spirtual journey

"For each of us as women there is a deep place within, where hidden and growing our true spirit rises...within these deep places, each one holds an incredible reserve of creativity and power, of unexamined and unrecorded emotion and feeling." -Audre Lorde

Experiencing pregnancy and learning about pregnancy and birth has been and is a spiritual journey for me. My birthing class, particular books I have been reading, and talking with midwives and others have facilitated this journey. I feel more connected with my own body, my fears, and my joys and I also feel a deep connection with being a woman.

Sadly, I feel the culture of childbirth in United States is taking this spiritual journey away from many women. Why are the things I am learning in my childbirth class not part of the knowledge I gained from other women in my life? Why do I have to reprogram myself to believe that I can trust my body and have a natural birth? Why do so many people respond in disbelief or that I am crazy when I mention having a midwife or wanting a natural birth without drugs?

A male friend of mine recently sent me the inserts below from Ina May's Guide to Childbirth describing two models of childbirth. The first is what is commonly practiced in the U.S. today and the other is the midwife model. I mention this friend is male because I wanted to point out that it has been wonderful to also have men in my life (especially Andy, of course) that actively support this spiritual journey of pregnancy and birth I have embarked upon.

"The techno-medical model for maternity care, unlike the midwifery model, is comparatively new on the world scene, having existed for barely two centuries. This male-derived framework for care is a product of the industrial revolution. As anthropologist Robbie Davis-Floyd has described in detail, underlying the technocratic mode of care of our own time is an assumption that the human body is a machine and that the female body in particular is a machine full of shortcomings and defects. Pregnancy and labor are seen as illnesses, which, in order to not be harmful to the mother or baby, must be treated with drugs and medical equipment." (p.185)

"The midwifery model of care is based on the fact that pregnancy and birth are normal life events. The midwifery model of care includes: monitoring the physical, psychological, and social well-being of the mother throughout the childbearing cycle; providing the mother with individualized education, counseling, and prenatal care, continuous hands-on assistance during labor and delivery, and postpartum support; minimizing technological interventions; and identifying and referring women who require obstetrical attention. The application of this women-centered model has been proven to reduce the incident of birth injury, trauma, an cesarean section." (p. 185).


"The path of a mother should be given its deserved value as a sacred and powerful spiritual path." - Tsultrim Allione

And so my journey continues....