Powerful Birth

I just want to write a little something about birth before I actually participate in it again. This is not meant to be a political post, just musings.

I believe in powerful birth. I do, and I've been thinking about what it actually means.

What I am amazed with is the power of birth. I generally do not consider myself a very physically powerful person. I struggle with basic exercise, I often ask Ethan to carry the laundry baskets, and trying to open stuck jars leaves me hands sore for hours.I'm also married to a man of great physical strength and find myself a poor comparison. Now, I know men are built for physical strength and women are built for birth. It is work, it is strenuous, and it is powerful. Those final surges that push the baby out feel like a bomb going off in your pelvis. I recently read the words of a midwife,
          "People talk about how painful contractions are because they're so strong. But what we want woman to know is that the strength of that contraction is the strength of their own bodies. They are as strong as the contraction is. And so they are able to manage it." link
"The strength of that contain is the strength of their own bodies. They are as strong as the contraction." Wow. That phrase has embraced me and I've been pondering it over several weeks. The power of birth is the power of the body, beyond pain, beyond fear, and beyond control. I think of my husband, who is amazingly strong in body, mind, and spirit, but even he has a point when the pain is too great to continue, even if the strength is there. When a woman is supported physically, can accomplish a great physical feat of birthing a child without drugs or external instruments or hands. When she is supported emotionally, past scars are healed, and the woman will become a mother with unrestrained love and intuition. When she is supported spiritually, she meets with her God as the child is led to the veil to hand the child from the spiritual world into mortality. These are not everyday events, but within our reach as child-bearing women and their supporters.

For more on this subject, please follow my Birth board on Pintrest.