A Natural Birth

Hello beautiful souls. Today i feel inclined to talk about natural ways of doing things. I wasn't always exposed to or even encouraged to live my life naturally. I grew up in your average mainstream culture where consumption was all around me so 'naturally' i joined in. It seemed all i knew but being a woman of this earth deep down i also knew that there was something else out there. Another way to live. Another way to love. Struggling in what i now refer to as my old self i was emotionally imbalanced and often very unhappy. The past year and a half of my life i have experienced more stimulating experiences that i didn't even think was imaginable and it all came from that small part of my old self that knew there was something else. In this past year and a half i have discovered and become a Doula. A Doula is a tuned in sympathetic woman who's role often is to help woman feel empowered in childbirth. I once heard a story that hundreds, even thousands, of years ago a birthing woman was considered a Goddess. Pregnancy and birth was not known to be linked to sex in extremely ancient times so when a woman began to bud in her pregnant form her tribe would think she was blessed and worship her inside the temple. In these times birth was easy and extremely well supported. Obviously not every birth would have been perfect but our ancestors understood the natural balance of things. They would have respected any death deeply and thanked the earth when she made the difficult decision to take a life away.

This is what most of our culture lacks today...support, respect, awe and balance. Our culture rely on a patriarchal system to set out the path and orthodox medicine to fix all our health problems. I do not deny there is a place for both systems however i do believe both system abuse their authority. We no longer work with nature (mother nature and our human nature) and we take take take. We all know from global warming that we have taken more than we should. Not your fault, well yes your half right, a lot of what you believe comes from what you were exposed to in 'your culture' but that does not justify not transforming you ideas now. There is enough educational material just beyond your finger tips for you to reduce your carbon foot print today, begin growing food giving back to the land a proportion of what you take and become a more conscious individual. For me this is vital when bringing new lives into this world. They are the next generation. They will need to be more attuned with the earth and with themselves to fix the problems that we, and the generations before us, have created.

It begins at the beginning. At conception. If anyone is reading this wanting proof well please email me and i will send you a list of books, essays and scientific studies that have been written on the subjects i am about to talk about. When we are conceived our cells form and as they form they collect memory which is influenced by all the chemical reactions going on in mommas body. These chemicals are called hormones. We have many hormones that make us feel a certain way. Now we can't help the way we feel....maybe not but we certainly can control the effects of a situation going on in our life. In other words it might not be easy to predict of avoid a reaction to a life circumstance but it is possible to learn how to control how much we let that particular thing effect us in the long term. This is called conscious pregnancy and is important because mommas state of mind could inevitably effect the baby within her while she is pregnant which could make up some of the baby's sub-conscience building blocks affecting that individual for the rest of their life.

How does this link in with the idea of natural birth vrs hospital births? Well medical births may be the norm and considered safer but do we all actually consider this from all aspects? It's no secret that orthodox medicine is more than prepared to deal with high risk pregnancies but what about normal pregnancies. New research has shown that intervention in hospitals contributes to more problems that ever thought before. A simple way of saying this is that birth happens better if it is natural and when drugs come into the equation they tend to have a negative side effect. So then a momma is given something else to counteract the side effects of the drug before it and the chain goes on. Cesarean rates have zoomed up to an alarming rate which result often in a woman feeling traumatized by her birth experience with a feeling of inadequacy which can effect all aspects of her life. Also a baby who is born drugged up is more likely to be unable to breastfeed, create that initial bond with momma and even have a more addictive personality when they grow up. Keep calm and carry on. Although information like this can be uncomfortable to hear it is also important to note our ability to heal or avoid. With work and dedication trauma can be healed and we can try our best to make birthing scenarios as positive as possible staying sensitive and cool when things do go wrong.

This now brings us to pain. Most women take drugs in birth because of pain. Have these women been exposed to natural pain relief methods? Is her birth room what she wants it to be? Are the people around her supporting and encouraging her? Is she being respected and pampered? Maybe yes and maybe no. What we have to note here is that labor pain exists for many reasons, amongst them;

• birth is a time when a woman is at her most open to the universe and often old memories crop up which have to be acknowledged and let go of. It's sometimes extremely hard and painful to let of old issues that we have clung to for a long time.
• labor can give parents an insight into the tolerance and patience needed for the spontaneous nature of a child.
• we haven't been informed about levels and types of pain. Some assume all pain is the same where others believe some pain is constructive, informative and helps us grow.
• nature knows balance. Where there is lightness there is also darkness. Pain in childbirth can represent our need to take a step back and respect the forces that be. There is a place for pain as there is a place for pleasure.
• western women hold in their tummies. Most of us are surrounded by imagery that makes use feel we need to look slim to be beautiful therefore have held in our bellies for years. When it comes to surrendering to the power of natural birth its extremely difficult for a self conscious women to let it all hang out.
• we aren't encouraged to be loud. Birth is primal whether we want to believe it or not. If we hold back, in any way, the energy that needs to be expressed has nowhere to go and becomes pain.
• we have forgotten how to transform sensations. Pain can become pleasure and pleasure can become pain. Our mind plays such a vital role.
• we don't move enough. A lot of midwives and doctors still encourage a woman to lie on their back when giving birth (which is in fact only really convenient for them). Labor is about flow of energy so moving helps.

This list can go on. It's no ones fault that western culture has forgotten how to take care of our human nature but it's about time women started to get more clued up on what they can actually control. There is masses of opinions about this and masses of research to support it. Most important thing is that you ask yourself what you want and make decisions based on that however don't forget to question why you have that opinion in the first place. Does it come from inner wisdom or were you brought up to believe it.

If this post gets you blood bubbling a bit then its done it's job. I feel it's important to challenge philosophies and know i also learn something valuable when mine is challenged. If this has inspired you then i encourage you to pass on information of this nature. Ignorance is no longer bliss. It's often violating and disempowering. 

'Women of earth take back your birth'

Mother nature loves you x