Birth: In nature’s time.
January 5, 2011
In my neighborhood the green spiky leaves of the paper whites have emerged from the soil, some of the flowers have blossomed while others have yet to bloom. These flowers as with all growing things in nature have a relationship to their environment and bloom according to their innate cycle. (When left mostly, if not completely alone to do so).
This past week in my prenatal class, one of my yoga students (first pregnancy), excitedly announced to me after class that she was check and was found to be “2cm dilated” (the words of her Ob/gyn). She went on to tell me that she was checked that day and was concerned that, “it hurt when she examined me”. I asked if the Dr. had “stripped her membranes.” to which the student replied, “I don’t know but it hurt.” (Why was this mama to be not left alone to progress on her own?)
What came up for me later that evening was this. If the mother is doing well and the baby is doing well, all systems are moving in the direction of birth, what does the OB/gyn need to believe to “strip the membranes” of a healthy mama? ~Does the Ob/gyn have the right to “strip the membranes” without telling the birth mama? I’m curious what is going on in the mind (conscious/unconscious thought processes) of an Ob/gyn or midwife who makes a choice(decision) to influence birth outcome when it may well not be necessary. What happens when the birth attendant allows birth to unfold and responds to what is arising in the moment. (Instead of making choices and decisions rooted in the past?)
Consider this: The fertilization of the ovum(MamaEgg) is all about timing and conditions. (I think this is true even when performed in the petri dish). After fertilization, the embryological process continues into fetal development. The human gestates for 10 lunar cycles. (yes there can be variability, but typically it is 10 lunar cycles.) All the while the mother carries on her activities of daily living while the little being inside her grows and shape shifts according to natures design. The baby births itself from the cocoon of the womb. (Again, this is the natural process, and yes we do meddle sometime, even when it is not necessary.)
I’m curious about our relationship with day/night cycles, tides rising and falling, growth cycles, seasons, etc. I’m curious about my own ability to listen to and trust my own internal rhythms and wonder how they are externally influenced.
To all you mamas to be who are ‘thinking women’, on the go women, movers and shakers, I say a big yes to you…And, I ask, can you pause long enough, become still and listen with care to the deep instinctual rhythms of your mama body, the birthing body? Can you hear that soft, quiet (sometime loud and rumbling) knowing voice of the Wise Birthing Woman, who has birthed her young for millenniums. Can we hear Her? Can we trust Her?
In closing I would say that I consciously chose Her, to be congruent with Shakti, as We, women, Female mammals are still blessed with the wonder holding life within our wombs.
