Holistic Birth & Parenting Consultants
Helping You Get Excited to Give Birth Naturally!
How Sacred Birthing Was Born
Traditional birth ways were satisfactory,
And so, we never even thought to question them or to aspire for more...
The Chaos
Out of the pain and trauma of modern birth practices,
we were first called to protect our babies.
They urged us to ask the question,
"do babies feel pain?"
Well of course,
we wombyn always knew our babes to be, deeply sensitive!
Then, we asked ourselves,
"what is the result of a baby's first impression of life being one of
pain, suffering & abandonment?"
Through our questioning
and our own suffering,
and by watching helplessly,
as they did unto them,
as they had done unto us,
we discovered that this pain sets the tone for our children's life.
That these precious souls would go on to spend much of their lives reliving patterns set a birth.
We discovered that they would spend even more time
licking their wounds, rather than maturing,
playing the victim, instead of playing joyously.
Crying, rather than creating.
That,
we unanimously concluded,
was,
exactly what we did not want for our children,nor
for our children's children.
Transformation
Finally, we asked ourselves,
"what do we want for our babies?"
And what we decided that what we wanted for them, was this:
To live an empowered life of adventure.
One of pleasure and discovery.
A life of inquiry into their uniqueness, vast potential and consciousness.
And finally, for them to share their gifts with the world!
And so it was decided that we would put a stop to birth trauma.
No longer would our babies need to cry out for us to save them!
And in our wisdom, born of deep respect for babies and their wisdom,
we asked them “how should we do this?”.
They whispered their response,
"softbirth"
and Sacred Birthing was born.
Evolved
And so, we are birthing a new humanity...
And so it is!
Written by:
Sherry Rothwell
Motherhood as a Bodhisattvic Path
by Sherry Dawn Rothwell, originally published by KINDRED www.kindredmedia.com.au
During the birth process, we transform at the cellular level and become the archetypal bodhisattva. The process of being aware as we conceive, gestate and open our wombs to the creative force or the all that is, becomes our attunement as woman healer, giving rise to the higher functioning that we need to mentor our children into their vast potential and greatness. Parenthood is a spiritual path and awareness is the practice. As mothers, we have great honor and great responsibility. The consciousness and tone with which we conceive, gestate, birth and parent our children, becomes the fabric from which they create their very lives. We come to conscious awareness through mindfulness meditation, although it often looks different for the householder. “Householders are challenged to watch our natural attachments to our children and let them be manifest in their fullest and purest sense. It is a goal to revision this attachment with eternal eyes, not just with temporal sight”. (Jeannine Parvati Baker). On the spiritual path of parenthood, we do not go to the ashram or to the monastery. We instead make our homes a Sacred Space and the practice most often looks like kneading bread, shelling chickpeas or washing dishes and sweeping the floors. We sit in awareness for 15 minutes at a time, rarely longer with little hands just begging to pull us off the meditation mat. We breathe deeply when we notice our self about to rote respond to the discomforts, whining or misbehaviors of our children; instead we stop in that moment of awareness and we respond to a child, rather than to a behavior. We know that our relating to them comes first and that right action follows, never the other way around. We are connected so deeply to our children that we feel their pain to greater degrees even than we feel our own; and our love for them is eternally unconditional.
The actual process of opening to give birth is a gateway for complete transformation on all levels of our being. Inherent in this transformative process is the awakening of dormant capabilities that give rise to expanded states of being and self empowerment that include knowing how to raise this child. We come back to relating, just as we come back to our breath. This relating informs our way of being with our children. As mothers we give up the freedom to live by our impulses, yet what arises in its place, is awareness and expanded states of being that could not be experienced by any other means or path! No other practice but motherhood could conjure up the sensation of a heart beating inside our wombs or the experience of feeling love again as though for the first time; and even again with the subsequent birth of each new child coming thereafter. From feeling the life force move through our yonis as we give birth, to the awe that comes with seeing our babies for the first time outside of our bodies and simultaneously getting that, it was this baby that we nurtured in our womb for nine moons. There are so many altered states of consciousness inherent in co creating, carrying and birthing a child; right from the time of conception and before that, as a women’s climax coaxes the sea-Men into her watery depths. The whole journey of Motherhood is an altered state of consciousness that is informed by the birth process; just as the birth process is informed by who we are, that life is. The altered states that we experience are unique to motherhood; there is no other path by which to attain such incredible states of being and awareness.
As pregnant women and mothers who have taken great care to nurture the souls that gestate or have once gestated within our wombs; we are privy to the very sacred task of mentoring the evolved souls who come to us disguised as children. Yet in the modern context of motherhood, we are often not acknowledged or celebrated and rarely apprenticed and finally initiated into the bodhisattvic path of service called motherhood.
Mother as bodhisattva, is a very real, honoring and empowering archetypal image in which to view motherhood in the modern context. The path no longer chooses us, for today we have the freedom to choose not to mother a child. Let us acknowledge ourselves and one another for putting aside our own personal nirvanas, to instead merge in service for the highest good of our children, and subsequently for our planet. As we choose to offer ourselves up to mother in awareness, we consciously raise the consciousness of our children, and ultimately we generate the enlightenment of humanity as a whole.
This Month's Featured Article:
Slow Birth
by Jennifer Summerfeldt
Originally published by e-zine http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jennifer_Summerfeldt
The "Slow Movement" is gaining huge publicity, there is "slow food" "slow sex" "slow living" it is all about slowing it down and noticing the fine details in life! I would like to add to this slow movement, a new inclusion, one that has not yet been addressed...Slow Birth. Now, you might be asking, "What does this all have to do with the slow movement and why would I ever want to SLOW the process of birth down? Wouldn't I rather speed up the process to get this, the birth experience, over with without enduring too much discomfort? I mean really, isn't it all about receiving my baby, in the end?"
Here is a little inspiring twist on this viewpoint. Although for some, birth can be a very uncomfortable experience, for others, it can be ecstatic! Yes truly, at times even orgasmic (Orgasmic Birth, The Video)! Yikes, the thought of birth and pleasure in the same sentence, just seems like a misnomer doesn't it? So you may be wondering, "What is this all about anyways, this birth thing?" To answer, it is about SLOW BIRTH...you know slowing it all down and being absolutely present with this experience. Not avoiding, running away, or being distracted but rather, the exact opposite. The following will go into greater detail about why this kind of perception may be of benefit to you, as a pregnant woman or father!
As time is speeding up and chaos reins, we have a fast food nation, fast work, fast cars, fast computers, fast games, fast advertising and to add, FAST BIRTH! What do you think the hospital birthing production is all about? It is about speeding up the process with I.V. s of Pitocin (synthetic form of oxytocin for contracting the uterus), forced and coached pushing, constant production checks with internal vaginal exams and electronic fetal monitoring, cesarean births, forceps or vacuum births, etc. Where is the PATIENCE? A well renowned anthropologist, Robbie Davis-Floyd, was one of the first pioneering researchers to correlate the hospital birth experience to that of a factory assembly line. And, a factory assembly or production line is all about fast paced OUTPUT. The laboring woman is the passenger, the baby the product, and the body the machine (that needs to be tampered with to speed up the process).
Birth was never meant to be fast paced, in actuality, TIME DOES NOT EXIST when a woman is birthing without disturbance and this is physiological! Birth is the ultimate in the slow movement; it is instinctive, natural, and normal.
The reason time stops during labor and birth is because each woman, when given the right environment, will release powerful hormones, which trigger the ALTERED STATE. Yes, the same state that is experienced after meditating for eons! This is a high voltage kind of experience and it is naturally and biologically programmed within each birthing woman's "hormonal blueprint" (Sarah J. Buckley).
As a birthing woman allows for her oxytocin to flow naturally, this will instinctively trigger her pineal gland to release the chemical DMT (yes the new age "spiritual hormone" that is all the rave amongst those seekers of altered states). To further achieve this state, it is the combination of all of the birth hormones that are intrinsically interwoven into this powerful "rite of passage" called birth, and they are:
- Oxytocin - The Love Hormone & altered state hormone
- Endorphins - The Pleasure Hormone (in birth 10 times stronger then morphine)
- Catecholamines - The Excitement Hormone (Just before you birth your baby you are flooded with this stimulating hormone to heighten your awareness and get "excited" and have the energy to receive your baby!)
- Prolactin - The Mothering Hormone (Involved with lactation and helps you have the love and patience to respond to your baby)
Amazingly, as a birthing woman you can tap into the cosmos, hormonally, if you just SLOW IT ALL DOWN and allow the experience to take you away on a journey of profound depth. It is from this place in which TIME STOPS and therefore, find the strength to birth your baby.
Furthermore, what today's current research is suggesting, is that when birth is inhibited, interrupted, disturbed, and FAST PACED (which by the way can occur in either the hospital or home birthing environments), it is merely impossible to allow this necessary "hormonal cocktail" (Dr. Michel Odent) to flow optimally. In return, you are being deprived of one of the most powerful and hormonally expansive journeys of your life, as intended for Women!
But wait, you might ask, "What about the pain? What about the drama? What about it being TOO MUCH to handle?" Here is the answer to this question: When you tap into your hormonal blueprint for labor and birth, and you allow those special labor related hormones to rush through you, and therefore, drift off into an altered state of consciousness...Pain dissipates, intensity may remain, but the flow of oxytocin (the powerful love hormone) overrides any fear or pain. In return, you experience an empowering, fulfilling and joyful birth of your child! This amount of ecstasy is sure a good enough reason to strongly consider slowing the entire birth process down and re-considering stepping outside of the "factory of birth" and choosing to enter an empowering Slow Birth, at the pace in which you determine is right for you, your body, and your baby. Would you agree?
earthmother
