Connecting with our Ancient Wisdom to Birth our Children

Our bodies are amazing, they hold ancient wisdom and knowledge, they hold the potential to heal themselves and they know exactly what they need in order to preform at their peak.

Yet why do we not listen to our bodies, ignoring our intuitive selves when they try and reach out to us. Why do we mistrust our gut feelings,creating this habit of just shaking those feelings off. As a result we have buried that wisdom, and handed over our power to others. To professionals to tell us what is wrong with our own bodies.

There was a time when women would gather together daily, work side by side and talk about their lives, women of all ages, listening, learning and sharing. Young girls being educated about their bodies in open and honest ways. Hearing that changes would happen, knowing what to expect. Having those changes honoured and celebrated. Hearing how older generations dealt with each change and how "natural" it all is.

Natural and at the same time empowering. Certainly nothing to be ashamed about or to fear.

Image Source:https://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-moonlight-market-scene-joseph-muchina.html

Women coming together being honest, sharing so much wisdom.
Women coming together and supporting one another.
Women of all ages.

All comfortable with one another, feeling safe and nurtured. I'm sure it was not all a bed of roses all the time, as we know people can have conflicts, disagreements, but when you are in space with many women of many different ages, it brings with it an unspoken respect and on top of that many voices do find reason in different conflicts.

Women coming together in itself creates a very powerful bond and energy.

The knowledge and the wisdom that is shared, it resonates with all who are present. Girls from a young age would know what to expect in pregnancy and birth. Birth would be seen as a normal bodily function. Normal but Sacred. It has always been done by women and no "Health Professionals" were telling women what to expect in their pregnancy, no books were available outlining everything that was about to happen. There was no need for this, because women held their knowledge that was passed down to them and that knowledge included listening to their own bodies, trusting their intuitive selves.

Image Source:https://exploringyourmind.com/giving-birth-womans-greatest-act-love/
They may not have understood the significance of hormones in their pregnancy or birth, but they understood how important it was for them to feel safe, nurtured and secure. That any stress they experienced, any fear they held, had a huge impact on their baby. During birth, as long as you feel safe and secure then your body can and will produce hormones that help you birth your baby, that help your body and your babies body be in sync. That both you and the baby send signals to one another, helping you both during each stage. It really is the most elaborate and miraculous dance that occurs between the mother and baby.

But if the mother feels fear, then those hormones are not released and instead the mother experiences overwhelming feelings, overwhelming pain and wants nothing more than to run away. This is not what birth is meant to be like. Women should not experience fear during birth, they should feel safe and secure. But instead their bodies are producing adrenaline and as a result they are experiencing the fight or flight response.

When our fight or flight system is activated, we tend to perceive everything in our environment as a possible threat to our survival. By its very nature, the fight or flight system bypasses our rational mind, where our more well thought out beliefs exist and moves us into "attack" mode. This state of alert causes us to perceive almost everything in our world as a possible threat to our survival. As such, we tend to see everyone and everything as a possible enemy. We may overreact to the slightest comment. Our fear is exaggerated. Our thinking is distorted. We see everything through the filter of possible danger. We narrow our focus to those things that can harm us. Fear becomes the lens through which we see the world!
http://www.mindwell.ie/blog/stressed-out-what-happens-our-bodies-when-fight-or-flight-triggered

Image Source:https://www.firstviewultrasound.com/

Today women are having ultrasound scans, seeing their unborn on a screen and are being told that this is a great way to connect and help them bond with their baby whilst pregnant. This is our reality today, looking at screens to bond with our babies whilst pregnant. Looking away from ourselves, from our bodies, that hold our babies in order to connect with them. Really! I understand, I may not agree with it, but I do understand that women want to have scans in order to check for any abnormalities, but to bond. This I do not understand.

We need to remember that birth has always been around, babies have always been born. It is only very recently that birth has been taking place in hospitals. And with that, birth has become a huge money making business. I have talked about this a lot in past posts, but the truth is Obstetrics is the highest funded and paid medical profession in the world. A lot of money is made from pregnancy and birth, and then all the other things that they push on mothers to buy, when their babies are born, well that's another article in itself.

For my third child, I had no check ups and no scans. But seeing as it was my third I knew what to expect and that really helps. If we still lived in communities where women gathered together daily and shared their knowledge a lot of young women would know also, or if they didn't they could easily ask someone. This is not the same as looking at a book, words can only explain so much. But body language and seeing first hand, actually being around pregnant women and women giving birth well that is so much more valuable. Seeing it as being natural. It is not an illness or a medical condition. Women were only made lie on their backs so Doctors could have a better view of the baby being born. Women undergo so many different interventions for the "professionals " benefit and not for theirs.

We need to remember this.

Image Source:http://www.rebekahfisher.com.au/birth-services/
I understand that hospital's have there time and place, and it is up to the mother where she wants to be. Because she has to feel safe and secure, it is her choice, no one can tell her where that place is. I definitely can't, I can only speak for myself. But what I can say and will continue to say is that Birth is natural, our bodies do know how to birth our babies, when they are allowed to do so.

Like I said earlier, I chose to have no interventions with my 3rd daughter during pregnancy and birth. I was 39 when I had her. I spend time everyday, especially in the last few weeks bonding with my baby in the womb by singing to her and talking to her. By sending her waves of love. I knew she could hear me.

I had a couple of scares, one was a big fall at 37 weeks, I did get very scared, but I managed to rest in my bed for a while and I spoke to her. I asked her for signs that she was okay and in response I experienced her hiccuping inside of me. I monitored her movements and also checked regularly to see if I was bleeding. I was not. If anything felt wrong I would have gone to see someone. But I really trusted my body and my baby to let me know. In the end all was okay.

Women need to come together again, share their stories and their wisdom.
Remember how powerful our bodies are.
Embrace our bodies and celebrate them.
We are all unique individuals, we are all different so lets celebrate that.
Lets Educate one another and move out of this culture of fear and into one of remembrance and celebration.

I am part of the ecotrain, if you wish to read great content and be inspired please check it out. It is one train that is full of very diverse and creative passengers. And we all know that diversity is the spice of life.