This Month's Featured Article:
Slow Birth
by 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?