Birth: A celebration of life

I was asked recently to write a short blog for khoikhoi.co.uk as a guest blogger. Here it is:

I remember being with a group of women I have never met before and the conversation as it very often  does  turned to what do you do for a living?….After explaining that I am a childbirth educator, I added “I really enjoyed giving birth” To which an astonished young woman replied “Why would anyone enjoy giving birth?”

Her question got me thinking for a while….What triggered her to ask me this? What does our society, our culture teach us about birth? Are we expected to suffer during childbirth?

I can start by explaining the history of childbirth and what brings us to today’s current thinking about birth. How we have moved so far away from birth being a celebration of life to birth being the most painful experience in a woman’s life. Somewhere in between technology and scary birth stories, women have learned to disregard their inner feminine power and their birthing instinct. We have been taught that in order to survive labour, it needs to be actively managed by someone telling us what to do and a machine constantly telling us what is happening. I love this quote from Ina May Gaskin author of  Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth “ Your body is not a lemon. You are not a machine. The Creator is not a careless mechanic. Human female bodies have the same potential to give birth well as aardvarks, lions, rhinoceri, elephants, moose, and water buffalo. Even if it has not been your habit throughout your life so far, I recommend that you learn to think positively about your body.” Ina May’s words were for me a powerful reminder to trust my body and the birthing process. Like Ina May I believe that Nature couldn’t have got it so wrong otherwise we as a species wouldn’t have survived. The human race would have been extinct a long time ago as medical technology is relatively new.

I wholeheartedly encourage every pregnant woman to rediscover their inner birthing wisdom. It is already there deep within you, you just need to remove the many layers and allow it to come to the surface. Find ways to empower yourself through taking a childbirth class, meditate, keep a journal, gather your friends who will support and empower you. Let go of all your fears…you have within you the power to bring your baby into the world safely.