My mother laughed as she told the story of how I was born.
“I walked 10 blocks in New York City to the Women’s Day Hospital, in labor, to deliver you. Oh the nurses were in a tizzy!” My mother said with quite a grin. I asked her why ..
“Well,” she said. “Back then many women were given general anesthesia and when I walked in the emergency unit, POP, you came out! They were in shock because they didn’t know what to do with a natural birth!”
That was 1954. Have things changed any? Oh, and I was also breastfed which wasn’t the “thing” to do then – no not at all.
In the picture above, my mother is carrying me in the shoulder baby carrier (yes! They had them back then!), and my brothers are tugging at her hands and jacket.
Are things different today when it comes to having a baby?
medications are still available during labor
formula is still used and popular
natural birth (without medication) is not the expected way to birth
fear about childbirth is still captivating the minds of women.
But, we have something today that was present then, but not explored nor accepted in the medical community. And it is mindset. In the 1950′s The American Medical Association declared hypnosis as a viable technique to use with patients, particularly in psychiatry. Through the years it has gained not only attention, but recognition. It is now used as complementary medicine along with progressive relaxation (discovered in the 1930′s), as well as meditation and guided imagery used for pain management in many health areas – cardiology, pediatric medicine, cancer, etc., but not the labor unit.
This is what’s missing in the labor room. We are reliving birthing attitudes of the past. Centuries of pain and old wives tales passed down from generation to generation.
It’s time to breathe new thinking, new mindsets into the childbirth experience. The tools are here now. Education is the key.
So, my mother reminds me of all the potential waiting for women to explore and THAT’S exciting. There is a shift, a movement beginning to bloom, and it’s great to be a part of it.
Where are women headed in the realm of giving birth ….
We are headed for more medical births – not that a “medical” birth (I define this as birthing in a hospital with medical interventions, epidurals, monitoring, etc.) is bad, it has it’s place. But from what I am seeing through the years of teaching childbirth education, medical technology is suppressing a woman’s innate ability to birth simply by imposing medical technology into the birth process automatically, without question, without discussion, without information to choose, without the rights and their innate abilities in mind.
Birthing is a physical and emotional art that can only be mastered by a woman. This art form and a woman’s ability to create and give birth to a new masterpiece is part of a woman’s biology, part of her psychological and chemical make-up. To disrupt this in-bred talent, negate it, ignore it , is an invitation to repressed natural needs and its expression, and suppressed emotional needs and desires – hence post partum depression?
Only since the late 1800′s and early 1900′s has the management of labor and birth become the domain of male OB/GYNs and hospitals. Before then, birth was done at home and called “women’s work”. When a wife went into labor, the husband would gather all the women in the family, even neighbors to assist with the birth. After baby was born, women would stay with the new mother “lying – in” to bond, rest for a time before going back to managing her home. In that time “social births” were important because woman would have not one, but several children in her life time. Managing a newborn with a house full of kids was hard work (and still is). Midwives delivered babies and were a central part of the birthing experience. Their craft and wisdom were handed down from Midwife to Midwife. Apprentices were chosen by the Midwives to carry-on their traditions and knowledge.
The issue became pain managment . Ether was one of the first medications used for labor in the 1920′s. The new OB/GYN became the expert and Midwives were slowly pushed to the side. Yet in the new medical quest for allievating labor pains, pregnancy, labor and birth became a medical process. At the same time, the connection between mind and body had not been pursued or even thought of. Thousands of women were sent to their deaths in the infamous “Witch hunts” when it was believed then – mysterious intuition, or the ability to have a sixth sense was eveil. Even the hypnotists of that time in the mid to late 1900′s were considered mystical and magical. Birth and labor pains were were physical experiences and delt with in that manner. The mind was not part of the body.
As new medical technology advanced, so did science and research in the connection between mind and body. When Candice Pert wrote her famous book “Molecules of Emotion” published in 1997 ( only 70 years later from the first medication used in labor) it opened a new way of looking at the human body, the workings of the mind, and its relationship to , illness, pain, and mindset.
Since that book (and others) a flood of new science and research on the body/mind connection has developed over the recent years in such a way that it’s now used with patients with chronic pain and illness. Physicians and nurses are learning hypnosis, meditation, Yoga, Reiki, healing energies,and the importance of positive thinking in managing stress and physiological or psychological pain. Today, as I write this in 2009, positive thinking, and how you think, thoughts are energy, the Law of Attraction, and so on, are common subjects and terms accepted in our culture. And it works.
This is the missing element for women who are pregnant and anticipating the birth of their baby. Because of all the proven research on the physiological benefits of relaxation on the body and mind, a woman’s mindset for labor is the key to eliminating fear about the process, enhancing her innate skills and individual talent for birthing, and em brasses her innate desires and confidence to birth her way.
Along with the advances of medical technology in the birthing arena, a side effect is increasing daily: Fear of the birthing process and a woman’s doubt in her ability to birth.
In 2001, a woman in her early twenties gave birth to a healthy, term, baby boy while in a coma. She had a vaginal birth. Physicians induced her labor with medications.
Think about this.
In spite of being in a coma, this mother’s body was still able to labor. Yes, with the help of medications. But her physiology, her uterus, was able to “mechanically” function as t should, to deliver her baby. The innate “blueprint”, the “map” of labor was able to perform without the mother being conscious or emotionally involved.
Labor is 30% physical and 70% emotional.
Since the 16th and 17th century French and English physicians have been trying to figure out how a woman’s body works. They constructed female models out of crude materials such as leather and straw stuffing to demonstrate the “mechanics” of birth to physician hopefuls. There were no doctors in America at this time in history. Midwives delivered babies. If there were any doctors in America, they were trained and came from England. They brought with them the “new science” of looking at the female body as a machine.
Labor is 30% physical and 70% emotional.
In the 21st century we have come so far with medical innovations and technology. Yet we still approach labor and birth as a science to dissect to understand it. When in reality it’s as normal as eating American Apple Pie. We don’t need to understand it. We just need to let it happen.
Here are some facts and tips to embrace towards birth:
Birth is normal and part of life
Birth takes time and patience and should not be rushed
A woman’s body knows how to birth with or without conscious effort or emotional involvement
It’s not an illness and should not be treated as one
Tips for women and expectant mothers:
Celebrate your abilities, the potential to birth and give birth
Celebrate your abilities as a woman to have the talent to “build” a baby within you
What are your fears about birth? Are they real or imagined?
Celebrate your individuality and how incredible you are
You know how to birth – it’s part of you, just like your body knows how to breathe, it knows how to birth
Welcome 
