As my pregnancy progressed, I learned a little bit more each day. I talked to my friends who were moms and talked to them about their birth stories. What shocked me was the amount of information that was out there that I had no idea I didn't know! We signed up for a Childbirth Preparation class at the hospital where we would deliver. Going into the class my perspective had changed some and I believed that I'd like to try to birth naturally, but we'd see where things went. Maybe I could handle more pain than I initially thought.
We had an amazing instructor who not only taught us what to expect with labor and delivery, but the amazing things that a woman's body was created to do. We learned support techniques, comfort measures, risks and benefits of common interventions, how those interventions tend to be related to one another, and ultimately were given enough knowledge that we could make more informed decisions about the birth of our baby, together. Birth was so much more than pain. More deeply, I realized what an amazing process I was about to be a part of...no, leading. My body was perfectly made; it is written in my DNA to grow, nurture and birth a human life! What a gift that is! I wanted to feel in control of my body and my birth and know, from experience, that I could do it! I read POSITIVE birth stories, read books from the great Ina May Gaskin. We hired a doula. I was confident!
I went into labor with Jude and had the birth I envisioned. Childbirth was the most difficult challenge I have faced. However, unlike so many stories of birth that are shared so flippantly with us by our grocers, neighbors, friends or random strangers, my birth was empowering. Never once did I suffer and I was in control of my body. This was something that only I could have done and I was so proud of that. It was a rite of passage that was beyond anything I could have ever dreamed. No one had to tell me how to birth my baby, I intuitively knew what to do. I created, grew, nurtured and birthed my beautiful child! I could take on the world!
That experience forever changed my life. Thinking of Jude's birth still makes me teary. Through that experience and growth, I realized my passion. I began the journey to become a Childbirth Educator. My passion for it lies in the fact that so many expectant mothers (or to be expectant mothers) and fathers, are not aware of the choices that are theirs to make during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. We hire health care providers to lead us through our pregnancies and births. But ultimately they are our pregnancies and our births. No one can know a woman or a baby as well as that woman does. She really can have the birth of her dreams - regardless of whether she births at home, a birthing center or a hospital...regardless of the number of pain medications she has or doesn't have. It is up to the woman to choose the birth that suits her and her family. Every woman and every baby has different finger prints. Every woman will have a different labor. There shouldn't be a blanket way, time, place and position to birth that fits everyone.
Giving birth is so much more than pain. It is a beautiful process of giving life. A woman reaches into the depths of her strength to bring a new life into the world. It is a time for her to be supported, encouraged and lifted up - not managed and restricted.
So, my hope in all of this is to share this knowledge:
- Women's bodies are wonderfully made and perfectly designed to give birth. Let's give mothers the ability to have confidence in her body like her baby does.
- There are so many choices that expectant moms can make about their births. Giving women the opportunity to make those choices, and to be supported by her health care provider in those choices, allows women to have birth experiences that are empowering and uplifting.
We research most major decisions we make in our lives; buying a house, a new car, a new TV, the car seat and stroller that will transport our precious babies. Why not research and educate ourselves on giving birth?
Lamaze International has just begun a new campaign called Push for Your Baby. Its goal is to empower women and to give them the confidence to push for the best birth for their baby. I'm so proud to be a part of an organization such as Lamaze which stands by childbirth as a normal, safe and natural event and promotes women's bodies as perfectly designed to nourish and nurture their babies through pregnancy. This new campaign, I believe, can provide such amazing resources and tools to expectant parents everywhere. I'm so excited!
