, and practical care” to allow the person to die with dignity. It is a job whose benefits and impact can be felt by both the dying person and the loved ones who are taking care of them.
Kidman is not the first Hollywood star to express her desire to train in this highly empathetic field. Earlier this year, the Hamnet director Chloé Zhao revealed to The New York Times that she had recently trained to become a death doula, explaining that as part of the course she had researched the way Indigenous cultures from around the world dealt with death and dying. “You can see that the grief of losing a loved one doesn’t change. However, the societal understanding of death and the space it gives to fried and how it’s embedded in the culture and the medicalization of death have shifted so much,” she told the writer David Marchese. “In the modern world, when death is no longer seen as a natural part of life—because now it’s about staying alive as long as we can—there’s almost a shame about death.”
The musician Erykah Badu, meanwhile, has been a certified doula since 2001, and has also trained as a death doula. “I love being the welcoming committee,” she once said. “I like laughing with those who are close to their last breath.” What can’t these women do?
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.harpersbazaar.com ’
