How to Have an Awesome Birth

Kara Maria Ananda

Kara Maria Ananda www.karamariaananda.com Copyright by Kara Maria Ananda, 2013. All rights reserved. Earlier editions of this book were previously published as The Sacred Nature of Birth: Natural Wisdom for Conscious Birthing from 2011 - 2013 and Births Evolution from 2009 - 2011. Gratitude is given to the contributing authors who share their birth stories and who all reserve the rights to their writing. This book is for information purposes only. Any advice or suggestions in this book should be used with caution and responsibility. This book is not intended to treat or diagnose any health condition. Please seek professional help regarding health conditions. The author is not responsible for mis-use of the ideas presented in this book. Thank you.

Dedicated to my two sons, Ari & Jeva

TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: How to Have an Awesome Birth

Introduction: Birth is Awe-Inspiring Chapter One: Births Evolution Chapter Two: Conscious Birthing Chapter Three: Birth Ecology Chapter Four: Birth As A Rite of Passage Chapter Five: Co-Creative Pregnancy Chapter Six: Natural Healing for Pregnancy Chapter Seven: Envisioning Your Birth Chapter Eight: Biodynamic Birth Chapter Nine: Mother and Baby After Birth Chapter Ten: Babymoon: Being With Your Baby

PART II: Awesome Birth Stories

The Love Which Holds My Baby Boy by Jade Beall My Cosmic Pregnancy by Debbie Pierce Elijahs Birth, HBAC by Kristen Avonti Korus Homebirth: Powerful & Primal by Jaya Sat Kriya Sols Freebirth by Kristie Joy Aldens Birth Story by Valerie Atwood With My Body I Speak the Truth of Birth by Sammi Cambray Jais Birth Story by Ana Camacho Hanson The Lotus Birth Story of Kestryl by Joleen Decker Trusting the Voice Within by Michelle Peterson A Conscious Family Freebirth by Kara Maria Ananda

PART III: Resources

Books Videos

The journey through pregnancy and birth offers an irreplaceable way for women to explore their deepest selves their minds, bodies, and nature. - Ina May Gaskin

Part I

How to Have an Awesome Birth

Introduction

Birth is Awe-Inspiring

My fascination with empowered womens health and birth began in 1998, when I was 19 years old, living in Seattle, WA and attending massage therapy school. I was reading the book Woman as Healer by Jeanne Achtenburg, a richly detailed history of women in the healing arts from ancient to modern times, and I was deeply struck by the global heritage and value of midwifery. I had never thought about midwives or birthing before yet I immediately felt the remembrance of this feminine wisdom for health and empowerment within my body. It was as if cellular memories of ancient womens health wisdom, midwifery, and supporting women in pregnancy and birth through natural healing arts, was awoken within my soul. I immediately researched midwifery in Seattle and found that not only were there professional homebirth midwives, but there was the Seattle Midwifery School. I also discovered that my favorite massage school teacher was also a birth doula, providing emotional support and perinatal massage and bodywork to mothers. She began bringing me books from her pregnancy and birth library: Immaculate Deceptions II, Spiritual Midwifery, Heart and Hands, and more - which I devoured. Within a year I had graduated from massage school, become certied in pregnancy massage, and taken my birth doula and postpartum doula training courses at the Seattle Midwifery School.

I was 20 years old and passionate in my work as a pregnancy massage therapist and doula working with families birthing at home, birth centers, and hospitals. I decided to continue my training and began attending traditional midwifery study groups with a local nurse midwife (CNM). I also attended midwifery study groups and workshops with a traditional homebirth midwife and a licensed professional midwife (CPM). I was lucky to live in community where natural birth, homebirth, and midwifes are accepted. In many states in the US today, homebirth and midwives are illegal, and womens rights to health care options and education are limited. That was the beginning of my journey as a conscious birthing advocate, and I have pursued many sources of education, study, and experience over the years. Ive become a childbirth educator, doula trainer, massage therapy teacher, infant craniosacral therapist, and conscious birth consultant for parents-to-be, birth professionals, and humanitarian organizations. I am dedicated to learning, sharing, and educating about conscious birth and parenting, and co-creating new systems for supporting mothers, babies, and families on the local to global levels. When I was rst learning about birth at the turn of the millennium, I was shocked to realize how traumatic birthing in the US and the Western world was for many women. 1 in 4 women were receiving Cesarean Section surgeries for birth. Pitocin, IV's, electronic fetal monitors, circumcision, and other interventions were pervasive in medicalized birth. Today that number has increased to an almost 35% csection rate in the US, and some hospitals with a 75%, or even 95% c-section rate. Though birth trauma and risks for mothers and babies is rising as fast as we are plunging more money into the medicalized birthing system, there is still beauty and mystery to be seen in every birth. My heart has been blown open by the beautiful and gentle homebirths I have witnessed, and the compassion and

care of the homebirth midwives in the community. I want more mothers, fathers, and babies to have access to empowered and gentle births, and to know that it is possible. As a doula, I have been witness to the full spectrum of birth environments and philosophies, and there is a dramatic, obvious, and palpable difference in the energy, vitality, and experiences of mothers, babies, and families in hospitals compared with birth centers and home. When I became pregnant with my son in 1999, I knew I wanted midwifery care and a doula, and planned to birth at a beautiful birth center with waterbirth tubs, as I was drawn to the idea of a waterbirth. However, as the birth became closer and closer, I realized I did not want to leave my own home, and thus had a wonderful birth at home in 2000. I am so grateful for that homebirth, as my son was a long labor (42 hours) and being at home allowed me the ability to be comfortable and take my time knowing we were both healthy and ne. Even freestanding birth centers may limit the amount of time a woman may be in labor before transporting to the hospital due to limitations imposed by insurance companies and policies. If I labored at the birth center, the midwives may have felt the need to insist upon transport to the hospital because of the birth centers protocols. At home they were able to let me labor with patience, knowing my baby and I were healthy and we just needed time. I am sure if I had been at the hospital I would not have been allowed to labor slowly without augmentation leading to a cascade of other interventions. My son's amazing homebirth, and the vivid dreams I had all during my pregnancy of being a midwife, ignited my passion for conscious birth even more. As I grew and evolved as a mother through the rst decade of the new millennium, I continued my education and service to conscious birth and families. I

attended many midwifery workshops and study groups, pursued advanced bodywork training for trauma release, craniosacral therapy, pregnancy, and infants, studied with multiple teachers in the spirituality and healing arts of birth, attended birth conferences, spoke and taught at birth conferences, as well as being a pregnancy massage teacher and a holistic birth doula teacher. I also worked with multiple community and global organizations in birth activism. Today, I am a mother to an infant once again, as my new baby boy was born in 2011, and I am feeling how even more important conscious birth is now. In the years between the birth of my sons, rates of intervention and surgery in the US for birthing women have risen dramatically, as access and coverage of midwifery care has decreased. Induction rates are soaring, instead of 1 in 4 - now 1 in 3 women are getting c-section's, and there are hospitals in the US with c-section rates over 50, 60, and even 70%! Amnesty International declared that maternity care is in crisis in their 2010 report "Deadly Delivery". Women in the United States face a greater risk of maternal death than in 49 other countries around the world, though the US spends twice as much money on birth than any other country. The countries that have the fewest loss of mothers' lives all utilize midwifery care for the majority of low-risk healthy pregnant women. Amnesty International also reported in 2011 that pregnancy and birth are by far the most common and expensive reason for hospitalization in the US. Cesarean delivery is the most common surgery performed in the United States.

According to California Watch, in just a decade the c-section rate increased 50% in the state while the maternal death rate tripled. California Watch also revealed that a woman has a 17% higher chance of getting a c-section at a for-prot hospital compared to a non-prot hospital. There are proven ways to reduce the c-section rate, support moms and babies to have healthier births, relieve labor pain naturally, and save lives in maternity care - I want this information and support to be available in every community. We need more Conscious Birth educators, mentors, and advocates, and more empowered parents to make informed and loving choices for their pregnancy, birth, and baby. My personal passion is in integrating the ancient heritage of healing arts and traditional midwifery, with new concepts from quantum physics, neurocardiology, epigenetics, spiritual ecology, pre- and perinatal psychology, and share this information in a way that is accessible and inspiring for modern women and families to reclaim their self-empowered healing and sustainable community and planetary health-care. This joyful journey of supporting conscious birth today leads me to share this information through education, consultations, mentoring, writing, speaking, and more. I see that through supporting healthy mothers, babies and births today that we are uplifting the future of humanity and planet Earth. It is the time to listen and act if you are being called to serve women and families in the birthing year. It is the time to help the new children of Earth be welcomed peacefully, gently, and with condence. It is the time to dispel cultural and personal fear of birth with knowledge, education, preparedness, and inner strength. It is time to insist upon the kind of prenatal and birth care that is supported through the records of time as well as the leading-edge science of today.

Birth creates a holographic template for how we experience the world and our lives. In order to create a peaceful conscious humanity capable of solving the complex issues critical for healing and balance on our planet today - we must birth the new generations of humans to be capable of deep love and the ability to perceive greater love, possibilities, and solutions. Peace within the womb and peace in the birthing room gives light to peace in the hearts of all who are born in such grace.

"Women and men all over the world, and throughout history, have created ways of understanding the genesis of life which springs forth from our bodies. With the stirrings of the new life within her, a pregnant woman particularly wonders at the mystery and miracle of creation." - Carroll Dunham

Chapter One

Births Evolution

My great-grandmother birthed sixteen children of her own, including three sets of twins, all at home. The last time my great-grandmother was in labor, she awoke and went out to the barn at 5 a.m. to milk 30 cows. She then walked back to the house and birthed two babies, her third set of twins, and she was up preparing breakfast by 9 a.m. Her youngest child, the last baby to be born, is my grandmother. Great-grandma was the village midwife in a little town in Quebec at the turn of the 20th century. The local women called upon her to be their midwife when needing assistance birthing their children, due to her deep personal experience and condence in birth. Women birthed at home, and when they needed assistance they called upon the sagefemme. Sagefemme translates literally as wise woman and is the French word for midwife. When my grandmother was ve, her family sold the farm in Quebec and three generations moved to a coastal town in Maine. The family moved to Maine for the economic opportunities in the factories and mills. Family life was no longer centered about the home and farm, living from the earth. Instead the many generations of family lived together in an apartment building my great-grandfather bought, and they worked

in the new growing industries. As life became industrialized and the mills and factories became the new domain of work, then hospitals became the new domain of birth. When my grandmother was pregnant in the 1940s, she gave birth at the local hospital under twilight sleep. My grandfather dropped her off at the door, she changed into her hospital gown, and the nurses administered her drugs which made her woozy and unaware of her surroundings. She gave birth while unconscious under the effects of morphine and scopolamine, which were in vogue at the time. Women were isolated and unconscious during twilight sleep, but still felt pain, thrashed about, yelled out, and were usually restrained to their hospital beds to prevent them from harming themselves. Doctors and nurses would deliver the babies by often pushing on the mothers belly and using forceps to pull the babies out, as the women were not able to actively birth. When she came to after the birth, a nurse came to her bedside. Guess what you have! said the nurse. A boy? asked my grandmother. No. said the nurse. Well a girl then! said my grandmother. No, guess again. said the nurse. Well then, what do I have? asked my grandmother, quite bewildered, certainly still dazed from the drugs, and slowly coming to awareness of her achy postpartum body. Twins! announced the nurse.

It was a surprise to my grandmother. My mother was the youngest of the twins, two girls. My mother gave birth three times in a hospital in New Hampshire, to my sisters and I. The hospitals protocol in the 1960s and 70s included every laboring woman receiving anesthesia and for the babies to be taken to the nursery after the birth, separated from their mothers for hours, and given formula. I am the youngest of my mothers three daughters. By the time my mother gave birth to me, she began to question the hospitals approach. She desired a more compassionate birth experience, with less interventions, and to be undisturbed to initiate breastfeeding immediately after the birth. When my mother was in labor with me, it was a full moon in May - the month named after Maia, the Greek Goddess of Midwifery. She waited until she had very strong contractions and was in active labor to travel from her house to the hospital. By the time she arrived at the labor ward, it was too late for them to administer the drugs that were a typical part of the hospital birth protocol. She had a completely natural birth, quite surprising the nurses and doctors, and perhaps even herself. After I was born, my mother held me in her arms and would not let me go to the nursery with the nurse. The doctor had already left the room, and the nurse wanted to take me away. She bbed to the nurse and said that the doctor had given her permission to keep me in her room. Arguing that it was not in her charts, the nurse went to go conrm this information with the doctor, and left me in my mothers arms. My mother took advantage of this privacy to breastfeed me for the rst time, until I contentedly fell asleep. When the nurse returned a little bit later to say that the doctor had not conrmed the rooming-in and she had to take me to nursery, my mother handed me to the nurse knowing at least that I was sated and asleep.

I was pregnant in Seattle in 1999 during a critical time in our global history. In my own city, I witnessed the mass demonstrations against the World Trade Organization meetings. Additionally, there was the Y2K concerns and the 2000 US presidential campaigns. I was pregnant and immersed in a community abuzz with conversations and concerns about the future of humanity and the planet, globalization, human rights, the environment, and peace. Becoming a mother was a radicalizing experience. When I was pregnant, I had already been working as a prenatal massage therapist and birth and postpartum doula. I had experience attending homebirths, hospital births, waterbirths, and medicated births. I had formed strong opinions supporting family-centered conscious birthing based on my research of birth in America, my professional training, and my personal observations of attending births in a variety of settings with different types of care providers. With the emerging inner and outer transformations intrinsic to becoming a parent in the new millennium, I was expanding my awareness of natural parenting, human consciousness, and planetary interdependence. I was drawn to the parallels between trauma in birth and trauma in adults, as well as a correlation between healing relationships and restoring the Earth. I understood then and now, that healing birth is essential to healing our Mother Earth. My preparations for motherhood included physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual healing, as well as contemplating the ecological implications of birth, parenting, and my responsibility to raise an conscious citizen. I am fascinated by the interconnections of midwifery, healing, and ecology. I believe that every mother who births gently and peacefully, and the parents, family members, midwives, doctors, doulas, and educators who support conscious birth, are all planetary activists as well as birth activists.

My rst son was born at home, in 2000, at the dawn of the new millennium, with two homebirth midwives in attendance. He was the rst family member to be born at home in 85 years, since his greatgrandma was born on the farm in Quebec. Giving birth at home was an incredibly empowering experience: peaceful, euphoric, challenging, ecstatic, and profoundly life-changing. I had a long labor with Ari, I felt the rst contractions on a Thursday night, and he was born 42 hours later as the Sun was setting on Saturday evening. Labor was an altered state of consciousness, and through it I journeyed to nd myself as a mother and birth us both anew. While I experienced great intensity of energy coursing through me in labor, I internally knew that he and I were healthy and strong and just needed to take our own time to birth. Holding my newborn baby in my arms was a powerful moment in which I experienced such relief, joy, bliss, and euphoria. The high of oxytocin, the hormone of love, coursing through my boy upon birthing and holding my baby, instinctively and peacefully in my own home, facilitated the deep love that I felt for this child bonding us together for life. Eleven years later, I gave birth to my son Jeva, at home in the water with just his father present. We had a beautiful labor and birth unassisted by midwife, doula, or doctor. This was an ultimate experience of deep love and connection with our baby and each other. Jeva was born at almost 44 weeks of pregnancy and a 20 hour labor. It was a profoundly intimate birth that deepened my experiencing of pregnancy and birth as a feminine shamanic path. I continue to learn from my babies, and all the mothers, fathers, and babies I am blessed to share and listen to. Birth is evolving us as humans, and we can consciously co-create the birth experiences we want to have to co-create a humanized peaceful humanity on Earth today.

Chapter Two

Conscious Birthing

Conscious birthing is vital today to bring forth babies peacefully in love to co-create the conscious evolution of humanity. When mother and baby feel consciously connected, and the mother is informed, supported, and honored, they can experience a conscious birth. Conscious Birthing is an awareness centered in love during pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum. When a family feels empowered to make the choices that are best for their baby - that is a conscious birth.! Birth is a rite of passage and each mother and baby have a unique and sacred journey to experience. Each birth is a unique opportunity for healing, evolution, transformation, and expanded consciousness. A conscious birth can be a cesarean section, an epidural birth, or waterbirth at a hospital, birth center, or a home - it is not limited by location or practitioner - it is a state of consciousness for mother, baby, and family of deep love and healing. Every birth is a sacred experience. Conscious birthing today is a practice of intentionally bringing a baby into this world with love. Gentle birth supports the baby's conscious imprinting of a peaceful world and is best facilitated through time-honored midwifery care and evidence-based practices of non-intervention in the childbearing year.

Conscious birthing of a child requires the parents to be centered in their hearts, calm in their minds, supple in the body and guided by spirit.! There are core principles to Conscious Birthing that create a sacred foundation for parents to birth their child with their high-level soul vibration intact. These principles of Conscious Birthing include: Healing Birth & Sexual Trauma Before Conception, Conscious Conception, Gentle Prenatal Care, Laboring With Love, and a Peaceful Postpartum. The most important principle for the continuum of conscious birthing is the power of love to heal and bond.! Birth is the emergence of a living being created from the state of pure energy to actualize as a physically manifested soul. To birth is to bring to light what is within, to illuminate the creative essence. Being a sacred container of birthing energy is to witness nature and spirit becoming alchemically transformed into a conscious expression of living intelligence within ourselves. Conscious birth comes with a deep gnosis of the mysteries of the soul, love, and embodiment, as well as the condence to trust in ones one innate wisdom and intuition. Ones inner knowing and guidance from Source is naturally enhanced through sacred birthing. To be fully present with the energies of birth, to dance in the joy of love, life, and creation, requires an honoring of the mystical collaboration of seen and unseen forces - earth, air, re, water, and spirit. The matrix which brings all these elements together to converge and fuse is space. The geometrical energetic foundation of life giving shape to form, to grow and expand, to become what we are called to be. The womb of life creates a soft spherical container formed with warm spiraling energies, patterns, and elements to create a safe home for new life to bloom.

The mother matrix is present in all life, from the universe, to our Earth, to the mothers of all children. The mother is the matrix and the matter. The father is the seed of life, light energy that vortexes within the matrix co-creating conscious artful life with her. The matrix is our universe as the seed of life is the divine energy of the stars giving us the elements, light, and vibration. We are all made of light, we emit photons. We are all from the stars. Every element on Earth was formed within the cosmic death of a star. As each star transforms in death, it creates a nuclear explosion that creates the elements of life and sends them forth outward into the universe with a great explosion and cosmic wind. When a star is born it comes into being with the primal force of expansion to send its light forth radiating into the universe illuminating and co-creating with all that is within its eld. So when a baby is born on Earth, it creates a great expansion of energy and light. The birth guardians are here to protect the space and create a sacred circle around the birthing family, the eld in which the birth illuminates. With room to bloom the light will shine forth upon the parents and all who are blessed to be present for the babys radiance. To bring forth the children with the most light, we must enlighten our lives, bodies, hearts, and planet. We must breath pure air, drink fresh water from living springs, eat living foods that are as fresh as possible, and live our lives based on love. In this de-light-full way the children of the new millennium want to be birthed surround by the loving union of their parents and community to live a conscious life for planetary healing, the evolution of being, and the spiritual deepening of our human connection to the Earth and Universe. The rst birth I ever attended was a home waterbirth and I was awestruck with the amazing power and energy that lled the birth room. The environment was thick with a sweet energy of electricity and light

that was unseen yet felt generating powerfully forth from the laboring mother and her birthing baby. After that dynamic and beautiful experience of gentle conscious birth at home, I was awed by the innate potential power within every women. I looked at every human being in the world with the wonder that we have all been born! It is a wonder to be born, to come into this world with an expansion of light, movement, and interaction. To come from another into being an individual, so that we can all interact with each other and the divine spirit of co-creative nature on a deeper more unique level than ever before. The way in which we are born creates our birth memory. This primal imprinting of birth effects the whole experience of our life through the quantum memory of an emerging being. The emotions, experiences, and environment of the baby from conception to age three powerfully shapes the psychological formation of the individual throughout their life.

Shamanic Midwifery
When I became pregnant with my son I experienced a spiritual awakening of motherhood. My heart and soul expanded as I gained enhanced senses, the deepening of intuition, the registering of subtle emotions, and powerful lucid and visionary dreams. It began a year before I conceived my son. He began coming to me in my dreams. I had several dreams in which in which my baby visited me. In my rst birth dream I was in a car in a rain storm driving through a corneld while giving birth naturally at the same time. In another dream I was in a barn and I

gave birth to my baby and she said I want to come home. In another dream I was holding my new baby and nursing while riding down a giant slide at a playground. I also sensed a glowing orb of light hanging out around me during that year. Sometimes I would be home alone and see little movements of light out of the corner of my eye, or sense that there was a gentle baby soul waiting and hanging out nearby. As soon as I conceived I stopped sensing the baby spirit energy outside me, and I stopped having the pregnancy and birth dreams. Instead I starting have powerful midwifery dreams. The rst trimester of my pregnancy I experienced lucid dreams ever night. When one is lucid dreaming they are aware they are dreaming, there is a awakening of consciousness while still sleeping. I had recurring dreams of riding on the brow of a boat, and with my conscious will I could lift the boat up out of the water to sail through the sky, higher and higher, before gliding down to skip back over the ocean waves. In the second and third trimesters I had visionary shamanic midwifery dreams that awakened my soul to a higher calling of illuminating birth for babies, mothers, and families to expand in divine love. One night while I was sleeping I started having lucid dreams, and began trying to change the location I was at in my dream, as I found myself in an old-fashioned farmhouse bathroom. I opened the door knob and found myself in a vision unlike any I could have imagined. I was in a dimly lit cavernous space. It felt like it was underground, or there were heavy blankets hung everywhere. I became aware of a thick, long, wooden table ahead of me and was magnetized to sit at the head of the table in the empty chair in front of me. On the table there were candlesticks, that were the

only illumination on this side of the room. I could see that the table was surrounded by people with strong, quiet, patient energy. Their faces were not visible in the dim light but I could feel their energy and sense the wise intelligent telepathic awareness of this circle of beings. I became aware that on the other side of the room, divided by hanging curtains of thick blankets there was a replace and a woman in labor. I could not see her through the heavy divider but I also had telepathic consciousness of the labor, as did all those who were in the room, and I could see an energetic vision of the room in my mind. She was laboring naturally in her own warm, dark space, free to move and journey through the shamanic journey of labor and birth. While nearby there was a circle of birthstewards, wise women and men, guardian the birth circle, tending the sacred creative birth re, and holding the rhythm, strengthening the pulse of conscious creation. For as the laboring woman in the room began to experience sensations, the building energy of the expansion within her womb, as she moved toward the ultimate opening to spirit, her baby, and birth, I too could sense the growing expansion, as could the whole birth circle. I instinctively reached onto the table where there were rattles and drums before me and began to play in one hand a drum, and in another a rattle. As her expansion grew in intensity every person sitting around the table began to play their sacred instruments of drums and rattles, at rst quietly, then building in tempo and volume with the growing energy of the mother, then dissipating softly and gently into meditative silence again to pause and let mother and baby rest in peace. This dream vision was so real, so unique from any other dream state I had previously experienced. I could clearly feel my self in this birthing space, and was so instinctively guided in what to do, my remembrance of this dream is vivid to this day.

Awakening from this dream, I recognized that I has experienced the profound spiritual calling to midwifery. The traditional roots of midwifery were calling me through my dreams to transform the eld of birth on Earth, so that all babies can be born with love and light. Sacred birth nurtures aware babies, conscious parents, community, and culture. Traditional midwives consider midwifery to be a spiritual gift given to midwives through their dreams by Spirit. My passion for learning as much as possible about conscious birth and health was ignited. I have studied midwifery in study circles led by traditional holistic midwives, Certied Professional Midwives, and Certied Nurse-Midwives. I have worked as a birth doula, postpartum doula, childbirth educator, perinatal massage therapist, infant craniosacral therapist, pregnancy massage teacher, and doula trainer. I have written articles and presented at conferences about healing arts for mothers and babies. I have worked with hundreds of families in the childbearing year, in a full spectrum of holistic nurturing support services for mothers, babies, and families. I have attended conferences on integrative medicine, midwifery, pre and perinatal psychology, and herbal medicine. Most importantly, I have raised my own son through a natural pregnancy, homebirth, attachment parenting, co-sleeping, breastfeeding, babywearing, natural parenting, and homeschooling. I have attended many births as a doula in homes, birth centers, and hospitals with homebirth midwives, nurse-midwives, and doctors. I have witnessed the strength of women in labor, the love of fathers, the compassion of doulas, the patience of midwives, and the intelligence of babies. Water has taught me of its pain-reducing powers and its gift of buoyancy and peaceful transition to mothers and babies. Midwives, mothers, and babies have taught me the power of gentle touch, the Mexican rebozo shawl for massage, support, and rocking, and toning, chanting, moaning, and singing for energy movement in labor.

I believe in birth, in the wisdom of babies nding their own time and way to be born, of womens bodies innately knowing how to give birth, the biodynamic intelligence of nature, and the grace of spirit. Conscious birthing brings grace and spiritual intelligence to life that is unmeasurable in its preciousness and power.

Our crisis is the birth of a universal humanity capable of co-evolving with nature and co-creating with spirit. - Barbara Marx Hubbard

Chapter Three

Birth Ecology

The Deep Ecology of Birth

Birth is a sacred rite of passage for women, a life-altering experience that brings knowledge, experience, growth, and discovery. There is great power and potential inherent in pregnancy and birth. Labor is an altered state of consciousness that the woman journeys through in order to discover her birth power. The sacredness of mothers, babies, and birth must be honored rst and foremost, for the survival of humanity and our earth. The newborns emergence at birth imprints the baby with the rst impressions of the world. The baby has an instinct to be born, the mothers body ripens for birth but she must be patient to wait for the babys unique time. Physiologically, it is the baby who initiates labor, signaling the mothers body to labor and birth. The baby is a conscious participant in the birth journey. When a mother listens to her body and her baby, and gives birth instinctively, that child is imprinted with the ability to respect and honor its body and being.

Conscious birthing is an ecstatic experience, and women who birth instinctively can experience ecstasy and spiritual awakening. Birth becomes a tantric experience between the mother and baby, as they communicate through deeper consciousness and without words. Birth is one aspect of the womens cycle of fertility and sexuality, and all the rites of passage in womens sexual cycles are ecologically vital and have ecstatic potential. The womens sexual life cycle includes many rites of passage: menarche, menstruation, childbirth, and menopause. These are known as the Blood Mysteries, and have been honored by traditional cultures around the world for thousands of years. The womens mysteries are opportunities for sacred connection to nature, deepening self-understanding, gaining new wisdom, and creative potential. Womens cycles are a deep source of connection to nature. The menstrual cycle is guided by the moon; the lunar cycles inuence the tides of the oceans and womens wombs. Just as we experience the cycles of nature physically every daythe cycle of the day and night, the moon cycle, the solar cycle of the seasonsso we experience natural cycles within our bodies, the lifecycle, the menstrual cycle, and the birth cycle. The gestation of pregnancy is actually ten lunar cycles, and many people call the postpartum time, the babymoon. Throughout gestation, the mother and baby are biologically one unit. The baby is dependent upon the health, nourishment, and love of the mother. Humans live in the womb of Mother Earth, and we are all dependent upon the health of the planet and our environment, which provides us with everything from atoms to atmosphere, to food, shelter, and medicine. The Earth is our Mother. She gave birth to all of us; all the trees, mountains, herbs, owers, animals, minerals, crystals, and humans are her children and family. Her web of interconnectivity and

interdependence binds us all. This Earth-Body balance is vital for health; a balance between ecological health, such as a sense of connection to place and environmental health, and somatic health, the physical, personal, and inner essence of body and spirit well-being. Humanity must honor our interdependence with nature in order to heal our bodies, and our Earth. Western cultures disrespect for the Earth is seen as the destruction of the environment, natural resources, ancient forests, atmosphere, and oceans. This is mirrored in the highly invasive treatment of womens bodies in medicine, media, and childbirth practices. Human culture is no longer in sync with the rhythms and cycles of nature. We are cutting open our bodies and our planet. The farther we push ourselves from living ecologically, in balance with nature, the more we kill ourselves and our planet. How do we nd a way to regain balance? In our vision to create a safe world for children to live in, we must begin with making birth safe for children, so that they may be at home in their bodies. In order to heal birth, we must care for the whole health of mother, baby, family, and community. Healing art midwifery must address the body, mind, heart, and spirit of mother and planet. The journey to healing begins with addressing the birth trauma that we carry, from our own births, and the births our ancestors. Through acknowledging where we have been, releasing our pain and fear, surrendering to the ow, and spiraling through the creative circle of life, we can heal our children, ourselves, and our universal family through co-creating conscious birth with peace and love. Each birth brings a new opportunity to tend to the garden of birth. Each birth is a seed for humanity.

21st Century Childbirth

Birth in the United States today is extraordinarily industrialized, technological, and controlled by capitalist interests. Over the last 100 years, the medicalization of childbirth nearly wiped out the legacy of midwives, and the practice of homebirth, and instinctive birth. At the dawn of the 20th century, the vast majority of women birthed at home, with a traditional midwife in attendance. Midwifery experienced a renaissance in the 1970s. Today, professional homebirth midwives practice all over the US. However, less than 1% of women in the US give birth at home. In hospitals, 7% of women have a Certied Nurse-Midwife attending; the remaining 92% of women have an Obstetrician managing their care. The ancient art of women attending women in labor, birthing instinctively and privately, has been vanished to a tiny fraction of families who are called to birth in the way they feel safest. In fact, the British Medical Journal published a study in 2005 that showed that birth at home was as safe, or safer, than birth in a hospital. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that midwives are safest care providers for healthy women with low-risk pregnancies. A study at the University of Washington in 1999 researched the communications of physicians and surgeons with their patients, and they concluded that 91% of the time the physicians did not give their patients enough information to make an informed decision about their healthcare. Midwives trust in the wisdom of birth, and educate their clients to make informed and safe choices throughout all of pregnancy, labor, and birth. The parents process of educating and preparing for the birth of a new child is necessary for the parents readiness to care for and nurture the child throughout the entire time of childhood. When parents are given full information about the risks of medical intervention and unnecessary technology in childbirth,

then the soaring rates of induction, epidurals, electronic fetal monitoring, and cesarean sections will be reversed. Children that are born gently and peacefully into loving hands will heal the cycle of abuse caused by the technocratic medicalization of childbirth. Women giving birth in America today usually labor in bed in a decorated hospital room, hooked up to numerous tubes and wires that connect their bodies to machines, monitors, and medications. The natural catalysts in labor of movement and gravity are difcult for women to work with in labor due to being restricted by to up to 16 different tubs, drugs, and attachments in labor, including the electronic fetal monitor, blood pressure cuff, pulse oximeter, internal fetal monitor, internal contraction monitor, urethral catheter, intravenous drip, pitocin, narcotics, antibiotics, blood anticoagulents, and epidural drip. Birthing women are instructed into the most unnatural birthing position - leaning back with their legs held up in the air while doctors pull and tug on the babies heads and aggressively assist the delivery. The majority of women give birth in a modied lithotomy positionthe most unnatural position to give birth for it opposes gravity and reduces pelvic mobility. Birthing in water, squatting, hanging from a hammock, in a supported squat, or in hands and knees are optimal positions for birth because they allow gravity to work with the mother and baby, support the mother and baby in getting maximum oxygen, allow the mother to move naturally, and do not encourage birth practitioners to aggressively facilitate the birth. The hospital is an unfamiliar place, and numerous people come in and out of the room during the course of the labor. Each pregnancy is treated as a potential pathology and is invasively monitored. Medicalized childbirth is a self-fullling prophecy, for many complications are instigated because of unnecessary interventions. In the US, 31% of women give birth by Cesarean section, and the rate has been increasing each year at an alarming rate.

Interference during labor halts the physiological process of birthing. Normal healthy mothers need respectful attendants who do not disturb the instinctive and hormonal orchestra of labor, and offer holistic care, nutritional guidance, nurturing touch, and encouraging support. Mothers need to be free to move as they please, to immerse their bodies in buoyant warm water, to walk outside on the Earth, to labor undisturbed, and to be undisturbed immediately after the birth, to hold and touch their baby, establish nursing, and fall in love. Babies are highly sensitive and conscious beings of total trust and love, they need gentle touch, natural hormones, clear minds, and a calm nervous system to begin life outside the womb as part of the human family. Birth is in crisis, and is calling to the parents of the new millennium. Cultivate the garden of birth, and stand guard at the gate. Protect the sanctuary of birth and understand the laws of nature. The future of humanity depends upon healing childbirth, empowering pregnant women through midwifery care, and creating a sustainable world for the children of Earth.

Celebrate Your Pregnancy

There are many choices to be made during the path of parenthood, beginning before conception and continuing forever. Be condent in your choices by listening to your heart and knowing that you are the expert of YOU. Cultures around the world have honored birth with various rituals, traditions, and beliefs about birth. Just as each snowake is unique, each family is unique, and each birth is as different as each mother and child.

While you learn about the pros and cons of various routes of delivery, birth environments, prenatal testing, birth philosophies, care givers, and parenting techniques remember to honor your choices and celebrate your pregnancy, birth, and baby. Listen to your heart to nd the right path for you, your baby, and your family. Here are some inspiring positive ways to honor the rite of passage through pregnancy and birth. You will nd your own unique ways to honor your pregnancy too. Keep a pregnancy journal or diary. It can be for you or someday for your baby if you wish. You can write, draw, journal your dreams, and record the unique inner transformation and memories from this pregnancy. Gather a circle of women friends to join you for a Birth Circle, to share stories, advice, celebrate your pregnancy, and have an evening together. Find out about birth traditions from your community, region, family, heritage, spirituality, and around the world and consider incorporating rituals that are meaningful to you into your pregnancy and birth experience. Think positive thoughts about your pregnancy, birth, and baby by surrounding yourself with positive people, environments, and situations. Use positive afrmations to keep your mind focused and heartconscious, Paint, draw, write, make a dreamcatcher, or art to express your creativity and explore your feelings during the transformative rite of passage of pregnancy.

 Take nurturing baths regularly during your pregnancy, daily, weekly, or monthly, whenever you can, and pamper yourself with bubble bath, bath salts, candles, and wonderful music. Take time to walk in nature, in the woods, along a beach, or to bath in the sun and fresh air. Talk and sing to your baby while enjoying nature and allowing nature to relax and recharge your nervous system.

"Nature has endowed women with the monumental task of birthing cultures as well as human beings." - Suzanne Arms

Chapter Four

Birth as a Rite of Passage

Metamorphosis
Birth is a powerful, transformational experience in which a women transforms in order to bring forth life. Birth has been considered by cultures all over the world to be a sacred rite of passage in which the power of the transformation shapes both the baby, mother, family, and community. For this reason, people all over the world have created ways of honoring and celebrating pregnancy, birth, and the newborn. Pregnancy and childbirth are times in which dramatic changes occur in a pregnant womans body, brain, and heart. While the physiology of birth can be seen as typically universal for all humans, each culture on the planet has marked the time of birth with unique and dramatically different rituals, including spiritual, medical, and cultural beliefs and practices. In this way, birth is a rite of passage and how you choose to treat your pregnancy, birth your baby, and care for your newborn creates the foundation for their initiation into life on Earth.

During the childbearing year, women experience changes on all levels: physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and socially. It is normal to experience a full range of emotions, from anticipation, joy, worry, sadness, and ecstasy. You can choose to create your own personal and social rituals to recognize the powerful transformation of woman to mother, such as a baby shower or mother blessing celebration. You can also choose the care providers, locations, and attendants at your birth with an understanding of their different cultural viewpoints of the models of birth and how they best coincide with your vision for your birth. There are big differences between the beliefs about birth, the protocols in prenatal care, labor, postpartum, and newborn care, and the informed choice given to mothers in the medical model of maternity care and the midwifery model of care. It is important to interview your potential care providers well, and nd out what birth providers and birth environments available is the best for you. Listen to your heart and intuition, as well as doing ample research into all your options, and decide who and where will help you to co-create the best birth possible for you and your unique baby. With loving care, trusting attendees, and a conducive environment, birth can be peaceful, empowering, and ecstatic.

Women Healers & Midwives

The healing ways of women have been demonstrated in every culture around the globe by traditional women healers, herbalists, and midwives. Women have been practicing the arts of midwifery and healing

for thousands of years. In earlier human culture, women healers were honored for their sacred feminine healing arts. Women have always gathered together during times of menstruation and birthing for healing and support. In traditional cultures around the globe, female healers are an integral part of the community, and arose out of the community of women, through gaining experience and respect. Traditional midwives learn their healing craft from elder women in the community, often a mother, grandmother, aunt, or neighbor, thus weaving a web of womens wisdom that connects the community of women. The traditional female healer blends knowledge of herbs and midwifery with personal and cultural cosmological beliefs. The interweaving of art, science, and spirituality creates a holistic model of care that nurtures and empowers the body, mind, and spirit. There are women healers and midwives from every culture around the world. She is known as the village healer, midwife, wise woman, or shaman. She is the South African sangoma, the Hispanic curandera, the South Asian dai and Dyamaju, the Mayan granny healer, the Appalachian granny midwife, the French sagefemme, the Japanese samba, and the Polish babka. The tools of the traditional female healer may include herbal wisdom, massage, bodywork, dance, yoga, music, art, storytelling, prayer, ritual, and intuition. Integrating these therapeutic tools for the healing and care of women is the art of traditional midwifery and womens healing arts. The midwife may perform the duties of healer, herbalist, counselor, teacher, minister, and storyteller as well as a traditional birthing attendant.

Midwifery is the healing art of being with woman, and is founded upon a deep connection to nature and an honoring of the human body. Midwives respect the blood mysteries: menarche, childbearing, and menopause, as sacred and powerful life transitions. Womens sexuality is valued as empowering, vital, and integral power of the sacred feminine and the connection to the divine. Traditional indigenous midwives guide women through all the transformations of life from womb to tomb. The art of women supporting women in childbirth is seen not only in throughout the history of humankind, but in the animal world as well. Elephants in the wild have midwives who surround them in a circle during their labor, protecting the pregnant mother and swaying along with the laboring elephant. The elephant midwives may care for the pregnant elephants throughout their long gestation of 21-22 months, in labor, and through infancy. In labor, the elephant midwives may stroke the mother and make sounds along with the laboring elephant. Within the circle of birth, the midwives protect the laboring elephant and assist the newborn to be released from the amniotic sac, stand up, and take its rst steps. The baby elephant can stand on its own within fteen minutes of birth. John Robbins tells the story of a mother elephant in labor at a zoo in his book Reclaiming Our Health. The pregnant and laboring elephant was isolated in her own cage, and was becoming increasingly distressed and aggravated. The zoo keepers called a European zoo that had experience with elephant births. When they relayed the bizarre and dangerous behavior of the isolated laboring elephant thrashing about the Europeans were appalled. They demanded to know where the other female elephants were to help with the mother elephants delivery. Elephants need female elephant midwives to give birth calmly and safely.

The Americans immediately complied with the Europeans' instructions. As soon as they were allowed into the area with the birthing mother, the other female elephants rushed to her and began to assist her, stroking her with their trunks, calming her with their presence, and helping her to complete her labor. After the newborn elephant emerged, the midwives cleaned the baby and took care of her while the mother rested.! The wisdom of the elephant midwives, demonstrates the power of the circle of midwives, to protect the birthing mother from unnecessary disturbances, isolation, and fear. No wonder so many women are fearful and distressed birthing in hospitals today when alone and labor is interrupted with numerous nurses, technicians, and doctors. The loving care! of ones personal and trusted circle of birth is the most powerful support in instinctive birth for all mammals.

Homebirth Midwives
Midwives recognize birth as a normal part of the life-cycle and offer family centered care. Midwifery honors the physical, emotional, and spiritual health of the mother through gentle holistic care for the baby, mother, father and family, including birth in a safe and comfortable birthing environment. Midwifery is an art and science. Midwifery care is stated to be the gold-standard in maternity care for healthy low-risk pregnant women by the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services. Homebirth midwives deliver babies at home or at freestanding birth centers. These midwives may be recognized in your community as Licensed Midwives, Certied Professional Midwives, or Homebirth Midwives.

In Canada, a large scale study showed that planned home birth with a registered midwife resulted in safer outcomes than with a midwife or physician in the hospital. Midwife planned home births were less likely to experience obstetrical interventions, adverse maternal outcomes, perinatal deaths, less infant resuscitation at birth, less oxygen therapy, less meconium aspiration, and babies were less likely to require extended observation. The Cochrane Review has published a study on Midwife-led versus other models of care for childbearing women. The study showed numerous benets, more positive outcomes, and less interventions and complications with midwifery care. The authors concluded that: "All women should be offered midwife-led models of care and women should be encouraged to ask for this option. Homebirth midwives are experts in natural birth today, and offer compassionate comprehensive holistic birthing care.

Nurse-Midwifery
Certied Nurse-Midwives (CNM) are nurses who have masters degrees in nurse-midwifery. CNM's can practice in hospitals, birth centers, or at home, depending upon their individual state laws in the United States. Homebirth is, unfortunately, not legal in all 50 US states right now, so you may not be able to nd a homebirth midwife in your community, but you most likely will have CNM's available. If you are birthing in the hospital, see if you can nd a nurse-midwifery practice in your community, they have lower rates of csections and induction than obstetrical practices.

Nurse-midwives can also administer pain medication and offer other medical services, which means that they may not have to turn care over to a doctor if a hospital transport is necessary from home or birth center. CNM's also offer well-women care, so even if you are not pregnant, you can go to a midwife for birth control or gynecological check-ups. You can also birth in a hospital and have the CNM be your primary care provider. The midwifery model of care recognizes that the mother and baby are one unit, and honors the mother's experience of pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum as integral to the baby's experience of life in the womb, emergence at birth, and as a newborn. The midwifery model of care offers parents many advantages such as: fewer interventions, freedom of movement during labor, freedom to eat or drink during labor, better maternal and infant health outcomes, higher maternal satisfaction with the birth experience, personal care, respect, and informed decision making. Whether you choose a homebirth midwife or a nurse-midwife for birth at your home, a community birth center, hospital birth center, or hospital - having a midwife is a wise tradition of care from Ancient Egypt, Greece, Asia, and Europe to the modern maternity care of midwives in the US, Holland, Denmark, and around the world. A landmark study in the British Medical Journal, published in 2005, showed that babies born at home or birth centers had the same or better outcome as babies born at hospitals - only with much less done to them in regards to medications, interventions, monitoring, or surgery, and less complications for mom or baby.

Hospital Birth
Hospital maternity care specializes in medical care for complications and emergencies in pregnancy and birth. A pregnant woman with preexisting medical conditions or pregnancy-related medical complications can receive specialized medical care in a maternity hospital. However, a low-risk healthy pregnant woman has an increased risk of receiving unnecessary medical procedures that can lead to a domino-effect of medical complications during labor if birthing in the hospital. Birth in the hospital is the number one way women in the United States birth, and as a result there is an epidemic of Cesarean sections and medical induction of labor, among other medical birth practices. In Holland, where midwifery care is available to all women, pregnant women have to risk out of midwifery care to be eligible to see a doctor for the medical model of birth, because their statistics show that midwifery care is safer and more cost effective for healthy pregnant women with low-risk pregnancies. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that cesarean birth has reached epidemic proportions worldwide. In their third part to their global survey on birth, published in January 2010, they report that cesarean births cause women to be at a higher risk for blood transfusions, hysterectomy, and death, and babies have higher rates of death and poor outcomes requiring extended hospital stay. The WHO recommends that hospitals should have a 10-15% cesarean rate, and that higher rates lead to increased complications from unnecessary cesareans. In the US today, the cesarean rate is over 30% and over 50-60% in some individual hospitals, do your local research and nd out what the cesarean rates are for your local hospitals and doctors. Newer hospitals are being built with expanded cesarean surgical rooms as the expectation in the medical industry is for cesarean sections to be on the rise, as mothers who receive cesarean delivery in the hospital are expected to delivery subsequent babies surgically too. Though

some women choose different and have homebirths with licensed midwives and successful natural VBAC births (vaginal birth after cesarean). Organizations such as International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) provide resources and support groups for families, women, and volunteers to create awareness of cesarean statistics, information, healing support, and pregnancy resources for midwives and VBACs. In the case of a medical scenario during birth in which mother or baby are in danger, it is wonderful that we now live in a time when we have the ability to do quick, relatively safe, surgical deliveries of babies, and offer local anesthetic to mothers. Women with pre-existing medical concerns or high-risk medical conditions greatly benet from obstetrical medicine. A birth doula is highly recommended for the best birth possible in a hospital setting. The vast majority of women in America give birth in hospitals with obstetricians attending. Birth with an obstetrician is a very different affair than a midwife. The vast majority of doctors are trained to view birth as pathological, and they believe birth can only be seen as normal after the fact. Today, 99% of women in the US give birth in a hospital, 91% with obstetricians attending. 70% of those women receive an epidural, 30% have their labors induced, 30% are giving birth by cesarean section surgery. Dr. William Emerson reports in the lm What Babies Want, that 95% of birth in the US are traumatic for babies. To have a natural birth in the hospital is something that happens either with a lot of planning including natural childbirth education, a birth doula, a birth plan, and a supportive hospital staff and facility, or it happens without any planning in the case of fast precipitous births in which the staff doesn't have enough time to interfere in any way. In that case, they will attempt every interference afterward in order to make up for not asserting medical evaluation during the event.

There are a few doctors who are gentle birth practitioners, just as there are a few midwives who are highly medically oriented. It is always imperative that you fully interview your prospective practitioners fully before hiring them. In the current birthing environment, the consumer has the power. Own your power and be a conscious consumer of childbirth services. Trust your heart, intuition, and ask specic questions such as: What is your cesarean rate? What is the rate of epidurals and medication among your patients? What is the rate of newborns needing intensive care? What is your transport rate? Can I birth in whatever position I want? Can I have delayed cord clamping? Be birth wise. The major difference between birth in the hospital and birth at home or a birth center is the philosophy of care. In Robbie Davis Floyd's book Birth As An American Rite of Passage, she calls the medical model of care the "technocratic" model of birth, and the midwifery model of care is the "holistic" model of birth. Whereas the holistic model views birth as a healthy and normal, the technocratic view of birth is one of danger, control, and medicalization. With all the contrary information circulating about birth, it is hard for expecting mothers and fathers to know what information to trust. This is why parents must become informed consumers. The care providers you choose and the environment you choose to birth your baby in all create the cultural-social matrix that your baby will be born into. The environment and attendants also affect the mother and father's comfort levels, freedom of movement, and privacy. You have a right to change your mind about care providers at any time in your pregnancy. If you are 39 weeks and decide that you really want to birth at home, even though you've been seeing an obstetrician

all your pregnancy and planning a birth at the hospital - you can still change care if you call and nd a midwife who is available take over your care. Also, if you've been planning a homebirth with no medications, but you've been in labor for a long time and are exhausted and not progressing, than you have the right to choose to go to the hospital at any point and receive narcotic or epidural anesthesia. Sometimes this can help to let exhausted mothers rest for a few hours, support a tense mother to allow her cervix to open, and to gain energy to push their babies out. It is important when deciding where to give birth that you choose the place you feel the most comfortable in your heart and intuition. You can design the birth you want in any location, the most important factor is to nd the best provider and support team possible. When deciding to give birth in the hospital setting, your support team can be crucial. It is important for all members of your birth team to be in trust of birth and be clear in quiet, calm, nurturing support and advocacy of your conscious birth. There are many conscious births that happen in the hospital setting, with enlightened doctors, nurse-midwifes, birth doulas, and well-prepared parents. Maintaining privacy in your birthing rooms, from excess hospital staff or visitors, can be supported through a nice note on the door from the parents requesting that only persons directly involved in their care enter, and to please be quiet and respectful of the mother and baby. Bringing your own calming music to play in the hospital and LED candles to create a relaxing ambient atmosphere can create a beautiful sanctuary in the hospital birthing room. Creating a birth plan, and using tools such as the birth ball, squatting bar, and shower or tub can support your conscious hospital birth.

You can co-create the birth of your choice! A doula is also a wonderful addition to your hospital birthing team, to help ensure that your choices are heard, your privacy is honored, and the comfort measures you desire are offered.

Birth & Postpartum Doulas

Doulas are labor support professionals who provide continuous physical, emotional, and informational support to the laboring woman before, during, and just after childbirth. A doula is there to provide you with comfort, reassurance, and support, working alongside your doctor or midwife. Doulas are experienced in childbirth and assist women giving birth in hospitals, birth centers, and at home. Postpartum doulas provide support to new parents in the days and weeks following birth, assisting with breastfeeding support, newborn care, household chores, meal preparation, resourcing, and advocacy. The Cochrane Review on Effects of Continuous Labor Support is the most recent systemic review of continuous labor support, which reviewed nearly 13,000 women who participated in 15 randomized controlled trials. The research ndings demonstrate that women who receive continuous labor support are: less epidurals or other "regional" analgesia less administration of pain medication (including narcotics) less likely to give birth by cesarean section less vacuum extraction or forceps assisted deliveries

 less likely to be dissatised with or give a negative rating to their childbirth experience. Listening to Mothers, a recent national survey of womens birth experiences, rated doulas highest in terms of quality of supportive care during labor. Doulas were rated higher than family members, friends, nurses or physicians in providing emotional and physical support during labor and birth. Whether you birth at a hospital, birth center, or home enlisting the support of a doula may be one of the best decisions you can make for your baby, your birth, and yourself. If you are birthing in a hospital I highly recommend having a birth doula or trusted support person along with you and your partner. As a birth doula who has worked in numerous hospitals, I have repeatedly heard from nurses that women who have birth doulas with them have a signicantly higher chance of having the births that they want.

Creating Your Circle of Birth

Examining birth practices around the world, it is seen that countries with the majority of women birthing with professional midwives have less birth interventions, healthier outcomes for mother and baby, less spending on maternity care, and lower maternal and infant mortality rates than the United States. Contrarily, the US spends more money on maternal health care than any other country in the world, more women receive prenatal care, more women birth in hospitals with obstetricians, and yet we are currently 43 in infant mortality of all other developed countries. That means that 42 other countries in the world, including Cuba, are safer for babies to born in than here. In mother and baby safe countries, such as Denmark and Holland, healthy low-risk pregnant women see a midwife for prenatal care, labor, delivery, and postpartum. To receive obstetrical care one must

actually risk-out of midwifery care by having a high-risk pregnancy demanding medical care. This model of maternity care is sustainable, economical sound, and satisfying to the women of these countries as well. For thousands of years midwives have supported women in childbirth. Anthropologists have demonstrated that in every culture in the world cultures have marked the time of birth with great ceremony, ritual, preparations, customs, and traditions. Included in these traditions was the art of midwifery, which literally means "with women". Whether you choose to birth with the modern professional midwife or in the hospital with a nurse-midwife or obstetrician, consider who will be "with women" - a mother, friend, sister, doula, or midwife. This female birth support is not just for the mom, the doula and midwife supports the dad and whole family too. In indigenous cultures around the world it is seen that the only exception to midwifery supported birth is unassisted birth in which the mother is undisturbed, either alone or with just her partner or family. Experienced mothers and uncomplicated births in cultures such as the Kung! people of Africa have the women birthing in nature alone. Today in countries around the world, unassisted birth is becoming an increasingly popular option for modern women as the benets of undisturbed birth for mother and baby is understood and trusted by a new breed of natural families. Unassisted birth is positively afrmed as freebirth among families who are condent in the natural progression of biological and sexual birth. Birth can easily be stalled and complications can be induced by observers and interruptions in birth. When alone or with a trusted family presence, birth at home can be gentle and safe, as well as a peak life experience for the whole family creating superior bonds of love.

Love and trust are the most important factors at birth, and many families wonder why they should pay a professional to come to labor-sit, just in case of complications. The fear or worry of complications can create the very emergencies that one hoped to avoid due to the law of energetic return. Today, birth brings many choices and decisions to be made. Parents today have more choices than any generation before in written history. Choose your care provider and support team carefully, and research your birth plan thoroughly for an empowered birth that welcomes your baby to the world with love! Create your circle of birth with loving guardians who will honor the innate intelligence of the new soul coming through to your family.

It is the Mother who will heal this wounded earth. Without women coming to the front, this planet will die. Let the Mother come at the time of need and save earth's children. And let that Her daughters embody Her power and Her strength. - Shrii Shrii Anandamurti

Chapter Five

Co-Creative Pregnancy

The Deep Ecology of Birth

A pregnant women does not simply procreate - she co-creates her baby and birth through her direct and powerful connection with Nature and Spirit. Through conscious co-creation of her birth through trust, surrender, and relationship to Nature and Spirit, birth is experienced as miraculous. Our bodies are ecosystems. Nature is within us and our bodies are part of the living world around us. As human beings being born upon the Earth, we follow universal natural laws, same as all other natural forms. Gravity, electromagnetic force, and spiral dynamics all play a part shaping who we are. We all live in the Earth's biosphere, our planetary womb traveling through space. Birth is an intrinsically natural rite in the cycle of life. Every living being has the wisdom of how to birth safely encoded into its genes. A baby in the womb is ecologically encased in its own ecosystem - the amniotic sac. At birth, the baby emerges from the ecosystem, becoming inoculated with the elements of the new ecosystem it enters. Ecological balance is vital for health as the baby transitions from womb to world.

The babies rst interactions with the ecology of the mothers body through the opening cervix, the journey through the yoni, and the rst food of colostrum introduces the essential inner ecology for a lifetime of health. Babies that are deprived of their natural birth ecology may suffer from imbalances and chronic disease through their lives, such as allergies, asthma, autism, diabetes, and immune compromise. Cesarean deliveries and antibiotics at birth, as well as formula or sugar-water feeding stunts the natural balance necessary in adapting to the Earths ecosystem and programming a healthy immune system for the childs whole life. Living beings strive for homeostasis - the balance between internal and external health. Living in harmony with nature creates health, well-being, and vitality. During the primal period of conception through the rst year, the mother's ecology directly encompasses and affects the child's ecology. When the time of birth, method of birth, and postpartum transition is rushed or tampered with, it lessens the natural ability for homeostasis. Trust in the ecological intelligence of nature to procreate. The ecology of childbirth consists of the dynamic relationships between the mother, baby, family, and the birth environment. Whether at home, a birth center, or hospital, the location of birth becomes the bioregion of birth, thus directly affecting the ecological balance of health of the mother and baby. The birth circle is the community of birth directly affecting the childs social imprinting with love, fear, or whatever emotional vibration is present during gestation, labor, birth, and early life. Pregnancy, birth, and parenting are essential elements of human life. Every human being was born, and the fact that we not only exist, but thrive on this Earth, shows us that birth is fundamentally safe. If it isn't safe, then how did we survive before the last 100 years of obstetrics? If technology can improve upon nature, then how come technological birth carries higher risks to mother and baby?

The biodynamic traditions of midwifery and natural childbirth are founded in wisdom and science. In situations where maternal and infant health needs improvement, usually education and public health programs in nutrition, midwifery, hygiene, family planning, and social services are what the community needs, not medicalized birthing or more surgical suites at the labor and delivery ward. Health and balance can be unearthed during the childbearing year by working with the elements of nature and utilizing holistic healing arts to prepare your body, mind, heart, and soul for the task of birth and parenting. Healing arts have been used for millennia by wise women healers, herbalists, and midwives, to prepare women for the powerful rite of passage of birth. Healing remedies such as massage, acupressure, acupuncture, herbalism, yoga, dance, prayer, ritual, meditation, hydrotherapy, journaling, and energetic/ spiritual healing, are all tools to ease the transitions of pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum. These natural healing modalities encourage the mother and baby to reach homeostasis. Nature is innitely wise and powerful. Nature loves to procreate. We call our planet "Mother Earth" and refer to the living force of creation on our planet as "Mother Nature". We are all co-creators of life. The less that the ecology of birth is interfered with then the safer it is.

Co-Creation with Nature

Pregnancy and birth is a time of opening and expanding, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Through the direct experience of co-creation with nature and spirit, pregnancy is an ideal time for a woman to expand her awareness of the deep ecology of life. The mothers womb is the babys rst ecosystem, the rst environment which creates the matrix for the babys relationship to the Earth throughout their life.

Babies are born from the belly of their mothers, into the sanctuary of Nature, the sacred sphere of life on Earth. In the womb of our planetary biosphere, Nature and Spirit are interwoven, co-creating the biodynamic web of life that we are intimately a part of. The birth of a baby is a transformative event in the lives of the mother, father, family, and community. The living matrix of the baby, mother, father, family, and Earths beings are interwoven in a living spiraling web of space, time, energy, motion, and love. When all the energies involved are balanced, owing, and healthy than the babys spirit is able to fully expand into the new consciousness of this fresh human body. An awareness of birth ecology can guide parents and birth workers in consciously co-creating directly with the forces of nature and spirit for expanded healing, awareness, and evolution through the cycles of pregnancy, labor, birth, breastfeeding, and parenting. Pregnant women can consciously work with the elements of nature and the vibrations of spirit for optimal health during pregnancy, birth, and mothering. Birth professionals can learn to use the elemental and spiritual energies to facilitate the energy in the birthing room. Birth ecology is a living practice of ecological awareness through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. Ecology is more than contemporary science; it is the experience of directly interacting with nature. In the cycle of childbearing, it is easy to open to the ecological transformations and interconnections between the mother and baby as well as between humans and the living world. Conscious birth and parenting through co-creating with nature and spirit is a powerful force for cultivating healthy children and a healthy planet. Birth: the emergence of a new individual from the body of its mother. Ecology: the totality or pattern of relations between living beings and their environment.

Birth Ecology: the interdependent relationships of birthing practices, ecological practices, healing arts, consciousness, and the continual evolution of humanity. Expanding awareness of the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and ecological health of the baby and the mother enhances the birth experience and honors the inherent wisdom of birth. All of nature ows in cycles and birth is an essential element to the cycle of life. Following the cycles of the sun and moon gives us an understanding of the ebb and ow of lifes tides. Consciously connecting with the elements of earth, air, re, and water creates a practice of healthy balance and intimate trust in nature. Feeling the vibrational nature of all life, from the innite celestial sky to the trillions of cells in our body, guides us to an awareness of the mystical nature of life and the expansion of the soul. Birth inuences life through the holographic nature of living energy. Birth is a microcosm of individual and global health. The way we are born and emerge into this world imprints us with the cocreative pattern of how we create anything in our whole lives. Co-creative birthing is an important element of humanitys conscious evolution. To experience pregnancy, birth, and parenting from an ecological awareness involves a responsibility to make conscious choices in healthcare, birth environment, and babycare that are environmentally conscious, as well as opening to the natural intelligence of the Earth and the divine nature of Birth through listening with your heart and trusting your intuition. The holistic philosophy of birth ecology and the expression of co-creative birthing honors the body, mind, heart, and spirit of the whole family and planet. Healthcare is experiencing a crisis, and millions of

women do not have access to prenatal care and birthing assistance. Through supporting ecologically intelligent birth and mothering practices, including midwifery, labor support, and breastfeeding, we can easily address the global need for sustainable womens healthcare.

The Mother Matrix

Inside each of us is this seed of ancestral wisdom and natural intelligence it is the mother matrix and it is within our DNA. Trust in womens inherent wisdom to instinctively and ecstatically give birth, and welcome the babies of the earth with deep love, warm hands, conscious intent, and gentle touch. This is the biggest gift we can give to humanity in the new millennium. Humans live in the womb of Mother Earth, and we are all interdependent upon the health of the planet and our environment, which provides us with everything including oxygen, water, food, shelter, and medicine. The mother and baby is biologically one unit through gestation. The baby is dependent upon the health, nourishment, and love of the mother. The Earth is our Mother. She gave birth to all of us; all the trees, mountains, herbs, owers, animals, minerals, and humans are her children and family. The web of interconnectivity binds us all. There is a dynamic intelligence harmonizing our bodies relationship to the Earth that is vital for health and wellbeing. Ecological health provides a sense of connection to place and fosters environmental health and somatic health. The physical, personal, and inner essence of body and spirit well-being relate to a sense of connection, for the infant to mother, for the adult to Earth.

Sacred Birth Visions

Humanity must honor our interdependence with nature in order to heal our bodies and our Earth. Western cultures disrespect for the Earth is seen is the destruction of the environment, natural resources, ancient forests, atmosphere, and oceans. This is mirrored in the highly invasive treatment of womens bodies in medicine, media, and childbirth practices. Western culture is no longer in sync with the rhythms and cycles of nature. We are cutting open our bodies and our planet. The farther we push ourselves from living ecologically, in balance with nature, the more we kill ourselves and our planet. How do we nd a way to regain balance? In our vision to create a safe world for children to live in, we must begin with making birth safe for children, so that they may be at home in their bodies. In order to heal birth, we must care for the whole health of mother, baby, family, and community. Healing art midwifery must address the body, mind, heart, and spirit of mother and planet. Each birth is a seed for humanity. The journey to healing begins with addressing the birth trauma that we carry, from our own births, and the births of our ancestors and blood lineage. Conscious healing preconception and prenatally through visualization, meditation, bodywork, and aquatic therapy can release cellular trauma and program our matrix with new clear energy. Each birth brings a new opportunity to co-create new consciousness on Earth. The mother is the matrix, the foundation for the babys connection to Earth. The word matrix comes from the Latin word for womb and also brings us the words matter and mother. Through natural instinctive birth the nurturing maternal matrix is fully formed, and the infant can fall into deep love with the mother, family, and life. That love is the foundation for a whole healthy human being. The mother is the rst environment. The womb is the rst world in this physical incarnation.

When the baby is given the gift of conscious birth and breastfeeding, than essential bonding can be completed. In order for the child to establish a deep sense of love and stewardship to the planetary home as they get older to the World Womb, the mother matrix, must have been nurtured as an infant. Healing birth heals the Earth. Healing birth heals babies, mothers, fathers, families, and our planetary home. Babies who are drugged at birth, delivered surgically, or through forced means, such as forceps or vacuum assisted births, suffer from birth trauma, which can impact their ability to be emotionally open. Studies have shown that children who experienced aggressive births are more likely to commit violent acts as adults. When physically, emotionally, psychologically stressed or abused in the primal period, it impacts the developing spirit of the human being. These babies can strongly benet from parental love and affection, baby massage, infant craniosacral therapy, babywearing, and aquatic therapy. Birth trauma is most easily addressed in infancy. Babies are easily able to clear trauma through conscious healing work, while for adults it may take months or years of focused bodywork and healing. In these dramatic times of human strife and planetary crisis, it becomes clear that we need to consciously birth and raise our children to be leaders of peace and visionaries of global evolution. It is a time for families and midwives to stand together for peace on Earth and peace in birth. Now is the time for all who live, all who have been born, to speak, act, and consciously choose peace in birth and in all relations.

Connecting with the Living World in Pregnancy

Everything in the universe is made of energy. All living energy follows certain universal laws, geometry, and pathways of movement. Natures intelligence organizes energy into patterns and ow. Through observing the ow of nature through somatic experience of the living world, humans can integrate the natural wisdom of the universe to help us move through our life experience with dynamic ease. Nature is a vast language of wind, weather, elements, earth, re, water, birds, animals, insects, plants, trees, and herbs. Observe nature around you abundantly and intelligently creating life in alignment and pure divine consciousness. See how animals give birth and care for their young, see how nature loves birth, creation, health, and balance. Pregnancy is a wonderful time to interact with the natural living world and observe the wisdom of the elements, through the dance of time and space. Taking space during pregnancy to connect with the natural world can greatly enhance physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health. Walking is an excellent activity for pregnancy. Physically it is great exercise, and it is free to walk outside in most places in the world. Walking is also excellent along forest trails, urban walking paths, and anywhere you can experience wind and sun on your skin, hear the sounds of birds and breezes, and smell the scent of spring summer, autumn, winter, or a fresh rain. During my pregnancy, I loved to walk along the beach. The lapping rhythms of the waves were deeply soothing to me. I felt a cellular connection to the ocean, the Global Womb. Alone at the ocean beach, I would seek solace from the sea and I would talk to the ocean, telling the maternal sea what my hopes and fears were about becoming a mother and giving birth. My conversations

were carried away by the sounds of the roaring waves and the blowing winds and I felt a sense of peace walking away from the shore, having giving voice to my dreams and heard them received by the ocean breeze. During my labor I also walked along my favorite Seattle beach along the Puget Sound. I had a long early labor, and to encourage things to move along, I walked along the beach at the urban forest park. I contemplated the rhythmic tides as I felt the contractions in my womb. I squatted by driftwood when I felt the waves of my labor. Water energetically clears our bodies, and walking on the earth energetically grounds our energetic systems, particularly in we are barefoot. We receive energetic nourishment and become recharged through absorbing natural energy, also known as prana or qi, through the sunlight, air, soles of our feet, and environment. Swimming during pregnancy is another excellent way to connect with the natural element of water. The baby enters the world in a uid environment; the maternal ocean of the womans womb is the watery world of the fetus. During pregnancy, bathing and swimming are great ways to relax, spend time connecting with the baby, and literally soak in the wisdom of the natural elements. Hot water can make a pregnant women lightheaded and increase her core temperature, so its best to nd a pool or tub with a suitable temperature for comfort and health. There are places with strong natural power that people go to because it makes them feel good. Natural power places such as waterfalls, mountains, and the ocean shore have higher levels of negative ions in the area. Negative ions make humans feel good, breathing the negative ions provides a natural

boost to improve mood and positive feelings. Its like the Mother Earths version of oxytocin. Seek out your power places in nature and spend time visiting them during the pregnancy and later with your baby. There are stones, mountains, and desert places that have powerful natural energy. In some places there are natural vortexes where people can sense it is easier to meditate, rejuvenate, and connect with nature. Seek out your own power places in nature, or visit known natural high energy vortexes in pregnancy to connect your self and baby to the energy, rhythm, and support of the natural world. You can enhance and potentize your power place through creating stone cairns, a circles, a labyrinth, medicine wheel, and leaving owers, offerings, and stones with sacred intention for Love, Gratitude, and Healing of the Earth. Receive natural sunlight every day on your skin by going outside, or sitting by a window, even in cloud cover some sunlight comes through. Also minimize time spent in front of computer monitors, under uorescent lights, and in places with forced ventilations. These all create an overabundance of positive ions in the air which can increase fatigue and depression. Humanities creation of electronics and constructed environments disrupt the delicate electrical balance between the atmosphere and the Earth and create an overabundance of positive ions. Direct experience with nature is essential for whole health, especially during pregnancy, postpartum, and early childhood. Go for a walk every day for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Take a minimum of 10 minutes a day to be outside if thats all you can do. Experience the Earth and nature where you are, in whatever form it takes. In the primal growth period we receive important information from the natural world on who we are in relationship to the Earth.

It doesnt matter what piece of the natural world we interact with, whether it is forest, desert, park, rain, sun, dirt, stargazing, or a sidewalk puddle. The nature of the universe is holographic and to experience directly with any one part of nature allows us a direct interface with the entire holographic reality of the universe. Spending time in nature when pregnant is relaxing and soul nourishing. While appreciating and recognizing the abundant intelligence of nature to co-create a pregnant women can foster trust and patience with the cycles of pregnancy, birthing, and mothering. Let the sunshine warm your belly and send it's nourishing solar energy to your baby, along with your radiant love. Newborns need time in nature as well. Small doses of sunlight protect newborns from jaundice. It is most powerful for the child to become entrained to the sounds of nature and to learn them from as early as possible to develop a high natural intelligence. Direct experience of nature, through hearing the birds, feeling the wind, smelling the owers, bathing in fresh spring water, and breathing the clean air of forests is important for children to grow connected to the earth they live upon. Take time to enjoy nature with your family today. Wherever you are, you can invite nature into your life, through gardening, walking in nature, or observing wildlife. Remember that we are mammals, and we too are creatures of the Earth. Our lives cycle as the seasons, and we can nd solace and peace in nature.

Honoring Your Creative Center

Babies begin their lives in the belly of their mothers. The belly is a safe, warm, and loving place. It is near to the mothers heart. The belly is massaged by the rhythmic tides of the diaphragm. The belly is the center of nutrition, both physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The belly has been revered by cultures all over the world as the seat of the soul. The naval is where we rst took in energy, from our mothers, through the umbilical cord in the rhythmic ow of blood, oxygen, and nutrition. This area continues to nourish us physically, emotionally, and energetically throughout our lives. The abdomen is the core of the human being. The belly is the center of gravity in the body. The web of fascia that binds together the organs, muscles, tissues, and skeleton of our body spirals out from the naval. Massage of the abdomen tones the muscles and fascia, increases blood and lymph circulation, realigns the organs, eases digestive problems, and nurtures our sexual health. When abdominal restrictions are released then we are free to experience deep belly laughs and feel our gut emotions. Traditional Mayan healers believe that the energetic center of the body is the reproductive organs. They teach that a signicant number of health problems are related to a prolapsed uterus or prostate which is caused by weak abdominal fascia and muscles. Toning and unwinding the abdominal muscles can be achieved through exercise and massage to increase strength, exibility, circulation, and balance. Every day throughout pregnancy, send healing to yourself and your baby through placing your hands on your belly and directing your feelings of love and attention to your child. Focusing your heart on your baby in this manner centers your spirit, grounds your body, and calms your mind. This heart-centered touch

enhances the bodys production of oxytocin: the hormone of love that facilitates birth, breastfeeding, and bonding.

The Primal Mother Mind

Pregnancy creates shifts in the consciousness of the mother as the brain prepares for the increased demands of motherhood. Through the deepening of brain waves, the release of love hormones, and the building of a new neural network within the brain a mother's mind is changing. The primal mother mind is nature's perfect design to prepare a woman for labor, birth, breastfeeding, and parenting.! During pregnancy a woman's brain wave states shift from every day waking beta to the slower more meditative alpha. In labor, the mother's brain ! waves deepen into theta - facilitating the birth trance. As pregnancy progresses further on, the women's body releases a cocktail of love hormones, featuring oxytocin, which stimulates a calm and relaxed state of being. The deeper brain wave states and ecstatic hormones of pregnancy and birth facilitate changes in the maternal brain that permanently enhance the women's ability to process higher amounts of information.! It is common to hear pregnant women talk about having "pregnancy brain" or "mommy brain" and breastfeeding mama's talk about "milk mind" due to forgetfulness. These are derogatory terms, implying that a women becomes less smart when pregnant due to brain shinkage and memory loss.! While research has shown that the physical size of the pregnant brain does decrease in size by 2-4% during the third trimester there is no loss in brain cells. In fact, the pregnant brain creates the foundation of an enhanced and vast neural network during pregnancy and motherhood. I hope to encourage people to release these negative

assumptions that the body and mind becomes less intelligent during childbearing!! The biological changes to prepare a women to become a mother are of enhanced consciousness and intelligence.! Mothers actually have increased brain power due to the brain being rewired in pregnancy to prepare exquisitely for birth and to thrive with the increased demands of parenting.! In the article! The Maternal Brain published in! Scientic American it is shared how the hormones of pregnancy stimulate powerful changes within a women's brain that enhance memory, perception, and creates many new neural pathways.! As a woman becomes a mother her brain is upgraded for increased sensitivity, perception, intuition, and connection to the baby.! Pregnant women have increased intuitive abilities. In late pregnancy women are better able to read people's body language and facial expressions through enhanced emotional sensitivity. Pregnancy and motherhood increases sense-ability. A mother may experience increased hearing, sense of smell, and psychic awareness. In both of my pregnancies, I have had increased information come to me through dreams and a very strong intuition.! The ecstatic hormones of pregnancy and the changes in the maternal brain facilitate the primal mother mind. This is nature's way of preparing women to be optimally ready for the deepening states of consciousness of labor and birth, as well as the bonding, breastfeeding, and demands of parenting a newborn. The changes in the brain that pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding trigger can create long-term positive effects of increased memory, increased mental ability, increased perception, and longevity.! The deepening states of consciousness of pregnancy support the mother to be fully present in her primal mind during labor to facilitate an easy birth. Interventions in labor interrupt the woman from

surrendering to her primal consciousness and can disrupt the progression of hormones and changes needed to enhance bonding and breastfeeding to the most optimal state.! Let us honor the transformation of the mother mind and protect this expansion of consciousness. The biological changes in the female brain during pregnancy and birth prepare the mother to be calm, focused on her baby, nurturing, and also extra aware and alert to any potential danger in the vicinity. Nature has designed mothers to be relaxed while multi-tasking.! Within the primal mother mind is the sacred birthing place of new consciousness.!

Prenatal Consciousness
The unborn baby is very intelligent. A baby in the womb already has more nerve cells in its brain than an adult, and many more neurological connections. In the womb, a baby is developing consciousness and self awareness, individual from the mother, before birth. Babies share their mothers emotional experiences as they communicate with each other through movement, hormones, and electromagnetic energy each day. A mothers experiences while pregnant create the blueprint for the baby's brain, and moms can consciously co-create a healthy, intelligent, happy, calm baby even before birth. One of the best practices for pregnancy is spend at least 15 minutes a day consciously connecting with the baby and sending love to your baby. This is very simple loving practice that can be done anywhere: at home, in bed, drinking tea, riding a bus, sitting in a meeting, and more.

Loving Your Unborn Baby

Consciously connecting with your unborn baby is as simple as taking the time to slow down, relax, and take a deep breath and send your loving intention and awareness to your baby. You can rub your belly in circles, feeling your baby's movements, touching and connecting physically with your baby. Then send your baby love, and talk to your baby - say whatever feels natural, "Hi Baby! I love you so much! I can't wait until you are born. The sky is so beautiful today, and the roses will be blooming in the garden by the time you are born." You can say anything you want, but talk to your baby, relax, and know that your baby is hearing the sounds of your language, the inections in your voice, your hearts message, and most importantly - feeling your love. When you experience a stressful moment during the day you can utilize this technique to disperse tension away from your unborn child. Say you are driving to the grocery store, and someone cuts in front of you on the road, and almost causing you to have a collision. Your adrenaline will rise. You may be stressed, angry, and anxious. You could keep feeling that, or you can let it go, and talk to your baby. Say, "Baby - mommy's really stressed out right now, but everything is okay. Don't take that stress into your body, just let it go. I was worried about a car, and everything is ne now." Through your love, touch, voice, and deep breaths you can consciously help your baby to not take on prenatal stress. Did you know that your baby is already learning your mother language in the womb? Feel free to talk to your baby freely and know that your baby is hearing the sounds and creating a foundation for later language mastery. Babies love singing and music too. More than what words you say, your baby is experiencing your emotion, love, and connection through the sounds of your voice.

Spend 15 minutes each morning or evening, sitting and connecting with your baby each day. Make it a ritual, greet the sun by bonding with baby, or talk to baby before bed each night. Enjoy the love that deeply connects you to your baby and family. Breath deep, massage your belly, and share your voice through words, conversation, stories, song, and lullabies. Your baby is listening and loves the sound of your voice, your hand massaging your belly, and the feeling of your loving thoughts.

Heart Consciousness
Connecting with our heart energy is the most powerful tool we have for creating balance, harmony, love, transformation, and peace in our lives, relations, and consciousness. Our heart is a very powerful organ, new scientic research is conrming what poets and mystics have shared for thousands of years - LOVE is the most important thing of all. The new eld of neurocardiology studies the intelligence of the heart, specically the neural cells of the heart, which contribute over 60% of the heart, and the strong electromagnetic frequency of the heart's vibration. The heart creates a eld of electromagnetic energy detectable up to 8 feet from a person, which entrains the electromagnetic frequencies of all other systems in the body, including the brain, as well as communicates to others whom we interact with. The heart eld is the strongest electromagnetic eld in the body, its 500% more powerful that the electromagnetic eld of the brain.

Entrainment is when two oscillating systems come into synchronization together. The physics term of entrainment was coined by a Dutch mathematician Christiaan Huygens in 1665 after noticing that two of his pendulum clocks were swinging in synchronicity, and when disturbed and left alone would again nd unity in rhythm. Mothers and babies are entrained to each other throughout pregnancy and beyond. When two people are touching, the electrical energy from each of their hearts is being transmitted to the other persons brain. This has been demonstrated at HeartMath Institute with people connected to EEG and ECG machines. Thus, we can extrapolate that for the pregnant mother and her baby, they are having a constant interexchange of energy communication between the mother and babys hearts and brains, the the pregnant woman and her baby are in a constantly enmeshed physical and energetic energy exchange. During pregnancy your baby is enveloped by your heart's eld and you communicate to each other through your feelings, intuition, instincts, and dreams. Connecting with your heart to your baby and sending love and peace is the most important thing you can do in pregnancy. During pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding the mothers heart frequencies provide the resonance for the infants heart frequency development through the critical times of early neurological development. This is simple, excellent meditation to use any time, especially for moments of stress. Try cultivating the Heart Breath and creating a vibrant heart-centered state for atleast a few minutes a day, it is an excellent tool for pregnancy and parenting, as well as any time of life. It can be taught to children or to anyone.

Heart Breath Meditation

As you inhale, breath in the feeling of love. Imagine the universe sending you love, from the stars above, the earth below, the air surrounding you, and the light from the sun. As you exhale, breath out gratitude. Send the gratitude to the world around you, let it permeate your entire body and energy eld. Focus on the heart. Feel the area of your body around your heart and notice any feelings or sensations. Focus on expanding your sensations of love and gratitude in your heart. Continue breathing in love, exhaling gratitude, cultivating awareness of your heart. Sense the feeling of love growing inside your heart, expanding outward and vibrating through every cell in your body. Surround your baby with love and gratitude, and feel the connection of love, like liquid light, connecting your heart to your baby's heart.

Water & Consciousness

During pregnancy, parents can speak to the baby in the womb, knowing that the subtle vibrations from the emotion and meaning behind the words, regardless of what language it is, will positively affect the development and bonding of their baby. Water has a powerful ability to resonate with the subtle vibrations of the universe. Masaru Emoto, a Japanese doctor and water researcher, developed a technique for photographing water crystals and studied the effects of subtle energy on water. Researchers studied the water by speaking to the water and exposing the water to written messages and then freezing the water and photographing the crystals or shapes that developed. One discovery of his was that polluted water and most urban tap water around the world would not create any crystals. However more natural water, from less polluted water sources would create beautiful crystals when exposed to positive words such as "thank you" and "happiness", however the most beautiful crystals of all were created with the words "gratitude" and "love" together. This illustrates the importance of thinking and feeling positive sentiments and intentions, for as humans we are water-beings. Babies are the highest percentage of water, showing our primal water connection, as they oat in the waters of the womb. All life on Earth is dependent upon water. Astronomers search the universe for other planets with water, knowing that this is essential for the presence of life. The fetus in the uterine environment is surrounded with water, the amniotic uid. The amniotic uid is the ocean of life in which the baby is

cradled. Just as evolutionists trace life on Earth back to the oceans and tide-pools, each human rst grows in the internal ocean of their mother.

Co-Creative Healing Arts

It is time for all humans to awaken to the experience that we are co-creators of our life, reality, and universe. Each thought, feeling, action, intention, and prayer you make inuences your world, your health, your body, your family, and your planet. We are all part of one world, one universal womb, one universal family, and each breath we take is a biodynamic interchange with the one holographic matrix of living energy. The time is now to spiral to the next stage of evolution, beyond procreation of humanity and nature vs. nurture. It is now the age of co-creation with nature, spirit, love, and consciousness for the birth of a new paradigm of existence. We are all experiencing a time of accelerated growth and changes on Mother Earth, in all aspects of life from personal to planetary transformation. Life is more mysterious and magnicent than most people ever dare to dream. Those who are the visionaries, leading the way to the human evolution toward love and gratitude for all life, know that there is innite potential in each moment. I offer to you all abundant blessings of love and gratitude to imagine and manifest your deepest dreams of joy, healing, balance, and peace for your families and all life. The manifestation of peace in pregnancy, birth, and infancy is essential to the creation of a peaceful humanity. We live at a critical time in humanity. We are awakening to our global interdependence and cocreating a new evolution of humanity of global consciousness, peace, and cooperation. Gentle birth

welcomes babies onto the planet in a peaceful way, teaching them that this Earth is a safe place to give and receive love. Pregnancy is a time when women are more open spiritually - vivid dreams are common, sensitivity is increased, and intuition is sharpened. Listening to one's intuitive guidance can help to guide to to make the best choices for your family amidst the storms of parenting advice. This is the profound gift of birth for women - it guides you to discover your source of innite strength within. Natural birth and parenting choices, including midwifery care, homebirth, extended breastfeeding, babywearing, co-sleeping, and natural play may seem radical to the mainstream, and they are. The word radical is from the Latin word for root. Ecological birth and parenting is at the root of traditional cultures all over the Earth. Being born peacefully and gently is the birthright of all human beings. Reach the tendrils of your senses deep into the Earth, and feel your primal birth roots. Sustainable living and a healthy planet begins with our birthing practices. We need to dispel the fear of childbirth and share the secret: that birth is empowering, transforming, intense, life-altering, and ecstatic. It can also be healing, and it can even be orgasmic! Natural birth and parenting is ecologically friendly, sustainable, and healthy!

Birth of a New Consciousness

I believe the ripples of challenges and changes we are experiencing in our global climate and human culture is akin to earthly pains of labor. We are birthing a new global consciousness. Human culture is still

young, we are evolving right now. With love to guide us, we can co-create the future of the Earth, the way it should be: peaceful, creative, joyful, and cooperative. Co-creative birthing is our gift to the healing of the Earth. Through peaceful birth and conscious parenting we are giving birth to the future of our planet, and giving birth to ourselves. We are raising the future Earth Stewards. We are the Birth Stewards. The cultural awakening to gentle birth and parenting will come about through the integration of the wisdom and science of biodynamic birthing, traditional midwifery, pre- and perinatal psychology, instinctive parenting, and sustainability. The wisdom to birth, parent, and live consciously is within our hearts and available at all times. Change is present. Women and men are awakening all over the world to the imperative to raise our children to be compassionate leaders for the generations to come. A humane humanity begins with birth. The planetary vibration is changing, heart consciousness is expanding, and many are being called to be midwives for the birth of a new humanity and parents to the children of the new millennium. I envision a world in which all children are born gently, all mothers are empowered, and humanity lives peacefully as co-creators with the forces of nature. Ecological birth and parenting practices including midwifery care, doulas, biodynamic birth, breastfeeding, attachment parenting, babywearing, and natural healing are seen as critical to community and global health and peace. My goal is for all birthing women to awaken to their natural intelligence and co-create a healing culture of conscious birth and parenting. Babies deserve to be birthed with awareness, love, and recognition as the fully conscious human beings they are. The future of the planet depends upon the

conscious evolution of the new generations of children to co-create a peaceful humanity living in balance with nature and spirit.

An intelligence whose matrix as mother has not formed sufciently at birth cannot explore and structure a knowledge of the earth on a full-dimensional level. Joseph Chilton Pearce

Chapter Six

Natural Healing for Pregnancy

Feminine Embodiment
You are alive today because you are descended from a long line of women who successfully gave birth. Women have given birth naturally for thousands of years all over the Earth. The female body is beautifully designed for pregnancy, labor, and birth. This sophisticated arrangement has carefully evolved from thousands of years of natures evolution. Every body is programmed with the inherent intelligence to be born, to live, and to thrive. The natural laws governing the cycles of life are encoded into our bodies within every living cell from before conception. Our own body is our primary link to the Earth, and through self-awareness and consciousness we have much to learn about healing ourselves, our communities, and our relationships. The life-cycle of every living being begins with birth. The experience of being born imprints our soul with a primal perception of the world. Ecological birth is a profound gift of trust, health, and love for your baby. Babies who enter the world gently and consciously emanate a deep sense of wisdom and peace.

It is an honor to be a parent and steward for the children of the 21st century. The children being born today are here to midwife our Earth through great cultural, spiritual, and ecological changes. Conscious birthing allows our children to enter their physical earth bodies with their spirits intact. Birth is a pivotal life-event with deep rippling effects throughout the life of the baby, mother, and family, as well as the future of our planet. The wisdom of the body, the power of the mind, and the intelligence of the heart are all powerful tools to guide us in trusting all the cycles of pregnancy, birth, parenting, and life. Natural healing arts can support a healthy pregnancy, labor, birth, postpartum, as well as provide support for infant health, child health, and prevention and resolution of any trauma. Health and balance can be unearthed during the childbearing year by working with the elements of nature, connecting to your higher consciousness, and using natural healing wisdom to prepare your body, mind, heart, and soul for childbirth and mothering. Healing arts have been used by wise women healers and midwives for thousands of years to prepare women for the rite of passage of birth and to ease the powerful intensity of labor. Tradition healing in the childbearing year includes nutrition, herbs, homeopathy, massage, acupuncture, hydrotherapy, dance, music, singing, drumming, prayer, art, and energy medicine. These are all wonderful tools for guiding mothers and babies through the passage of pregnancy and birth with wellbeing and balance.

Healing through Nutrition

Hippocrates said "Let food be your medicine and your medicine be your food." Through all of the life cycle, and especially in pregnancy, food is the best medicine. During pregnancy there are several factors involved in the increased need for optimal nutrition. There is the baby, who's entire body, mind, and spirit is being developed, from the brain and nervous system to the organs, bones, and toes. There is the formation, implantation, and growth of the placenta and the powerful hormone production of this unique organ. The pregnant woman's blood volume increases 50-60% in the rst trimester to support baby, mom, and placenta. The uterus grows from an organ the weight of a few ounces to over two pounds. The growth of the uterus needs extra protein. There is also an increased demand on the mother's liver function for nutrition, hormone metabolism, and detoxication. The basics of the pregnancy diet are the same as any healthy diet - eat whole, fresh foods, lots of vegetables and fruits, drink abundant clean pure water, and avoid caffeine, junk food, soda, sugar, processed foods, white sugar, white our, and take the time to consume your food with calm, peaceful attention and appreciation. Pregnant women have an increased need for high-quality protein, increased need for high-quality calories, and should salt their food to taste. If you are craving sugar, it usually means you need more protein. I recommend always eating a protein plus veggie or fruit for each snack and meal. Then you can have the small bowl of organic ice cream or other healthy treat, after you've eaten a salad with avocado, turkey and cheese sandwich, or a bean and veggie burrito, or hummus and carrots. Also avoid carbonated beverages and soda during pregnancy as they leach calcium from the body. Drink ample amounts of fresh spring water and clear uids daily.

Essential Fatty Acids

EFAs are essential because the body cannot produce them, it is vital that we fulll our nutritional needs for these healthy fats from our diets. EFAs enrich the brain, nourish our skin, and are necessary for the pregnant diet. Omega 3 oils in pregnancy both prevent premature delivery and ensure quick dilation of the cervix during labor. Natural sources of EFAs are chia seeds, ax seeds, hemp seeds, hemp oil, sh, eggs, and organ meats. Pregnant women can supplement with sh oil. If consuming eggs, try to obtain local eggs from happy chickens that roam free eating green grasses. In the store be sure to buy organic, free range, cage free, Omega 3 rich eggs. When consuming sh, avoid sh high in mercury levels and farmed sh. The best sh is wild Alaskan salmon, a healthy fatty sh, low in mercury, and high in EFAs.

Probiotics
Traditional diets around the world included fermented foods, which are naturally probiotic in every day meals. Probiotics are essential for optimal digestive health, absorption of nutrients, and strong immunity. It is important to nourish your healthy intestinal ora throughout your pregnancy, beginning early, so as to prevent Group B Strep, prevent the need for antibiotics during labor, protect your children against increased likeliness of allergies, asthma, and other chronic illnesses during later life, and increase overall digestive wellness.

Probiotics should be consumed daily through natural food sources such as kim chee, sauerkraut, live pickles, ker, and yogurt. Probiotic supplements can also be taken.

Dark Leafy Greens

Dark leafy greens are actually in a food class all of their own. They are the most nutrient dense foods on Earth and the richest sources of non-dairy calcium. Greens should be considered a superfood, they are different from vegetables. Dark leafy greens are actually very high in protein and should be a staple part of our daily diets. I love the dark leafy greens in salads, as a leafy taco or wrap with avocado, spreads, and veggies inside, or blended up with fruit in a green smoothie. Kale, cabbage, chard, spinach, collard greens, and all the variations of healthy greens are an amazing source of stored sunlight for maximum nourishment and energy. Kale is an excellent super dark leafy green. Kale is benecial for womens health, including preventing breast cancer, providing calcium, iron, folic acid, magnesium, vitamins A and C, and dietary ber. The calcium in kale is easier to digest than the calcium in milk or in other dark leafy greens such as chard or spinach. Also, kale and dark leafy greens will increase your milk supply and breastfeeding success, as well as postpartum energy and vitality.

Whole Planet Kitchen

The food you and your family choose to eat profoundly effects the whole being: body, mind, and spirit. Where does your food come from? How is it prepared? Who prots from your food? How did the cultivation and transportation of that food impact the earth? It is up to you to cut through the ignorance and marketing hype to bring healthy foods to your table, for the wellbeing of your health and the earth. The choices one makes in the home, family, and kitchen impact personal and family health, as well as politics and global health. The simple and mundane tasks of eating and preparing food can become powerful statements and actions. To truly create change in our world and wellness, we must begin with our family and home. The food that we choose to eat impacts our body, our emotions, our thoughts, our community, our watershed, our region, our nation, our culture, our continent, our oceans, our air, and our earth. Eating organic is good for your health and the earth. An organic diet is the cornerstone to good prenatal care, as well as creating vitality throughout the lifecycle. Organic food production is profoundly healthier for the earth and communities, as well as the body. Eating local foods helps your body thrive in the local bioregion, as well as eating foods when they are in season. In addition, local foods require less petroleum wasted in the transportation and refrigeration of the food. Humans traditional ate the food from their local environment. Whole foods, such as grains, beans, vegetables, fruits, raw dairy, and organic meats have greater taste and nutritional value than processed foods. Simple kitchen arts, such as fermentation, dehydration, and cooking have been used by humans for thousands of years. However, factory processed food that cannot be created at home, such as hydrogenation of oils or the homogenization of uids are tools of the commercial

food industry and harmful to human health. The less transformation a food has from its original natural state to the nished product, the more health value it retains. The food we eat is a constant exchange of energy between us and the earth. As our diet changes to whole, organic, and local foods that are free of chemicals and preservatives, we grow closer to the earth, and our connection to life is strengthened. Eating local and whole foods in season can increase vitality, health, and immunity. Share organic foods with your children and family and positively impact their health for the rest of their lives, and the health of their future descendants. Eating primarily raw and living foods increased ones energy, vitality, and connection with nature even deeper as you raise towards levels of high consciousness. Discover how the people who lived in your region nurtured their bodies with whole local foods, and incorporate traditional foods into your diet. Share good food with those you love, and enjoy it together.

Organic Mama & Baby

Nutrition is prenatal care - and health care - and it is the most important determinate of maternal and infant health, labor experiences, and postpartum wellness. Choosing organic food is one of the healthiest choices you can make in your prenatal care. Organic food is optimal for all people, yet it is especially critical for maternal, fetal, and child health. Pesticides and chemicals used in conventional agriculture are not all ltered by the placental barrier, thus babies in the modern world, are oating in amniotic uid with industrial and agricultural chemicals. Eating organic food, immediately and dramatically lowers pesticide levels in the body.

Babies are more vulnerable to chemicals and pollutants than grownups, because their bodies, brain, and immune system are so sensitive. Mothers can eat organic food, drink pure water, and use natural body care products to ensure that their pregnant womb and postpartum milk are providing the cleanest healthiest nutrition possible for their baby. Eating organic also protects you from eating genetically-engineered food, now prolic in the conventional grocery and restaurant industries. In the United States, genetically-engineered foods are unregulated and the potential health risks of genetically engineered food are unknown. Avoiding GMOfoods in pregnancy may reduce your babies chances of developing childhood allergies. Genetically engineered food concerns many scientists, as biotechnology is imprecise and the consequences are incalculable. In order to splice genes of different organisms, biotechnology utilizes bacteria and viruses, such as ecoli, to invade the living cells. Genetically engineered food contains antibiotic resistant gene markers, for identication. The potential for widespread antibiotic resistance is a serious medical threat to public health. Genetically modied foods have less nutrition and more chemicals. Crops are prepared with biotechnology for immunity to pesticides, so that pesticides can be sprayed on the crops and everything will die except the crops. However, this have brought rise to superweeds, which are immune to the pesticides and require even more toxic chemical spraying. Thus, genetically modied crops may need even more chemical spraying than traditional crops. Organic food tastes better, is highly nutritive, preserves family farming, builds healthy soil, protects water resources, and is part of a healthy ecosystem. Optimal prenatal nutrition can be achieved through organic foods and pure drinking water.

Visit your local farmers market, and explore the abundance of seasonal organic produce. Purchase directly from the small farmers when able to to support your local family farms. Even better, grow your own garden with fresh veggies, herbs, owers, and plants and enjoy walking in your garden connecting to the plants during your pregnancy and bring the baby to rest and play in the garden after they are born and as they grow older. Eating your own food, which you tended directly in nature, and connecting with the rhythms of your garden and food connects one to the natural world in a supreme way. Enjoy creating a connection with the food that you consume and nourish your body and family with. Food is our medicine!

Massage in the Birth Year

Through learning the stories of traditional midwives around the world, it is evident that massage has been a central component of midwifery care for thousands of years. Midwives use their hands to palpate the abdomen, assess the position and health of the fetus, feel the lie of the uterus, and align the energy ow through the abdomen. The prenatal massage may occur at every visit with the midwife, and during the massage conversation occurs between the mother and midwife involving counseling, recommendations, and evaluation. Traditional midwives provide hands-on birthing assistance in the form of physical support: a hand to hold, a body to lean on, gentle massage, hot compresses, and intuitive touch. Traditional postpartum care may include ritual massage of the new mother, and teaching the mother to massage her infant regularly.

Over the course of the last few centuries, western medicine has become the culturally accepted method of birthing. Western medicine has brought vital emergency care to birthing women, yet the cost to birth is the loss of individual compassionate care, optimal maternal and fetal health and touch. Midwives continue to be the guardians of instinctive birth through these dramatic times of medical childbirth intervention and rising cesarean rates. The midwives model of care trusts in womens bodies, birth, and nature. Increasing rates of medical intervention and surgical birth in the Western world is due in part to our cultures dissociative relationship between body, mind, and spirit. This results in a widespread fear of childbirth among women in our culture, perpetuated by the media and the medical establishment. Body awareness practices, such as massage therapy, are extremely valuable in pregnancy and postpartum, as we seek to improve maternal and infant health care and outcomes. Pregnancy massage profoundly benets the expecting mother and the unborn baby. Thomas Verny, M.D., the founder of the Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) writes in his book Nurturing the Unborn Child that after the sixth month of gestation the unborn baby can sense massage of the abdomen and responds to that touch. Pregnant women should be encouraged to massage their pregnant bellies daily beginning in early pregnancy; it is soothing practice that increases the mothers responsiveness to her baby. The unborn baby has been receiving a massage from the mothers uterine muscles and the amniotic uids since early gestation. The fetus receives continuous touch in the womb. Massage of the mother and her belly assists the visceral massage of the unborn baby which provides neurological stimulation and growth.

Mothers who receive massage during pregnancy gain increased body-awareness of their pregnant physique. Research by Tiffany Fields, PhD, Director of the Touch Institute, indicates that women who receive prenatal massage have decreased leg and back pain, decreased anxiety, improved mood, improved sleep patterns, fewer complications during labor, and fewer complications with the baby after birth. Stress in pregnancy contributes to immune deciency, nausea, decreased blood supply to the uterus, miscarriages, complications, fetal distress, and postpartum complications. Massage therapy in pregnancy decreases stress and increases endorphins and oxytocin. Oxytocin is the hormone necessary for birth, bonding, and breastfeeding to be successful. Oxytocin and adrenaline are antagonists, therefore reducing stress levels through massage therapy results in improved birth outcomes. A research study from England, in August 2006, shows that regular pregnancy massage from 36 weeks gestation to birth decreases women's experience of labor pain. Regular pregnancy massage raises a women's pain threshold in labor by an interaction between oxytocin and opioid neurons. It is wonderful when medical science conrms practices that are common sense. Today, pregnancy massage is growing in popularity among modern childbearing women. The art of massage for mothers is an ancient practice for maternal and infant health carried out by midwives, healers, and family members of pregnant wome n around the world for ages. Pregnancy massage can reduce low back and hip pain, balance hormones, prepare for labor, reduce edema, ush waste from the body, increase exibility, relieve headaches and sinuses, support healthy sleep, reduce labor pain, reduce length of labor, improve fetal nourishment, and prevent postpartum depression. Mothers can benet deeply from nurturing massage.

Yoga for Pregnancy & Birth

Prenatal yoga is an excellent way to stay t, prepare for birth, and improve the wellbeing of your body, mind, heart, and spirit. I highly recommend nding some kind of holistic movement practice during pregnancy that involves body-mind-spirit integration. Prenatal yoga can help in also trimesters, during labor, and postpartum. Yoga means union. The practice of yoga brings the integration of the body and mind using the breath to unite the two. The practice of yoga is a meditation in motion, through conscious movement to improve physical exibility, balance, and ow, you nd that appearing in your emotions and spirit as well. There are many excellent prenatal and postnatal yoga DVD's as well as classes. Be sure to nd a class that is specically for pregnancy or mama and baby if this is your rst time attending a yoga class. The practice of prenatal yoga support physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health in the journey of pregnancy. The prenatal yoga practice also prepares a mother for labor. Yoga is dynamic and multifaceted, offering asanas to limber the hips, pranayama to breath deeply an oxygenate the baby, as well as mantras to chant and sing to bring new energy into the body and soul. Mudras, yoga postures with the hands, are another yoga practice that mothers can use while resting, meditating, laboring, and even nursing a baby. The yoga of mothering is a spiritual and physical path of learning from the little masters that come to shine their light into our lives as blessed babies.

Womb Dancing
For thousands of years, women have danced through pregnancy and labor. In many cultures, dances have been created to assist women in preparing for birth and celebrating the fertility and co-creativity of women. Bellydancing, hula dancing, african dances, and more are ancient fertility dances to celebrate life and prepare the body. One does not have to study bellydance to benet from the wonderful benets of dance in pregnancy. Just put on music that you love to groove to, and freedance in your home or with friends. Let your pelvis move freely, practicing rocking your pelvis back and forth, and also spiraling your hips, in both directions. The movements of circling and spiraling the hips are ancient practices of women in cultures around the world to enhance fertility, pregnancy, and pelvic health. Dance is very good for the pelvis in pregnancy as well as labor. Enjoy dancing. Your baby loves dancing with you!

Spiraling for Pregnancy & Birth

The seasons, the galaxies, the molecules in our cells, wind, womens sexual cycles, and the baby being born through the pelvis all move in spirals. Our minds process information in a non-linear way, we cycle through our thoughts through our daily rhythms and nightly dream cycles.

Learn to recognize the cycles in your life, by honoring the cycles of the sun and moon, your menstrual cycles, and the birth year cycle. There are two directions to the spiral: expansion and contraction. During birth, do you want to experience contractions or expansions? Where you place your intention while practicing conscious movement is where your movements will be most potent. Visualize your cervix expanding during labor as you spiral your hips, rather than the myometrial bers of the uterus contracting. Practice spiraling your hips regularly during pregnancy to prepare for birth. Assist your baby to be born through your pelvis by making spiraling movements with your pelvis during labor, similar to hulahooping or bellydancing. Bellydancing and other sacred fertility dances have been practiced for hundreds of years to prepare women for childbirth. Vanda Scaravelli, yogini and author, writes in Awakening the Spine that we have to avoid angular movements and adopt circular, spiral ones. She refers to this movement as spiral-circumpheric and describes the gentle spiraling gestures of the body as a way to deepen yoga practice through healthful movement. Creating spiraling movements with the spine and pelvis aligns the vertebrae and nurtures coordination of the body and mind. Spiraling results in the embodied remembering of the natural movements of children free of neuromuscular restrictions.

Sacral Rocking for Pregnancy and Labor

The sacrum is the central bone of the pelvis located at the base of the spinal cord. The sacral bone is triangular in form and made of ve fused vertebrae. The sacral plexus is a mass of nerves situated anterior to the sacrum; it is the origin of the nerves for the pelvic organs and legs. Rocking the sacrum from front to back, tilting it gently anterior and posterior creates a wave-like motion in the spine and skeleton. Sacral rocking stimulates the sacral plexus and loosens energy blocks and fascial restrictions within the pelvis. It also releases restrictions in the fascia surrounding the craniosacral system, which is the closed hydraulic system containing cerebrospinal uid, the spinal cord, and brain. Sacrum comes from the same root word as sacred. The sacrum is associated with the second chakra, the belly chakra, which governs sexuality, creativity, and emotions. During pregnancy, regularly practicing sacral rocking, either sitting, standing, lying on your back, or on your hands-and-knees, will support exibility and tone of your low back, abdomen, and pelvis. It is useful to alleviate low back pain, as well as facilitating the ow of energy and cerebrospinal uid through the spinal cord. This is a helpful technique to practice while standing, leaning forward, or on your handsand-knees during labor if the baby is posterior and there is back labor. The second chakra, associated with the sacrum, belly, or uterus governs our sexual and creative energy. Restrictions in the pelvis are bio-energetically associated with self-limitations in sexual fulllment or expression, ability to form bonding relationships, or shame and guilt. Moving our sacrum, rocking our pelvis, can allow new thoughts, dreams, and impulses to move freely through your whole being enhancing your grounding, centering, and expression of your true self. Open yourself to the new sensations. Release old patterns that no longer serve you.

I was a hoopdance teacher for years, and I have seen that as people learn to move their hips freely through rocking and spiraling the pelvis, emotions may bubble up. Some people laugh at rst, some people feel insecure, angry, or frustrated. Notice as you move your body what emotions, feelings, and sensations arise for you. Keep surrendering to the ow and you will feel renewed exibility, creativity, and strength in your inner core. The heart of the practice is to experience openness and exibility in your center and to transform energies in expansion and expression. Moving the pelvis in labor is essential to facilitating the babys journey from womb to world. It is essential to keep the sacrum mobile in labor, and avoid positions in which the laboring mother is at on her back with her sacrum xed against the bed. Moving and toning, is a synergistic practice that is extremely helpful in owing through labor. Making sounds to transform the sensations is very powerful, so feel free to express yourself through movement and vocalization. In birth, rocking and spiraling the pelvis assist the mother in dancing her baby out.

Chapter Seven

Envisioning Your Birth

Giving birth is one of life's most transformative and challenging experiences. Women are called upon to surrender to the powerful inner force of labor which opens us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Though you cannot really know what labor will be until you are within it, you can be prepared for the unexpected. Reading, planning, visualizing, and creating health within your body, heart, and soul will give you the assurance that you will be ready to respond to your unique birth experience in the moment with trust and calm. The very rst birth I ever witnessed was a home waterbirth. It was an incredible, soul awakening experience not only for the mother and baby, but everyone in the room. The birth energy of a home waterbirth was amazing the mother was so strong, the love so great, and the baby given such attention and love. The midwives were gentle, alert, and patient, and the birthing room was meditative with soothing music, a birth altar created by the parents, inspiring art, and a warm deep birthing tub. Afterwards, I felt completely open and charged with the power of co-creation, gazing at every woman I saw with awe. The power to give birth is so primal, strong, and passionate. It was an honor to be witness

to a sacred birth. To this day I am so grateful that the rst birth I witnessed was a gentle, powerful, beautiful homebirth attended by midwives. As a doula I have witnessed births at home, in water, at hospitals, in birth centers, and on all points on the continuum from completely non-medicated midwifery attended homebirth to more-drugs-than-youcan-count-and-forced-or-surgical-delivery. I have seen women who swore they wanted medication in labor calmly push their babies out naturally and say it was fun. Ive also seen mothers dedicated to their plan of a natural homebirth decide to transfer to the hospital for medical assistance. Birth can not be planned, yet with intention, preparation, and awareness, birth can be a joyful, transformative, conscious experience. There is great value in the use of medical assistance for the small percentage of women who cannot give birth undisturbed. This should not sanction the current epidemic of medical violence that is inicted upon mothers and babies due to the gross medicalization of birth. We know now so much information, research, and wisdom on the dangers of drugged, forced, and surgical deliveries of babies. Our minds can understand the research, yet often our hearts still suffer from fear. Love is the key to conscious stewardship, of the Mother-Baby relationship and the Earth-Body dynamic. Consciously activating and growing your capacity to make choices based on deep love instead of fear will assist mothers and parents in making the right decisions for your family. Babies want to be born gently, in their own time, with their mothers alert, and their umbilical cords left intact until bonding has established. Thus a gentle transition, immediate bonding, skin-to-skin touch, and early breastfeeding is established and mother and baby can fall deeply in love. Intervening with the

babies critical transition period immediately after birth through suctioning, intubating, aggressive cleaning, bathing, separation from the mother, swaddling, testing, monitoring, heating, and early clamping of the umbilical cord disrupts the baby and mother during a time when they should be completely focused upon the other. We can integrate conscious birth and bonding practices into medical maternity care to provide optimal care for high-risk mothers and babies too. There is so much diversity in birth; every mother, baby, and birth is unique. I have seen the beauty of ecological birth and I have felt the euphoria rst-hand. I believe women should not be stripped of this inherent power and wisdom without due medical reason for interference. Pregnancy and birth are not pathological and thus should not be treated in a hospital unless there is clear deviation from normal. You can have the birth you envision, however that means making informed decisions in pregnancy about your birth care providers, your birth environment, your prenatal care, creating a birth plan, and taking full responsibility for your health and wellness. In a hospital setting, you will need to advocate for your informed choice and birth preferences, including having positive support and advocacy for your birth plan through your partner, family, or doula.

Beliefs About Birth

Do you believe in birth? Do you believe that women's bodies have the knowledge within them to give birth? Do you believe babies have innate wisdom and an instinct to be born? The hormonal symphony of birth is very delicate and ows best when a woman is undisturbed and surrounded by nurturing chosen companions who are attuned to instinctive birth. It is vital before attending

a birth as a support person or attendant to honestly address your feelings about birth. Attendants in the birthing room who feel fear or anxiety about birth can inhibit a women's labor by causing psychological dystocia. Yet, what to do if you are an expecting mother and you are afraid of birth? You have to give birth to the baby eventually, and you want it to be the best experience it can be. You can learn to trust birth.

Turn off the television!

In the US today, most women seem to learn about birth from television. The sitcoms of the past showed women screaming and doctors pulling out babies, which appeared to be wearing clothes and peculiarly unattached to an umbilical cord or placenta. Now, many women watch "reality" birth story television shows in which highly medicalized births are edited for drama to seem like emergency events.

Immerse yourself in positive birth stories.

Read positive natural birth stories, such as those in Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin, and the stories included in Part II of this book. Ask homebirth midwives in your community if they know of a mother's group you can join to hear the stories of other women who have experienced empowered births or attend La Leche League meeting, even while pregnant to prepare for breastfeeding and establish a support network for when you need it.

Attend an independent childbirth education class.

Participating in an independent natural childbirth class is a great way to learn childbirth education from an educated source! If you are looking into local classes, nd a teacher in your community who is not hired by a hospital or OB/GYN practice. Instructors who work for hospitals are almost universally limited in their time and scope of topics. The majority of hospitals are more interested in teaching people to be good patients than to birth optimally. An independent teacher will give you the real information about your community, birth options, and strategies for gentle birth and parenting.

Hire a doula.
Having a female labor support companion at your birth greatly reduces your chance of having unnecessary medical interventions, such as Cesarean surgery, induction, pitocin augmentation of labor, and pain relief via narcotics or epidural. A doula provides on-going emotional support and continuous attendance throughout your labor, birth, and early postpartum. Having a companion who is knowledgeable, experienced, and trusting in birth is statistically shown to reduce the average length of labor as well as inuencing mothers to feel more satised and happy with their birth experience reectively. Doulas usually offer prenatal and postpartum consultations and can teach and share with you techniques and practices for a successful birth and enjoyable parenting.

Hire a midwife.
Midwives have been the guardians of instinctive birth for thousands of years. Midwives work with the forces of nature to help you facilitate normal healthy birth. Having a midwife as your primary attendant at birth greatly increases your chance of having a healthy vaginal delivery and successful breastfeeding. The countries in the world with the lowest perinatal and infant mortality rates all have the majority of pregnant women in the care of midwives. If you don't want a homebirth, or don't have a home you feel comfortable birthing in, nd a birth center with homebirth midwives, or nurse-midwives who deliver at a birth center or hospital.

Connect with your baby.

Your love for your baby is a unlimited source of positive power for you in learning to trust birth. Every day take ve minutes to sit down, put your hands on your belly, and send your baby love. Imagine your heart sending warm rays of loving energy down your arms, through the palms of your hands, and into your belly, enveloping your unborn child. Cultivate your connection with your baby, and learn to trust your instinct. Listen to yourself, your intuition, and your baby when making decisions about your health care. Listen within, before your look outward at technology and culture. Trust yourself, trust your baby, and trust in birth.

Use Your BRAIN

This is a smart acronym that will help you to remember what questions to ask to obtain full information about your choices to make informed decisions regarding prenatal testing, labor interventions, and choices in childbirth. Use your B.R.A.I.N. when faced with choices during health care. When faced with choices in labor, regarding a procedure, test, medication, or other intervention ask about the full effects of the choices on the health of the mother and baby. When you have all the answers to your questions then you can feel condent in knowing that you will make the best decision for you, your baby, and your family. How you choose to give birth should be based on what feels best for you and your family. When you have all the information available then your choice to birth wherever and with whomever you please should be respected, whether that be at a hospital, with a midwife, or at home. Throughout history women have fought long and hard for the rights to make decisions about their own bodies - so use your rights, ask questions, do research, and make your own choices. Conscious birth means to make conscious informed decisions about what is best for you and your baby, aligning your intellect, intuition, and heart. Before making your decision, ask:

B - Benets - What are the benets of this procedure? R - Risks - What are the risks of this procedure?

A - Alternatives - Are there any alternatives to this procedure? Include medical, holistic, or just doing nothing. I - Intuition - What does your intuition tell you about your choices? Mom tune in to baby and see what you feel. Do you have a strong instinct to choose one choice over the other? N - Now or Never? - Do you have to choose right now or can you wait 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, a day, or not at all?

Interventions in Childbirth
Medical interventions in childbirth can be a blessing when medically necessary, but can also cause a cascade of further interventions when used without discernment. Be sure to notice how you feel as if and when these choices are presented to you, check within yourself, be informed, listen to your heart, and connect with your baby when deciding what decision is best for you. Labor and birth best function when left alone. When medical intervention is utilized during labor, there is always some risk for the mother and baby. This risk is determined by many factors including how far away birth will be, and balancing the benets of augmenting labor with manual, pharmaceutical, technological, or surgical interventions. Common interventions in modern maternity care today include medical induction, breaking the bags of waters, IV's, electronic fetal monitoring, internal fetal monitoring, assisted delivery with forceps or vacuum extraction, and cesarean section.

Early interventions in labor, such as medical induction via pitocin or misoprostol, dramatically increases your chances of having a cesarean section. A nurse at one Oregon hospital told me that 80% of their patients who were medically induced receive cesarean sections.

Amniotomy
An amniotomy is breaking your bag of waters. The amniotic sac is ruptured manually by the doctor or midwife with an amniohook, which looks like a large crochet hook. It does not physically hurt you or the baby, as the bag breaks. However, the bag of waters creates a cushion between the baby's head and your cervix, so breaking the bag of waters will intensify labor for you and baby. This is a dangerous procedure if the baby is still high in the pelvis, as dropping lower into the pelvis rapidly could cause a cord prolapse. Also, if the baby is in a posterior or acynclitic position, then breaking the cushion of waters may make it harder for the baby to turn. If the baby is low and contractions are slow, sometimes care providers will suggest this to encourage the baby to apply more pressure to the cervix to enhance labor. Breaking the waters increases the risk of infection, and hospitals have limits as to how long they allow mothers to labor without intact waters. Additionally, hospitals may want to break the bag of waters to check for meconium or to place an internal fetal heart rate monitor.

IV
An IV may be placed during labor to administer uids, or medication, such as pitocin or antibiotics. Some hospitals insist upon a hep-lock in your arm, just in-case a c-section is later deemed necessary. IV's often get in the way during early postpartum, while learning to hold, support, and breastfeed your baby. Nutrition through light snacks and ample uids by mouth is preferable to IV hydration. IV's also ll the interstitial tissues with uid, causing water retention, and making it harder for babies to then learn to breastfeed. This is because when the areola is swollen with uids from the IV during labor, it is harder for the newborn to latch on correctly in the critical rst few days postpartum.

Electronic Fetal Heart Monitors

EFM are ubiquitous in hospitals today, though they have not been shown to improve fetal health, and it increases your chances of intervention and cesarean section. EFM uses two belts that wrap around the mother's belly to observe on a monitor the mother's contractions and baby's heart rate, and record that for liability reasons. The number one reason hospitals use EFM is to create a written record of birth monitoring to be used as defense in a potential lawsuit. The limited mobility of the mother during EFM, the exposure to ultrasound, and the varied diagnostic experiences of care providers with EFM creates many potential challenges for a healthy baby. You can request intermittent monitoring, hand-held monitoring with Dopplers (which also use ultrasound), and monitoring by fetascope (without ultrasound).

Internal Fetal Heartrate Monitors

Internal monitoring requires the mother's water to be broken and for a tiny wire to be screwed into the top of the baby's scalp. This is used when doctors and nurses want more accurate monitoring than the EFM. This is then accompanied by an internal contraction monitor, which is fed into the uterus and placed next to the baby. These tubes both stay in place during labor and pushing until just before birth. This is an intervention that can interfere with the mothers comfort, ability to relax in labor, cause discomfort to the baby, and inhibit the mothers mobility, as well as increase the risk of infection.

Ultrasound
Ultrasound diagnostics allow us to receive images from inside the body by directing waves of highfrequency sound at the uterus and fetus inside. Though technicians and the women who are being observed cannot hear the frequencies of the ultrasound, the immediate proximity of the fetus's delicate hearing to the sound-waves, amplied by the amniotic uid, results in the baby actually hearing the ultrasound waves as loud as 100-120dB. That's the equivalent of standing next to a jackhammer or a freight train. Ultrasounds are more frequently being pushed upon pregnant women routinely during pregnancy with little mention of the potential risks to the baby. Ultrasound exposure has been show to heat living tissue by 1 degree Celsius and cause cavitation - which could seriously affect the developing neurology and

tissues of the delicate fetus. This should be a serious concern to parents with the epidemic of autism that is affecting children around the world, we need to examine common obstetrical practices more closely. In addition, ultrasound diagnosis may result in a false positive for an abnormality, thus causing a cascade of further intervention and more invasive testing. Estimation of fetal weight by ultrasound has been shown to by off as much as 3 pounds at full term, thus inaccurate estimation of weight by ultrasound could result in induction and prematurity. Diagnostic ultrasounds expose the baby to pulses of sonar frequency, thus actually exposing the baby to less ultrasound than a hand-held Doppler. The Doppler uses a continuous emission of ultrasound. If you are concerned about ultrasound exposure during pregnancy, then also talk to your doctor or midwife about listening to the fetal heart tones with a fetascope instead of a Doppler. Also know that a trans-vaginal ultrasound, is often used in the rst trimester when the uterus is small. The transducer is placed in the vagina, up next to the cervix and baby, thus exposing the baby to higher levels of ultrasound than a trans-abdominal ultrasound would. The rst trimester is the critical time during which the baby's spinal cord and brain are being developed, so consider early ultrasound exams carefully and with caution. The ability to see inside the mysterious womb is enticing to so many people, but the risks for birth defects, autism, and other developmental disabilities make it a large risk that the World Health Organization, FDA, and professional organizations are well aware of. Find a careprovider who will use a fetascope or pinard horn, and carefully minimize you and your babys exposure to ultrasound.

Labor Induction
In late pregnancy, the mother's body prepares for labor. The cervix comes anterior, softens, and even begins to dilate. The uterus warms up with pre-labor contractions, as the mother's pelvic ligaments become looser, and the baby drops lower. When ready, the baby initiates labor by sending a signal to the mother's pituitary gland, which responds by producing oxytocin. The oxytocin causes the labor contractions to begin. A healthy baby should be the one to signal the start of labor. Medical induction of labor can force labor to begin, even when baby is not ready, by overriding the mother and baby's hormonal communication with synthetic chemicals that create intense contractions. There are natural methods of inducing labor, including sex, acupuncture, acupressure, walking, swinging on a swingset, castor oil, and herbs. Natural methods of induction prepare the mothers' body, however if baby is not ready, nothing will start labor unless it is pushed with pharmaceuticals. Reasons to medically induce labor include pregnancy induced hypertension, pre-eclampsia, postdates, chorioamnionitis, signicant maternal medical problems, or intrauterine fetal growth retardation. Women who are post-dates are encouraged to induce their labors, though there can be pressure to induce at 40 weeks, when 42 weeks can still be safe. Also, there may be inaccuracy with the date of the last menstrual period, thus making the due date fallible. The Bishop's Score is a tool to help your care providers and you decide whether or not an induction has a high chance of being successful or not. The Bishops Score evaluates how ripe and ready the cervix is for birth, its position, softness, dilation, and effacement. A woman who has a soft, anterior cervix that is already 2 cm. dilated and 50% effaced has a higher chance of having a successful induction than a woman

with a posterior, hard, closed cervix. Before induction, nd out about your Bishop's Score, and talk to your care provider about it. Due to the induction epidemic in maternity care today, it is rare for a woman to experience pregnancy past 42 weeks today. Doctors frequently push for medical induction at 40 or 41 weeks. Most women are unaware that according to childbirth researcher Henci Goer, "There is absolutely no study, no evidence whatsoever, that routine induction at any gestational age improves perinatal outcomes", which I just read in the new issue of Midwifery Today magazine in the article on Postmaturity by Samara Ferrara, along with "As long as there are no signs of fetal distress, it is best for baby to stay in the womb". So with my last pregnancy, my baby waited until almost 44 weeks gestation to be born, and we contentedly waited for our baby to decide his natural timing which resulted in a wonderful homebirth. I think that it can be challenging for many women to escape the worry and fear that the culture of birth brings and to wait for a naturally timed labor without giving in to the pressure and threats of medical staff. However honoring the natural timing of the initiation of labor is extremely important in impacting the overall outcome of the birth. Medical induction immediately turns the birth into a medical event, necessitating a constant IV, electronic fetal heart rate monitoring, restricted movement, and dramatically increasing the risks of fetal distress, cesarean section, and much more.! I have found that I was able to maintain calm and patience through choosing to surround myself with only positive support people who respect my choices and instinctive birthing. In late pregnancy, it is a source of great personal calm and strength to explore the practices of art, journaling, dance, movement, prayer, and music. It is interesting that these creative acts of art, dance, music, and prayer are all ways to connect with the Source of Creativity within us. These states of mindful

creativity and appreciation create states of ow that induce brainwaves changes similar to meditation and to what women experience in natural childbirth. The creative arts have been profoundly supportive of my pregnancy experiences and are facilitating a blooming of ideas as well as inner strength. I highly recommend for pregnant mamas in the third trimester and late pregnancy to take the time to connect with what inspires you creatively and invigorates your spirit - whether it's creating art, making music, dancing to music, meditation, yoga, singing, walking in nature, or swimming - and to create a sanctuary around you in which you receive only positive support and inspiration.! Also use your creative expression to connect deeper with the soul of your baby and to trust in the grace of birth.

Pitocin
Pitocin is synthetic oxytocin, the chemical version of your body's natural love hormone oxytocin. Pitocin is given to the mother to induce labor, and immediately makes labor into a medical experience. Pitocin is administered in an intravenous drip continuously, throughout labor, birth, and early postpartum. Since pitocin increases your baby's chances of fetal distress, your baby will be continuously monitored with an electronic fetal heart monitor. Pitocin causes contractions that are harder and more intense than regular contractions. They may come right after each other, or have double peaks. Pitocin frequently leads to the cascade of interventions, because the pain of pitocin contractions is worse than regular contractions, and women often subsequently request an epidural after pitocin.

Labor induction dramatically increases your chances of c-section. However, if you are already a couple centimeters dilated, and baby is low, then you have a better chance of a successful induction with vaginal birth. However, the pitocin overrides your bodies own natural production of oxytocin, and you and your baby will need extra love and time to deeply establish the bonding and birth imprints for optimal soul consciousness.

Misoprostol (Cytotec)
Cytotec is an ulcer medication that is not approved by the FDA for use on pregnant women. That's why the product box actually has a silhouette of a pregnant woman with a big red slash across the diagonal, but pregnant women dont get a chance to usually see that, only the medical professionals. However, cytotec, also know as misoprostol, or miso, is gaining use with obstetricians and nurse-midwives across the western world to articially induce labor, due to the low cost of the medication. Each drug in labor has risks, especially when women are being experimented on, without their knowledge or consent. Misoprostol is a small white pill that is cut into a little section and placed in the mother's vagina near her cervix. The misoprostol causes the mother's cervix to soften, thus dilating and effacing, while also stimulating the uterus to contract. One of the problems with misoprostol is that it can hyperstimulate the uterus causing painful contractions, fetal distress, and even uterine rupture. Women with previous cesereans should never be administered misoprostol as several mothers have died due to being induced with cytotec and having ruptured uteruses. VBAC can be very safe as long as labor is not articially hurried. However with augmentation or induction of labor the risk of a ruptured

uterus becomes high. Women during all labors, are best left alone to labor naturally, unless there is a true medical emergency.

Pain Medication
The most common types of pain medication offered to laboring mothers in U.S. hospitals are epidural anesthesia or narcotics. Pain medication has potential side-effects and risks to mother and baby that parents should be aware of in order to make informed choices about what is best for you.

Epidural anesthesia
The most common type of pain medication given in U.S. hospitals today is the epidural, other older forms of anesthesia are the spinal or interthecal. Once you choose medical intervention in labor, the entire birth and management of your labor becomes a medical event. For an epidural, the mother is required to have continuous fetal heart rate monitoring, blood pressure medication, an IV, a blood pressure cuff, and a urinary catheter. The epidural increases your risks of fetal distress so your labor is considered high-risk and becomes a medical event. An epidural does effectively reduce the pain of labor for most women. However, it doesn't work for all, and some women experience "windows" or areas of their body in which they do not feel the anesthesia. One mother whom I was a doula for received an epidural in labor, and consequently experienced numbness of her legs and back, but a window of no-relief encompassing her perineum, pelvis, and lower

belly. So, she was unable to move freely, but still experienced all the pain of labor, and later had a severe headache and limited mobility in her shoulders for days after the birth due to the other possible side-effects of the epidural anesthesia. If necessary, it is better to wait until you are a few centimeters dilated before getting an epidural. Receiving an epidural at 6 centimeters, rather than 3 centimeters, means that the baby and mother are experiencing the drugs for less time. When mothers are very fearful or exhausted, epidurals can help mom to relax thus allowing for her to be able to birth vaginally. When used consciously epidural anesthesia is a valuable tool. Epidurals provide the highest levels of pain relief in labor along with the highest level of risk associated with pain medication. Side effects of epidurals include a universal drop in blood pressure, so all women who receive an epidural also get blood pressure medication. Itching, shaking, nausea, vomiting, severe spinal headaches, epidural abcess, ongoing numb patches, delay in labor, maternal fever, increased challenges with breastfeeding, increased risk of drug addiction for neonate in adulthood, and fetal distress are all potential complications from epidurals.

Narcotics
There are several narcotics that are given to women in labor. What is available to you depends upon your hospital and doctor. The common narcotics are butorphanol (Stadol), meperidine (Demerol), fentanyl (Sublimaze) and nalbuphine (Nubain) and they are injected into your body through your arm, thigh, or IV tube. Narcotics do not take the pain away, but they do take the edge off. However they can also cause

drowsiness, itching, hallucinations, blood pressure drops, an increased chance of fetal distress, and increase chance of need for neonatal resuscitation at birth. The narcotics work for a couple hours, then wear off. While narcotics provide minimal pain relief, they make the mother extremely drowsy and sedated. Narcotics should only be given once or twice during labor, as increased doses multiplies the risks to mother and baby. Babies of mothers who received opiates in labor are drowsier, have decreased reexes, may be less responsive in the rst few weeks, and are at a signicantly higher risk of drug addiction in later life.

Nitrous Oxide
Self-administered nitrous oxide is a popular form of pain medication utilized by 60% of laboring women in the UK and 37% of laboring women in Canada, although rarely available in the US. It is self-administered through a hand-held mask with 50% oxygen and 50% nitrous oxide during contractions. Potential side effects are dizziness and excess sedation. Risks to mother and baby are unknown, however potential risks to over-exposure to nitrous oxide for care providers has been noticed.

Surgical Delivery
A Cesarean section is a major abdominal surgery performed in order to deliver a baby from its mother, through an incision in her abdomen. The cesarean is a vital emergency surgery for mothers and babies who are at a severe risk. However, C-sections are on the rise in US and around the world, and it is at epidemic

proportions. In the 1960's, only 5% of babies were born by Cesarean, in the 1970's and 1980's the surgery increased to 25% of women delivered of their babies through surgery. Now, in the US, one in three women deliver their babies via Cesarean. At some hospitals, 1 in 2 rst time mothers are receiving Cesarean deliveries. Your having a baby and you want to avoid a C-section - what do you do? The best thing you can do to reduce the risk of Cesarean birth is to hire a midwife for your prenatal care, labor, and delivery. Midwives have dramatically higher rates of successful healthy vaginal delivery that obstetricians. The the two factors in hospital birth that most lead to a Cesarean are active management of early labor and medical induction, thus women have a more successful chance at natural birth if they wait to enter the hospital until they are already in well established labor and avoid drugs to induce or augment labor. You can avoid active management of early labor through hiring a doula to support you through labor. A doula can come to your home in early labor, and is familiar with signs and behaviors of the different stages of labor, and may help you to cope at home, so you don't show up at the hospital too early. Try to stay at home until you are in active labor to avoid unnecessary interventions which may lead to iatrogenic (medically induced) complications. Increase your awareness of the realities of medical induction. Along with Cesarean, there is an epidemic of inductions happening in the United States. The baby's due date is an estimated due date, yet there is increasingly a medical and cultural belief that babies should be born on or by the due date. In fact, only 4% of babies are born on their estimated due dates, and most rst time moms go about a week over due. Also, due dates can be miscalculated by care providers who do not accommodate for the variations in women's menstrual cycles.

Also, choose your place of birth carefully. Midwives have lower c-section rates than doctors. Nonprot hospitals have lower c-section rates than for-prot or teaching hospitals. In Seattle in 2003, the nonprot Group Health had a c-section rate of 16%, while the nearby forprot and teaching hospitals had csection rates of 36%. Cesarean surgery is a hugely protable industry, and 80% of cesarean happen Monday through Friday between 8 am and 5 pm. While surgery may be more convenient for the doctor, the increased risks are not convenient for mom and baby. Education increases your chances of a healthy informed birth. Hire a midwife, a doula, make informed choices, and trust in your body and your baby! Research and practice techniques for optimal fetal positioning, to encourage your baby to be in the best position for labor and birth. For more resources on Cesarean awareness and prevention, check out the ICAN website of the International Cesarean Awareness Network. Are women who opt for elective C-sections really being given informed choice? Do their doctors tell them that the risk of a baby dying from an c-section is three times greater than from a low-risk vaginal delivery? The New York Times reports that voluntary C-Sections result in more babies dying, Cesarean births are resulting in higher rates of pre-term babies needing the NICU, and now, to further compound the issue, insurance companies are denying health coverage to women who have previously had Cesarean Deliveries. What can we do to lower the Cesarean rate? The research shows that Cesarean surgery has a much higher risk of death to baby and mother. This very basic knowledge is rarely shared with women. A woman experiencing a C-section is ve to seven times more likely to die from the surgical birth than from a vaginal birth. When a women is given a C-section, the risk of her baby dying is TRIPLE that of a low-risk vaginal delivery.

The World Health Organization recommends no higher than a 15% cesarean rate. Fewer hospitals are allowing VBAC's anymore (vaginal birth after cesarean) and elective repeat cesareans are even riskier for mom and baby. However, studies have shown that women with previous cesarean surgeries who are allowed to labor freely have a successful vaginal birth 7 out of 10 times. You can dramatically increase your chance of having a successful VBAC by hiring a midwife for a home or birth center birth, or hiring a really good doula to accompany you to the hospital. Many doctors say they will "allow" attempt at vaginal delivery for VBAC women, but then place restrictions such as before 40 weeks - or baby has to be born within 12 hours - or constant fetal heart monitoring. Be an informed and conscious consumer of your healthcare for your pregnancy, birth, and family.

Breech Babies
Some say that a baby's turns head up because they want to be closer to their mama's heart. Send your breech babies lots of love, because they are so close to your heart and feel your emotions and intention strongly. Breech position in pregnancy and labor is a variation of normal. In the past, both doctors and midwives delivered breeches naturally. Now, rare are the doctors who deliver breeches, in the hospital a breech is most likely a cesarean. There are midwives who will deliver breech babies at home or birth centers. Waterbirth is frequently employed with natural breeches, and it gently supports the baby, keeping the belly and umbilical cord warm until the head is born.

If you know your baby is breech there are many practices you can do to assist your baby in turning naturally. Craniosacral bodywork or the Chiropractic "Webster" technique can both help to balance the uterine ligaments and relax the sacrum, thus allowing more room for the baby to turn. Swimming in water with your belly down, and doing headstands in the water are both thought to help encourage the baby to move. Practicing inversions, on an ironing board, resting an an angle off the bottom three stairs, or the couch can facilitate the baby turning. Playing music to your baby through headphones low down near the pubic bone may encourage the baby to turn toward the enticing sounds. Also putting a ashlight at your pubic bone and an ice pack or cold peas on the top of your fundus, coaxes baby to move toward the light and away from the cold. Traditional Chinese Medicine offers an inexpensive and easy treatment to turn breech babies, this is through the use of moxibustion. Moxibustion uses the stimulation of acupuncture points through heat from burning cones of mugwort herb. To turn a breech baby, you hold the burning end of a moxibustion stick close to the skin on the outside bottom edge of your little toe. You do not burn the skin! Just warm it to hot. This is a very effective practice, you can learn to do this at home, or see an acupuncturist for guidance. The most important technique to be used in conjunction with all other practices is to VISUALIZE your baby head down and vertex. Remember that babies can turn at any time in pregnancy or labor. I've known babies to turn vertex at 41 weeks with mom in labor.

Preparing for Optimal Birthing

In the last weeks before labor, you can prepare for birth by reviewing your birth plan, practicing good nutrition, exercise, relaxation, and spending time soul-fully connecting to your baby in the womb. You can help encourage your baby to be in the best position possible for birth by conscious movement, rest, and exercise in late pregnancy. The Australian midwife Jean Sutton has developed a theory called Optimal Fetal Positioning that teaches women to use positions and movement in late pregnancy to encourage baby to be in an anterior vertex position at birth. There is a rising number of women today who have posterior babies in labor and subsequently experience back labor, and higher rates of pain medication, intervention, and cesarean. I believe part of the problem today is that the Western lifestyle is very recumbent, with reclining seats in cars, and leaning back on the couch at home to watch TV or movies. The heaviest part of the baby's body is the spine and occiput - the back of the head. When mom adopts a daily recumbent lifestyle, it encourages baby to settle with gravity into a posterior position. This is when baby's back rests towards mama's back, and baby's occiput is against mom's sacrum in labor. This causes the intense discomfort and pain of back labor.

Steps to Avoiding Posterior Presentation:

Sit with your knees lower than your pelvis. Add a cushion or wedge to your car seat, raise your ofce chair, or get a Swedish chair. When watching TV sit cross-legged on the oor, lying on your side, or sit in a dining chair. Sit on a birth ball, this will open your pelvis and keep your pelvis mobile. Also kneel forward over the birth ball or a beanbag. Don't cross your legs! This reduces the space in the front of your pelvis where you want to create more space for baby. Crawl on your hands and knees for 5 minutes at a time, in the morning and night. This opens the pelvis and creates asymmetrical movement of the hips, which works with gravity to encourage the baby to sift downward. Swim with your belly down in the water. In addition, remember to eat well, stay hydrated, and appreciate the fullness of your pregnancy, stay positive with afrmations and visualizations about your birth, and enjoy your relationship with your partner. Your baby will be here soon!

"Ive often heard people compare giving birth to climbing a mountain. Certainly, birth can often require effort, but sometimes its nice to use the analogy of oating down a gentle mountain stream. The motion is downward rather than up, and the thought of cool, owing water is soothing to the soul." - Laura Shanley

Chapter Eight

Biodynamic Birth
Instinctive Birthing
Michel Odent, a French obstetrician-turned-midwife and primal health researcher, advocates in his book The Farmer and the Obstetrician for the practice of biodynamic attitude toward birth. Bio means biological; the way of nature. In birth, this is to understand the normal physiological process of birth, the law of gravity, the symphony of ecstatic birth hormones, and decreasing intervention by birth practitioners to allow instinctive birth. Dynamic refers to life force energy, change, motion. Biodynamic birthing serves each pregnant woman uniquely with the blend of natural birthing wisdom, medical science, and evidencebased practices to facilitate an optimal birth experience. The word biodynamic is also well-known to describe biodynamic gardening, a model of agriculture developed by Rudolf Steiner, philosopher and the founder of Waldorf education. Biodynamic gardening teaches of relationship between healthy living soil and the cosmic forces of nature. Biodynamic gardeners use their understanding of the lunar cycles and a spiritual connection to the forces of nature to improve vitality and health of the plants, soil, and ecosystem. Biodynamic gardening

utilizes the science of life-forces to aid in healing ailing land on earth. The biodynamic perspective is a holistic model that optimizes ecological wellbeing while healing the past and providing for the future. Biodynamic birthing is an ecological perspective of birth. A biodynamic attitude recognizes working with the natural cycles of birth, and emphasizes relationship not hierarchy. The practice of maternity care must be reevaluated to support sustainability, community, healing, and peace. The biodynamic perspective offers a model for healing birth. Through biodynamic birth practices we can heal birth trauma, prevent unnecessary birth violence, nurture bonding and attachment, and cultivate a peaceful planet. It is essential that we not only improve maternal and infant health care but that we also heal the cycle of abused infants, and co-create a sustainable global model of biodynamic birth.

Intention Creating a biodynamic birth means to invite both nature and spirit into your birth plans. Write and post your intentions all over your house and read them out loud everyday afrming your belief in your power to birth naturally with the support of your birth team, both physical and spiritual.

Gravity Work with the effects of gravity by keeping upright, mobile, and relaxing your bottom, thighs, and pelvic oor. Use a birth sling, hammock, or birth partner to hang on to allow your lower limbs to be relaxed while in an upright or squatting position.

Breathe Breath deep and full into your belly. Send love through your breath and the palms of your hands to any area of the body that is experiencing tension or discomfort. With your in-breath bring in love - with your exhale, breath out the tension with gratitude.

Low lights The mother may feel more comfortable when the lights are low and she feels contained. Utilize shades, curtains, dim lighting, and candles.

Warm room For mother to be naked or in light clothing, and for baby to be warm at the time of birth.

Privacy Mother is given space during labor to go within herself, as well as feeling physically comfortable and safe with all the members of the birth team and protocols of the environment she is birthing in.

Quiet or Soothing Sounds Soft relaxing music, toning, singing, humming, soothing musical instruments.

Loving Support People Father, Partner, Doula, Midwife, Friend, and Family.

Hormones of Love An unmedicated birth so that the hormones of love, bonding, and attachment are produced in the mother and transmitted to the baby. The hormones of oxytocin, beta-endorphin, and prolactin create an altered state of consciousness in the laboring mother that focuses her upon labor, reduces the pain for mother and baby, increases ecstasy in labor, and facilitates mother-baby love, attachment, bonding, and breastfeeding. Supporting instinctive birth supports the release of the hormones of love and bonding in both the mother and the infant. The father and mother are intimately connected and the father experiences an oxytocin rush as well corresponding with the mothers hormone levels.

Comfortable environment For a homebirth, create a relaxing area of your home to labor and birth in. Bring items with you to a birth center or hospital to create your own sacred birth circle wherever you are - art, scarfs, LED battery-powered candles, aromatherapy, and music can transform anywhere and set the tone for the others in your birth team.

Water Warm birthpool, bathtub, or shower - Water and uids to drink freely. Water is essential for hydration and has tremendously benecial qualities of pain relief and freedom of movement with immersion in labor.

Nutrition Freedom to eat and drink freely during labor. Easy to digest nourishing foods should be available to mother during her labor. There should be no restrictions on food or drink.

Movement The freedom to move. Walking, Slow Dancing, Spiraling the Hips, Squatting, Rocking, and Moving. Being upright and working with gravity helps to shorten and facilitate labor as well as helping mom to feel in control and autonomous.

Trust In Mother Nature, in the Universe, in Spirit, in God, in Source, in Yourself, in the God-Us, and in Birth. Faith in the sacredness and perfection of birth.

Improvisation Nature, women, babies, and birth all have so many variables. Like snowakes, each birth is unique, and you cannot follow an exact recipe for birth - you must throw in a pinch of this, a handful or that, some of your favorite secret spice, and sass it up a little with something spicy, sensual, or creative.

Your birth is YOUR BIRTH - make it your own!

Naturally Moving through Early Labor

During early labor your cervix with dilate up to 4 cm, and efface (thin out) from 50-100%. Contractions are 5 to 30 minutes apart, lasting from 15 to 45 seconds, or longer. Mom can still walk and talk during contractions if needed. Early labor can last 2 to 24 hours, or more. Stay calm, take good care of yourself, eat and drink freely, alternate between rest and upright movement, and call your birth team. In early labor, it is best to go about your regular activities until you can no longer be distracted from labor. If it is night, try to get some rest. If it is day, nd a calm activity to take your mind off labor. Walking is an excellent activity in early labor. Sitting on the birth ball, or leaning forward on a high counter, can be comfortable positions for labor. In early labor, a warm bath may slow labor down. This may be helpful if you would like to get some sleep and contractions are still far about. Otherwise, avoid the warm bath until you are in active labor.

Moving Into Active Labor

In the active phase of labor the cervix effaces completely and dilates from 4 to 8 cm. Contractions are coming regularly at 3 to 5 minutes apart and lasting for 40 to 75 seconds. Now mom is having to focus on her contractions completely and the birth team can help mom by using massage, touch, heat or cold packs, suggesting positions, or walking or slow dancing with mom. Visualization, moaning, vocalizing, singing, music, aromatherapy, the birth ball, shower, and upright movements all encourage healthy labor.

Walking assists in opening the pelvis. The rhythmic bi-lateral movement of walking assists the baby in moving into the right position for birth. Walking in active labor can also speed up labor. Leaning forward on the birth ball. Laboring in a waterbirth tub, or warm shower can ease pain and enhance relaxation during active labor.

Transitioning with Grace

This is the most intense and challenging time of labor for many women. During transition the cervix dilates from 8 to 10 cm. Contractions are 2 to 3 minutes apart and lasting from 60 to 90 seconds. Mom may be feeling shaky, nauseous, hot & cold, or feel like having to poop. This is a time for your birth team to provide all the nurturing comfort techniques that can support you. Hydrotherapy, through warm water immersion in a birth tub is ideal for relaxing and owing through transition with grace. This may be a time to call upon your spiritual strength, and deepen into labor through toning, spiraling, and breathing.

Peaceful Pushing
You don't actually have to push your baby out, your incredibly strong uterine muscle will do that, your job is to move and relax, creating space for the baby to come down, and softening your tissues to prevent tearing.

The pushing stage is accompanied by a small surge in adrenaline which aids mom in becoming more focused, awake, and upright to deliver and greet her baby. Pushing can last from 20 minutes to 4 hours, or more. Sitting on the toilet is a very helpful position for many women when beginning to push to help your mind and body relax to naturally bear your baby down, because the toilet is a place where you feel comfortable relaxing your pelvic oor everyday. Squatting opens the pelvis during the pushing stage by 1-2 inches. In the squatting, or dangling position, gravity is also assisting in the birth. Hanging from a birth hammock or pulling on a rebozo or rope can help to support you and ease your work, and help to prevent a posterior or acynclitic baby. Squatting bars are available in many hospitals now - be sure to actually squat and hang on the the bar - some hospitals put the squatting bar in then instruct women to lie back and put their feet on the squatting bar! Standing, hands-and-knees, hanging from a birth sling or hammock, squatting, and side-lying are all excellent positions to push and give birth in. Breath naturally, breath deeply to bring oxygen to your baby in between contractions, and breath your baby out.

Conscious Breathing
Gone are the days of childbirth classes in which couples are taught complicated breathing exercises to "hee-hee" and "hoo-hoo". Breathing is natural, breathing is normal, breathing is instinctive...just like birth! You don't need anyone to teach you how to breath, just as you don't need anyone to teach you how to birth. YOU KNOW. You simply need to trust yourself, train your brain to get out of the way, and let your body do what it does naturally.

You can practice belly breathing during pregnancy and it can help you work with your baby in labor. With each contraction take a deep breath in. Breathe into your belly, bring fresh oxygen to your baby and placenta, circulating energy throughout your pelvis. Exhale deeply and fully, releasing all tension with your breath. Relax and breathe when you need to. Don't hold your breath or hyperventilate. Just remember to breathe deeply into your belly. You can watch your belly rise and fall with each inhale and exhale if you like to have sometime to focus on. You can also practice the cleansing breath during pregnancy, and this is good to clear tension between contractions in labor. To do the cleansing breath, breathe in deeply and fully through the nose, then exhale long and slow through the mouth. After each contraction is over, you can do the cleansing breath to bring in fresh energy to your mind and body, and release any tension from the last contraction.

Vocalizing
Vocalization is another tool that many mothers use during labor all around the world. Generally speaking, low deep sounds are more productive than high sounds. Try it, low sounds vibrate lower in your belly and work to relax the lower segment of your uterus. High sounds are made in the throat and head, and are not as productive to labor. That being said, I feel that you should feel free to make whatever noises and sounds that you want to do during labor. What works for someone else may not be what works best for you. One of my birth teachers told the story about how in both of her births, she would hit the same high note vocalizing during contractions, just before the baby would be born.

Vocalizing can also relax the jaw which correspondingly relaxes the pelvis. The jaw and the pelvis have a strong resonance as they bookend the two poles of the spine and were formed at the same time in utero. Smiling also helps to relax the pelvis correspondingly, so keep your lips and jaw relaxed, open, and vibrate sounds through your voice to open your pelvis and get the the energy owing for birth.

Toning & Singing

Singing or toning during labor contractions is a wonderful coping technique for labor pain. Vocalization through singing or toning creates a vibration throughout the body that can assist the muscles and ligaments to relax. Singing and toning also facilitates full deep breathing which brings fresh oxygen to the mother and baby. Singing and toning also has emotional, mental, and spiritual benets promoting mind-body integration, centering, and focus. Its helpful to practice toning all the time, during meditation, pregnancy, in the car, before labor, so that during labor you are comfortable toning in front of people. Partners, doulas, and midwives can tone along with you. Toning is really easy, close your eyes if it makes you feel more comfortable, and let sounds come through. Tone vowel sounds Ah opens the heart, Hu connects us with the divine, Om connects us with the universal vibration, Oh is a good tone for making deep sounds to resonate your lower belly and your sacral and root chakras for birth and labor.

Toning creates a powerful healing vibration that relaxes the whole body and helps to release positive chemicals in our brain to make us feel good. Its also a great tool for clearing and centering the mind, and meditating.

Music for Mothers

Music is a wonderful tool to integrate into your labor coping repertoire. Soothing and relaxing music can be used to help women nd their own rhythm in labor, ease into feeling comfortable in a hospital or birth center center, or be able to dance their way through their contractions. Make a special birth playlist on a CD or your mp3 player and listen to the playlist during your labor. The healing music will assist you in nding your rhythm especially when labor becomes increasingly intense or you are easing through changes such as traveling to the birth center, or getting settled into the hospital. Choose music with positive conscious messages, uplifting music, and relaxing beats. Having someone play live music and soothing songs on beautiful instruments can be very powerful. Some families play music and sing together during labor and experience great connection and ow from the healing sounds and support. Explore how you can incorporate music into your birth to relax your mind and dance your baby out.

The Hormonal Symphony of Birth & Bonding

There is a symphony of hormones that women's bodies all produce during labor and birth to facilitate birth, breastfeeding, bonding, and ecstasy. Yes, some women experience birth as ecstatic and even orgasmic. The spectrum of feelings experienced in labor is different for each, as each women has a unique pain threshold. However, the human body is amazing, and women have powerful resources available to them during the time of birth. The ecstatic hormones of labor assist women in reaching a peak oxytocin high at the time of birth. Oxytocin is the hormone of love, produced during labor, birth, breastfeeding, and orgasm. It produces feelings of love, bonding, and counter-acts adrenaline. Oxytocin is produced by the pituitary gland during labor and stimulates the uterus to contract. The uterus then sends signals back to the pituitary gland, stimulating greater production. At the time of birth, mom and baby are both ooded with peak oxytocin levels, which make them gaze into each other's eyes and fall in love. The oxytocin causes the pupils to dilate, thus making it even more gorgeous and enticing for mama and baby to stare deeply. Beta-endorphins are produced in labor to create an opiate effect, thus easing the mother and baby's experience of pain. It is thanks to the beta-endorphins that the pain of natural childbirth becomes a translucent memory. This is why women ten minutes after a natural birth, mom will say exuberantly "That was fun! I want to do it again!". Beta-endorphins are produced by the mothers body in response to the labor pain. The natural ow of labor triggers the mothers body to produce higher levels of beta-endorphins which are passed along to the

baby in the colostrum as well, assisting the baby through the postpartum transition. When the natural hormonal responses are overtaken by medications in labor, then both mother and baby miss out on the benets of these benecial hormones. Beta-endorphins make mom dreamy during active labor, and help her to relax and focus on the rhythm of labor. The pain and the hormones focus mom completely on labor so that she is 100% attentive, prepared, and ready to greet her baby at the time of birth. The rhythm of contraction and rest are perfectly designed to prepare both mother and baby for birth, by rhythmically massaging the baby, molding the cranial bones, stimulating the respiratory system, and ooding mom and baby with optimal pleasure hormones for birth. Nor-adrenaline is produced during the pushing stage to make mother more energized, alert, and upright for the pushing and birth. While adrenaline in large proportions during early and active labor will slow labor down, reducing oxytocin production, during the pushing stage, the body's naturally produced nor-adrenaline assists in facilitating the descent and birth of the baby by energizing mom to be upright and mobile. Prolactin is the other amazing hormone ooding the body in large amounts in natural childbirth. Prolactin is the hormone of mothering and it is produced at birth and during breastfeeding. This hormone facilitates bonding, love, and attachment. Prolactin causes mom to stare at baby for hours, in awe of their gorgeousness, swearing to protect them with your life. It helps us to be calm, grateful, nurturing, and loving. The natural hormones of childbirth are disrupted by medication during childbirth, whether it be drugs to induce labor, such as pitocin, or pain medication like anesthesia or narcotics. Pitocin overrides the

body's own ability to make oxytocin, and while it stimulates the uterus to contract, it does not cause loving feelings. Interfering with the natural hormones of labor and birth causes more discomfort for the baby's experience of birth, and lowers the rate of successful breastfeeding.

Oxytocin: The Hormone of Love & Birth Attendants

Research on women's unique stress responses may illuminate why a doula's presence can facilitate an easier labor. Scientists used to believe that humans had one stress response, dubbed "ght or ight", that incited us to produce adrenaline and stress hormones to ee or survive under duress. However, all medical research on stress hormones had previously been done with men, or had not differed between male and female responses. In 2000, researchers at UCLA examined the stress responses of women and found out that women have a complex series of reactions to stress, including what they called "tend or befriend". When women experience stress they seek out other women friends, and care for children or others. This "tend or befriend" response creates oxytocin, which reduces adrenaline in the body, managing stress levels. This release of oxytocin is greater when connected to other women friends, through talking, activities, and support. Oxytocin is the hormone of love, which is also released during orgasm, labor, birth, and breastfeeding. The release of oxytocin facilitates labor, bonding, and breastfeeding. Stress and adrenaline can slow down labor. A doula, as a trusted female birth companion, can encourage the oxytocin "tend or befriend" response to stress in labor. Thus, it makes sense that the presence of a labor support doula can reduce the cesarean rate, duration of labor, frequency of use of pain

medication, assisted delivery, episiotomies, and interventions. Women need loving support to nurture them through this stressful time. A doula provides continuous emotional and physical support throughout labor and birth, her calming presence will help to promote oxytocin release in labor. Women have supported women through childbearing for thousands of years as sisters, friends, mothers, midwives, and assistants. Female-supported birth was the norm for thousands of years. It makes sense that a woman would best understand the sexual, intimate, sacred rite of birth, and would provide optimal nurturing and expertise during the childbearing year.

Waterbirth
Water is the rst environment in which your baby is growing in, thus being born into warm water is a gentle and therapeutic birth environment into which to transition into the outside world. Water is an excellent source of non-pharmacological pain relief during labor, providing relief to contractions, while enhancing relaxation, providing warm buoyancy to move into natural positions, and shortening active labor. Warm water offers mothers and babies numerous benets for labor and birth. Warm water offers women and babies powerful benets of relaxation, labor enhancement, pain relief, privacy, tranquility, less intervention, decreased chance of perineal tearing, and a gentle transition for your newborn. Water is wonderful for comfort in labor, as well as for the actual birth and delivery. Babies born in water are peaceful, transition gently, and have less birth trauma. The placenta can also be safely delivered in the waterbirth tub.

When the laboring mother is immersed in the warm water of a birth tub, so that her full belly and back are in the water, then the mother has greater mobility to move freely and open her pelvis. The buoyancy of the water, the warmth, and the decreased gravity help mom feel free to move positions freely thus widening the pelvis with the baby's descent. The decreased pressure on the inferior vena cava (the major vein bringing blood supply from the legs and pelvis to the heart) allows for greater blood supply and oxygenation of the uterus, thus fully supporting the baby and ensuring more efcient contractions. Pain is reduced in water, thus lowering levels of adrenaline in the body, facilitating increased beta-endorphin and oxytocin production. Fathers and birth partners (even older siblings) are welcome to be in the birth tub too. Women love the supportive embrace of their partners arms while relaxing in the birth tub for the welcoming of your newborn. Women who have waterbirths report a very high satisfaction rate with their birth experiences, and insist they would have water again. Waterbirth is also an excellent option for natural birth of breech babies. Frank breech babies are best born in water for warmth, support, and gentleness of the delivery. The warm water supports their bodies, keeping the babies abdomen, umbilical cord, and spine warm while being born, as well as providing buoyancy so that the spine does not experience to much stress during the delivery of the head. With the water supporting the baby, the baby can be born with minimal touch of the care provider, allowing the baby to naturally descend while the mother stays relaxed and focused. Cold air stimulates the babies instinct to breath, thus keeping the baby and umbilical cord warm until the head is born supports the baby in continuing to get oxygen rich blood via the placenta until the breech birth is complete.

The water in the birthing tub is most comfortable for laboring women at 92 - 98 degrees. The water should not be hotter than 100 degrees, or it could stress the baby, and overheat the mother. Birthing tubs can be rented from a local midwife, purchased online, and indoor or outdoor jacuzzi tubs can be birthed in too, as long as they are cleaned prior to the birth. Laboring in water and birthing in water are both valuable components of your birth experience. Birthing in water has incredible benets for mother. Being born into warm water is an even more wonderful experience for the baby.

Nurturing Touch in Childbirth

A hand to hold, an arm to lean on, or the loving embrace of your partner in labor are all little gestures of nurturing through touch that can create huge power for comfort and trust in labor. In every culture all over the globe, where there is a tradition of care in childbirth, there is also a tradition of healing touch in labor and birth in some way. The key to nurturing touch, is feeling safe and receptive to the offering of comfort from the member of your birth team. Massage therapy has been proven to reduce women's experience of pain during labor. Energy work through gentle hands-on or off the body application, can be very effective in relaxation and labor pain. I have had clients who were numbed by epidural anesthesia and could not feel a pinch or prick on their leg, exclaim that they could feel the warmth and comfort of the energy work on their pelvis and legs.

Acupressure can be very effective at enhancing fertility, supporting prenatal health, easing labor pain, and facilitating postpartum health. Acupressure is also excellent for fertility, pregnancy, labor, and postpartum.

Walking the Labyrinth of Birth

Moving into labor is a process of surrendering. A woman cannot think her way through labor, she must allow her body to do the process it inherently knows how to do and get her mind out of the way. Labor begins gradually before one is even aware of it. It is not like in movies, when a pregnant woman feels a contraction and drops to the ground, someone calls an ambulance, and everyone rushes frantic to the hospital. Labor really begins at conception. It is a continuum. As labor becomes noticeable and the mother drifts into early labor, each wave pulls her deeper and deeper into the waters of active labor. The rhythms of the contractions induce a labor trance. Time is different in birth. It feels more circular and spiraling than linear. The labyrinth is a spiraling pathway that is an ideal metaphor for labor and birth. The labyrinth is not a maze, it is a circling path, and walking or experiencing the labyrinth is a meditation is being fully present in the moment. Taking each step of the path, or of life, one at a time with total consciousness is the gift of the labyrinth. Sometimes it seems as if you are close to the center, then you take a turn and are far away. Then when it seems as if the center is so far away, things shift quickly, and you are right there.

The classic 7-circuit labyrinth is a perfect representation of the 7 stages of labor:

Step 1 - Initiation - Labor begins You begin to feel contractions regularly, they are becoming closer and more regular, but you can still walk and talk and go about your regular activities. You may be excited, restless, nervous, euphoric, and lled with anticipation. You alert your family and birth team that labor is beginning.

Step 2 - Letting Go - Early Labor As contractions intensify in early labor, mom nds that she can no longer carry on a conversation during a contraction. This is the time in early to active labor when your partner and doula can be there to reassure you, meet you comfort needs, and allow you to concentrate on labor, and when friends or grandparents can step in to care for older siblings. This is time to fully immerse yourself in the waves of labor.

Step 3 - Fluidity - Active Labor Now you must focus your full attention on each contraction, and are immersed in the force of labor. Finding a rhythm during contractions, through the relaxing touch of a labor support companion, vocalizations, visualizations, showers, hot packs, cold packs, walking, slow-dancing, sitting on a birth ball,

spiraling the hips, and hands-and-knees position. Whatever you nd works for you, use it every contraction, creating a rhythm, to focus your mind. Remember to take each contraction on at a time, focusing on the present, knowing that you can always handle each contraction in each moment, don't worry about the future. When you change your coping techniques or positions, it may take 2 or 3 contractions to create a new rhythm, keep focusing! Being uid means going with the ow, moving how you want to, staying mobile, and keeping your calm amidst the intensity of contractions.

Step 4 - Surrender - Transition For many women, transition can be the hardest. Your cervix, the doorway to your womb, is opening to it's maximum. You are opening physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritual to your maximum for the birth of your baby. This is the moment when you must face your fears and shadow, and completely surrender to labor. You cannot control your body's opening, but if you don't ght the waves, you can surrender to their power and surf! Be fearless and trust the ocean of labor carry your baby home.

Step 5 - Focusing - Pushing The descending of the baby through the cervix and birth canal, comes with new sensations for mom. For many women, the pushing stage can feel good, because you feel the baby coming down, moving slowly down, then retreating a little bit in between contractions. This movement and descent completely focuses you on loosening your pelvis, buttocks, and thighs to relax and create more room for the baby, as well as

breathing deeply in between contractions to bring needed oxygen to your baby. You will be sweaty, hot, alert, and focused on one thing only - your labor. This is an important time for your birth team, family, and care providers to offer you water, cool clothes, reassuring words, love, support, patience, warm compresses, and encouragement.

Step 6 - Commitment - Crowning This is the point of no turning back. Your awareness is crystal clear of the present moment, of the movements and feelings of your baby's emergence. You are 100% focused on consciously and slowly breathing your baby out, so as to prevent perineal tears. You know you can do this because you have come this far, strong and owing with labor. You are lled with anticipation and excitement, knowing you will soon hold your baby in your arms for the rst time. You are also motivated by the knowledge that labor will soon be over and you will feel so great knowing that you did it and adoring your newborn!

Step 7 - Transformation - Birth Once the baby's head has completely crowned as it born, the body may come out quickly right away, or there will be a pause and the baby will be born the next contraction. The head is the largest diameter of the baby's body, and the shoulders and body are usually born without any problem. The baby's body spirals through the birth canal, and is born into the world and placed in the mother's arms. This is a powerful moment of transformation as you transition from pregnancy to parenthood, and your baby's experiences transformation on all levels. Your baby is transitioning to life on the outside, and is

experiencing changes in his or her respiration, circulation, digestion, and is breathing for the rst time. You are both ooded with peak levels of hormones which create emotional, mental, and spiritual impressions upon you as you meet and bond with each other. A new life has begun, and as parents, your lives will never be the same.

Walking Out of the Labyrinth - Integration An important element of the labyrinth is that once you reach the center, then you must walk out the spiral again, which is just as important as the journey there. In fact, the purpose of the labyrinth is not the destination, but the journey itself. For postpartum, this teaches us to walk slowly out of the labyrinth, keeping the mother and baby together as much as possible, integrating this profound experience of birth, and slowly reintroducing mom and baby to regular life. You can use the meditation of the labyrinth to help focus you during pregnancy, labor, and postpartum. Some women like to have a labyrinth to look at in labor, to follow the paths with their eyes, which is calming and focusing. Learning to draw the labyrinth is easy, and fun to do.

Mother Earth is in Labor

Mother Earth is in labor. Can you feel the rushes? Each wave of powerful feminine creator-transformer energy is an alchemical expansion of love. Each wave of divine love radiates out illuminating the birth of a new universal earth family - a peaceful gentle humanity. Our baby is the conscious light of living love. Do you welcome the birth of a new world with fear, resistance, and contraction? Do you welcome baby humanity's new breath with deep love, openness, allowing, and welcoming? We are all co-creators of the new birth and new earth. The old is being transformed. Are you willing to receive the pure light and love that you, and the entire universe, were designed to receive? Mother Earth spirals her hips like a laboring mama with wild calm. She never stops spinning her womb-world around the sun, surrounded by the midwives of the stars. The earth is our mother, and then we become the mother. Let us welcome our baby - the new earth and new birth - with 100% pure light and divine love. This birth is for all of us, collectively and universally. Trust in birth. Trust Mother Nature. The Earth has given birth many times, she is her own midwife. She is the matrix for us as mothers of our own creations.

To gain in consciousness, healing, and love to be better mothers, midwives, earth stewards, and birth stewards let us listen and learn from nature and tend and heal the earth. A new world is being born, where all living beings will be greeted with love, peace, and care from pre-conception through birth, childhood, adulthood, the wise years, and death. All people of every race, gender, religion, creed, and region are welcomed as members of one universal humanity. Where birthing rooms are as warm, gentle, and inviting as is every family home and community center. Where all neighborhoods have midwifery and family run birthing centers, and all families have a home. May there be peace in birth. May there be peace on Earth. May there be peace in our hearts and our hands.

The quantity of technological devices in the labor room is inversely proportional to the amount of human contact between staff and patient. - Thomas Verny

Chapter Nine

Mamatoto: Mother and Baby After Birth

Welcoming Baby with Peace

What will happen when you gaze upon your baby for the rst time? As mother and baby feel the touch of each others warm skin, smell each others unique scent, and hear the sounds of each others voice clearly the most amazing thing in the entire world happens: deep unconditional love. Your baby knows and loves you. Your baby will respond and seek out the voices of mother and father. Welcome your baby into this world gently by dimming the lights, keeping the room warm, and requesting everyone keep their voices quiet. Delaying cord cutting until for minutes, or even hours after the birth, keeps the baby close to mom and receiving the physical and energetic benets of "grandmother placenta". The rst hour after your baby is born is a unique and powerful time for mother and baby to connect, bond, and fall in love. The foundation for the health of mother and baby postpartum is set in the rst hour through whether they are together or separated, experience skin-to-skin contact, establish breastfeeding, or are given numerous exams and medications.

Marsden Wagner, MD, an obstetrician, scientist, and former director of the World Health Organization's Mother and Children Health Department says in the documentary Home Birth: The Spirit, the Science, and the Mother, that removing and separating mother and baby postpartum is "the biggest mistake in pediatrics in the 20th century. When mother and baby experience skin-to-skin contact immediately following birth and frequently in infancy, as well as rooming-in together, in the hospital as well as at home, at least in the rst few weeks, it dramatically increases the mother and baby's well being. When baby is close to mother's heart, through holding, sleeping, breastfeeding, and babywearing, then the baby's body and heart detects the mother's heart rate and breathing, and this helps baby to stimulate the baby's own biological rhythms and entrain their rhythms to be strong and steady, thus reducing SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). Also, the exhale of mother's breath stimulates carbon dioxide receptors in baby, stimulating the baby to breath deeper for oxygen. Skin-to-skin contact also increases the mother's prolactin and oxytocin hormone levels, thus increasing feelings of well-being and attachment, as well as supporting more restful sleep for both mom and baby. Immediately upon delivery, the placement of baby upon mother's belly, also applies pressure to the mother's fundus, supporting uterine involution, and decreasing the chances of postpartum hemorrhage. Breastfeeding also supports the uterine involution and postpartum health for mom. Baby should be allowed access to mom's breast immediately after birth. Baby does not need to be washed right away, or even in the rst few days, because amniotic uid is anti-bacterial and anti-microbial, so it supports the baby's immune system. Also, the smell of the amniotic uid smells to the baby like the mother's areola, so it helps baby to search for the breast and initiate breastfeeding. Baby may smell or suck on their ngers in

the process of initiating breastfeeding and this smell helps them know what to do. Nature is so very intelligent, in birth and life.

The Benets of Skin-to-Skin Contact

Baby does not need to be taken away, and should not be taken away, from mother in the rst hour after birth. It is best to delay the newborn exam and routine procedures for at least a full hour after birth. If baby needs resuscitation or observation, request for it to be done with baby on mom or mom's bed. Be sure to talk to your doctor or midwife prenatally about your preferences for baby to stay close to mom and whether they will accommodate your needs. Baby can rest on top of mom, or next to mom on the bed, while the doctor, nurse, or midwife performs the newborn exam. It is best for baby to not rest under a heater, or in a separate bed, as it is now shown that the baby's gut will get inoculated with the bacteria from the bed instead of the mother's own natural immunities. At a homebirth, this is not a concern because the mother is already immune to her own house, thus passing on the same immunities to the baby, who is not exposed to alien germs from the hospital. In this regard, homebirth is safer than hospital birth for babies through prevention of the spread of disease in an environment they are not immune to. Mother's body is also the perfect heater for baby. Kangaroo Care (KC) is the practice for premature infants of constant infant-mother skin-to-skin contact, with baby in an upright position on the mother's chest 24 hours a day. Research has demonstrated that infants in the NICU who received KC spent less time

in the hospital, had less severe infections, and more of those babies were breastfed until three months. With twins receiving KC, the mother's left and right breasts will even uctuate temperatures individually to perfectly provide the correct temperature for each baby. Skin-to-skin contact has also shown to have an analgesic quality for infants, that numbs their discomfort and pain from exams, skin pricks, or vaccinations. There is so much research out there to support the age-old practice of in-arms parenting right from the very beginning.

Bonding with Baby

As new parents, as you communicate with your baby and observe her behaviors and responses, you will discover with patience and awareness how your baby responds to stimulation and how to sooth and calm your baby. With practice and time, you will learn to understand your baby's cues, needs, and expressions. Babies are incredibly aware and conscious, and are communicating with us constantly, if only we slow down to their level of awareness, and communicate with our hearts. Becoming attuned to your baby is easy. In the rst few days and weeks of your baby's life, spend lots of time resting together with plenty of skin to skin contact. Observe your baby well, pay attention to their sounds, movements, and emotions. Stephanie Mines, PhD, the creator of the TARA Approach for the resolution of shock and trauma, which is a powerful therapeutic bodywork discipline for babies, children, and adults, says that Attuning to children means reading them as you would read a wonderful book that you have fallen in love with and

that you are absorbing and understanding, chapter by chapter, orienting always toward what it is really telling you. When being with babies, it is essential to slow down, breath deep, and become very observant. Babies are taking everything in, and we can overwhelm them with fast actions and transitions. Slow down to babies pace, and explain rst to your baby what you are going to do (Hi baby, I'm going to pass you over to grandma now. She's ready to rock you to sleep. Ready...here we go.) Acknowledge what your baby is communicating to you or expressing, your communications are real, and babies are communicating with us all the time through their body language and emotions. Be patient and respectful of all babies, slow down, and talk to them with compassion and understanding. Babies are living masters of conscious c-creation and can teach us so much wisdom. We can all become baby whisperers by attuning to babies!

Breastfeeding
Do you know the secrets to blissful breastfeeding? Your baby will be hungry soon after being born. You will know this by observing your baby's mouth and movements. Baby will start to suck on his or her ngers and open and close the mouth widely. Some babies are born ready to nurse right away, and it is ideal for all babies to start nursing in the rst hour after birth. If a baby has experienced a drug-free natural birth and is placed upon the mothers belly immediately after birth and allowed to move freely, that baby will scoot up to the mother's breast, lift and bob their

head, and latch right on the breast. Newborn self-attachment to the breast is well-documented in healthy naturally born babies. However, babies who have experienced pitocin, narcotics, or anesthesia during labor, and/or are born by cesarean do not have the same natural ability. Interference in the natural process of labor also interferes with the babies ability and readiness to initiate breastfeeding. This is one way in which medication can ease labor but complicate postpartum. Support, patience, nourishment, and love can help even reluctant babies to successfully and happily learn to breastfeed. All babies have the same potential, but if the delicate process of birth, breastfeeding, and bonding is disrupted than extra love, patience, and attention is needed to overcome challenges and heal any missed possibilities. Hold your baby comfortably while supporting the back of her head. Position her mouth in front of your nipple. Have your babies belly facing your belly, so that she is not turning her head to the side to have to reach your breast to eat (try turning your head to the side and swallowing right now, you see, it's uncomfortable). You can stimulate your baby's nursing latching reex through lightly brushing your nger against her mouth or cheek, when her mouth is WIDE open, then quickly bring baby onto the breast. If the latch is painful than try to get baby to open wider or re-try the latch with baby's mouth open as wide as possible. Also check baby's lips when nursing to make sure they are not curled in over the gums, but out. The most important thing to remember when learning to breastfeed your baby is patience. You and your baby will learn together, through slowing down your breath, your movements, and your awareness to be focused on your baby and relax. During breastfeeding, the hormones of oxytocin and prolactin are produced, releasing positive feelings of love, compassion, calm, and euphoria in mother and baby.

Surrounding yourself with comfort, support, nourishment, and peace will ease the early breastfeeding relationship. Remember to drink lots of uids when breastfeeding. Drink water throughout the day and always have a large glass next to you when you sit down for a nursing session. Herbal teas, smoothies, and juice are also good choices to replenish yourself throughout the day. Support your body and baby comfortably when breastfeeding. You want to hold your baby in your arms, but not support the baby's weight. Have a pillow or breastfeeding pillow to place under baby to raise her to the level of your breast. Also have pillows for your back and under your arms and elbows. If breastfeeding is a challenge for you talk to experienced nursing mothers, local La Leche League leaders, lactation consultants, and your doctor or midwife about resources, support, and recommendations in your community. Hospitals and lactation consultants can rent you high-quality breast pumps if pumping is needed to stimulate milk supply or while a baby is unable to nurse.

Birth of the Placenta

When a baby is born, it is not necessary and can be harmful, to immediately clamp and cut the umbilical cord. The baby's umbilical cord is the lifeline for baby's nourishment for the last 9 months. Immediately after birth, baby's body is experiencing many stressful transitions of the respiratory, digestive, and circulatory systems. As your baby is taking her rst breathes wouldn't you like to know that she is still getting oxygen and blood from her umbilical cord? Keeping an intact cord in the rst few minutes or hours after birth, ensures the baby receives all the benets of the placenta before being separated.

Anne Frye, CPM, midwife, birth researcher, and author of the textbooks Holistic Midwifery Volume 1 & 2, reports that the baby receives a fetal transfusion via the placenta after birth equal to 100 ml. of blood. She calls early cord cutting Aggressive Placental Amputation. Early cord cutting creates a pathological transition because the loss of 50 ml. of blood to a 7.5 lb baby is equivalent to the blood loss of 1000 ml. to a 150 lb person. When the cord is cut prematurely, in the rst minute after birth, it can result in up to blood loss of 50% to a preterm infant, and 1/3 of a full term infant's rightful blood supply. The blood from the umbilical cord goes into the lungs after birth, and absorbs the uid from the lungs through the alveoli. Thus, not only providing protection from oxygen deprivation, but also aiding in the respiratory system change to breathing air. The cord will continue pulsing for a few minutes, it may be palpable for 5 to 15 minutes after the birth. However, soon the cord will begin to shrink and become more stiff. At this time, it is medically considered that the umbilical artery is completely closed, however Anne Frye reports that full physiological closure of the umbilical artery takes 1 1/2 to 3 hours. If you wait 2 minutes to cut the cord, that is better than 1 min. Five minutes is better than 10 minutes. 20 minutes is better than 15, and so on. After the cord stops pulsing and your baby's breathing and circulation are stabilized, than it is up to you when you want to cut the cord. Many families enjoy keeping the baby connected to the cord and placenta for a few hours afterbirth. This ensures that the baby stays in bed with mom, and is not handled too much, as it is more work to move baby and placenta together.

There are also soul level, pranic energy, and spiritual benets of leaving the cord attached longer. In cultures around the world, the placenta is revered as the "grandmother" of the baby, and is said to contain all the ancestral wisdom of the baby. The umbilical cord can be allowed to dry and fall off on it's own. This is called lotus birthing when the baby is allowed to have the umbilical cord fall off naturally. While a cord stump will fall off at any time between 3 - 7 days, a lotus birth will usually see the cord fall off the navel clean at day 3 or 4. In a lotus birth, a birth attendant will clean off the placenta, prepare it with dried herbs including powdered rosemary, and place it in a bamboo tray, basket, or special pouch to dry and be tucked next to the baby. Lotus birth reminds me of vine-ripened tomatoes. How tomatoes that are allowed to ripen on the vine have more vitality and color to them. How do you want to treat the fruit of your vine? I have attended many births as an assistant in which the families decided to wait a couple hours to cut the cord, thus ensuring the full physical benets of the placental transfusion plus energetic and spiritual comfort. This is a sort-of partial lotus birth. There are certain times when the doctor or midwife may need to cut the cord immediately at birth. This can be if the cord is wrapped around the head too tight to slip over when the head is born, or if the cord is very short. If you want your baby to experience physiological cord closure and the placental transfusion, then write this into your birth plan and talk to your care provider about their policies ahead of time. The placenta is amazing. Some families bury their placentas under a special tree in their backyard. Others create Traditional Chinese Medicine for postpartum health through placenta encapsulation. In Bali,

a portion of the umbilical cord, placenta, vernix, and amniotic uid are all put into a coconut and buried with ceremony at the family compound to always protect and nurture the child. Honoring the placenta and the important role in the creation and thriving of the new babys life creates a completion of the sacred circle of birth and recycles the energy of the placenta back into the family and the Earth.

Placenta Medicine
When I was rst pregnant, I heard about the benets of consuming one's placenta after the birth to replenish energy, facilitate a speedy recovery, and to prevent postpartum depression. I knew that placenta was an ancient remedy used for a variety of conditions for thousands of years in Traditional Chinese Medicine. However, the few articles I read about it mentioned unappetizing recipes such as stir-fried placenta with onions and garlic, blending raw placenta into smoothies and drinking it, or even just eating it raw and plain. None of these methods appealed to me. I happily planted my son's beloved placenta in the garden behind the home he was born in. I have since learned about placenta encapsulation and have worked with numerous mothers who report incredible benets from placenta medicine through dehydrating, powdering, and encapsulating their placentas to take postpartum.

The reported benets of placenta consumption include increased breastmilk, increase energy, prevention of postpartum depression, and less postpartum bleeding. Your own placenta capsules are also excellent to save in the freezer for menopause. Small amounts of one's own dried placenta can be given to the baby or child for separation anxiety, such as the rst day of school. With the birth of my son Jeva we choose to have a complete lotus birth and waited for the umbilical cord to naturally release from his navel. We then charred the placenta to ash on a re outside and saved the charred powder to use as homeopathic placenta medicine. In this way we were able to experience a lotus birth, and utilize the placenta as vibrational medicine. I believe the placenta is a powerful healing remedy for the mother and baby and I am glad to see more modern methods of bringing this free and safe home remedy back to women and families. Placentas have been honored by cultures around the world since ancient times. In fact, the word placenta comes from old English placent and it means a round, at cake. Thus, every year on our birthdays, we gather round and celebrate around a cake - known in olden days as a placenta - and celebrate by eating it.

Circumcision
The choice whether or not to circumcise infants can be emotionally charged for parents due to cultural or religious beliefs. It is a personal family decision, and should be made with due research, contemplation, and informed choice. Male circumcision is the complete removal of the foreskin from the penis.

Circumcision is the most common surgery performed on children in the US. The US is the only nation in the world to routinely circumcise the majority of its infant males for non-religious reasons. Rates of circumcision are declining in the US, particularly on the West Coast. Circumcision is declining among religious groups too, as more people are reevaluating religious rituals in regard to current understanding of the newborns experience of pain and suffering. Here are a few facts about infant male circumcision from NOCIRC: The foreskin contains three to four feet of blood vessels, 240 feet of nerves, and between 10,000 and 20,000 specialized nerve endings. The amount of missing tissue from an adult's penis after circumcision is equivalent to 1/3 to 1/2 approximately 15 square inches - of the skin covering the normal penis. Circumcision permanently diminishes the sexual feelings for both the male and the female. No national health organization in the world, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Medical Association (AMA), recommends circumcision for healthy male infants. Approximately 80-85% of the world's male population has intact genitals. The current circumcision rate in the US is about 50%. Circumcision is overwhelmingly painful and traumatic for babies. Sometimes babies do not cry because they go into shock. Most hospitals do not allow parents in the room during the circumcision because of the repercussions of lawsuits by parents who experience post-traumatic stress from witnessing their infant's surgery.

During the medical procedure, infant boys are strapped down to a cold, hard plastic mold. No anesthetics has been proven safe and effective in preventing circumcision pain. In 80% of male circumcisions in the U.S. no local anesthetic is even given. In the 19th Century, a doctor and scientist named Paul Emil Flechsig advanced the idea that infants didn't feel pain because their nerves were not fully myelinated. This idea has been used to support the practice of infant circumcision, as well as circumcision without medication. In fact, we now know that babies has more nerve cells and more connections in their brains than adults, and are more sensitive than adults - not less! Circumcision also has risks to the baby of infection and complications, as well as trauma and impacting mother-infant attachment and breastfeeding. If your baby has a circumcision, his penis will need extra gentle care to heal quickly and safely. Intact boys are easy to care for. You do not need to forcibly retract the foreskin to clean under it. The foreskin is self-cleaning for babies, it does not need to be retracted for washing. The foreskin will naturally loosen and retract as the boy gets older. You can then teach your son to retract his foreskin and wash his penis in the bath when he is older, around 4 years of age. Allowing your intact son to touch his penis when naked and during diaper changes, as this assists the foreskin in loosening and prevents a tight foreskin. This is natural, normal, and helpful for proper development. All parents of boys will see them reach for their penis during diaper changes and perform "penis yoga" by tugging and stretching.

Circumcision is an important issue to address and avoid, and it is best for parents to discuss and thoroughly research this issue fully during pregnancy to be prepared to make the best choice for your family by the time your baby is born.

Postpartum Healing
After the birth, the new mother needs lots of rest, water, good nutritious food, and helpful support from family and friends. The days after birth are accompanied by interrupted sleep, euphoric highs, hormonal shifts, and physiological changes. The postpartum mother who is breastfeeding has even higher nutritional requirements than a pregnant woman, and should drink a large glass of water with every breastfeeding session, as well as ample hydration in between. The postpartum period can also be accompanied by a stream of eager visitors who want to see the baby. It is important for the new mother to not have to entertain the guests with food or preparations while they hold the baby. Mother and baby can stay in bed when visitors come, so that they understand not to stay long because mom and baby need rest, or mother can stay in a bathrobe or pajamas to let the guests know this is a resting and recuperation time. While guests and friends frequently offer words of support, it can be hard for the new mom to direct visitors to lend a hand to with laundry or dishes. I recommend prenatally making a list of all the things that helpers can do postpartum and posting it on the fridge. That way when a guest says "what can I do to help?" you can suggest they take a look at the list of to-do items on the fridge and see if they would like to choose one to help with.

This can include items to-do such as: dishes, folding laundry, taking out the garbage and recycling, walking the dog, taking an older sibling to the park or playground, bringing by a meal for the family, going to the grocery store, sweeping the kitchen or house, holding the baby while mom takes a nap or shower, etc. Potential helpers can sometimes not know how best to help, especially when they have not have new babies before. A helpful list can make a different by tactfully engaging the essential support from your community as well as allowing you to articulate your specic needs as a new family. Enjoy your time with your new baby! This is a special miraculous time as you witness your baby emerge and unfold into their fully conscious physical being. Love your baby and enjoy these precious beginnings.

Chapter Ten

Babymoon: Being With Your Baby

The rst three months postpartum are often called the "fourth trimester". Mom is still experiencing her body changing shape and baby and parents are learning each others rhythms. The nine months of pregnancy and three months of postpartum really do create a childbearing year. Postpartum affects many women for months, years, and even forever! After the birth, you are always your baby's mother or father, and life is forever changed. This is a special time to enjoy being with your baby. In traditional Mexican culture, mothers and babies are secluded after birth and not allowed to participate in regular household chores. The rule with a traditional Mexican midwife is "5 days in the bed, 5 days on the bed, 5 days near the bed". In other cultures, mothers and babies are taken care of by the close family for 40 days, and only after that time is the baby introduced to the community and does mom resume regular household and cultural activities. While we may not have cultural rituals that honor the mother and baby rest period after birth, it is important to recognize the signicance of this babymoon and take it very slow in introducing baby to the community, crowds, shopping malls, restaurants, etc. Babies nervous systems are so sensitive and aware, life outside of the womb can easily be over-stimulating. So keep baby at home for a while, and begin by

taking baby on walks around the neighborhood, being in nature, and visiting homes of family and close friends rst.

Attachment Parenting
Humans are unique from other mammals, in that our babies are born before they are able to walk and follow their parents. Anthropologists have a theory that since humans have large skulls, and are upright creatures causing women to have smaller pelvises, that babies are born at a time when the would biologically be able to pass through the pelvis, yet still experience basic gestational development in the nine months after birth. This nine months as baby learns to sit up, roll over, crawl, and stand up are considered exogestation. Thus, as human parents, we need to care, tend, and nurture our children in their infancy for not only their survival, but for their optimal development for the rest of their lives. The time from conception to age 3 is considered the primal period, and the physical, emotional, and mental development of the primal period creates the foundation for the way the child perceives the world throughout their lifetime.

Baby Wearing
Babywearing is the art of carrying infants, babies, and toddlers in a soft cloth or pack on the body. Babywearing is thousands of years old with roots in traditional cultures all over the globe. An ancient practice, anyone can wear a baby, including moms, dads, grandparents, older siblings, aunts, uncles,

babysitters, and any caregiver for your baby. Having your hands free while carrying your baby safely on your body means that parents are more relaxed, get more done, and babies are happier too! Babywearing is an age-old practice of human childrearing and a growing trend in Western culture. All over the world, people carry newborns and toddlers throughout the day while pursuing normal activities. Wearing your baby is soothing and nurturing, and promotes health in numerous ways. I began wearing my rst son in a sling when he was two weeks old. It took a few attempts to feel comfortable and secure using the sling, and then soon we were pros. The benet of the sling is that it there are many ways of carrying your child, to accommodate your days moods and activities. I soon learned to nurse him in the sling, and found discretion and comfort to nurse in public and crowded areas. He could be walked, danced, or bounced to sleep in the sling, and thus taken anywhere with ease. He loved his sling and spent time in it every day until he was three. Ive tried lots of carriers with my son, and with the babies that Ive been a postpartum doula to. I love all the new options available today and the gorgeous fabrics and colors that styles come in. I believe an essential carrier is one that is ergonomic on the body, so that it disperses the weight of the baby evenly over both shoulders and the hips. Wrap-style carriers are wonderful to hold your young baby close. I love the Hug-a-Bub from Australia, the Moby Wrap from the US, and the wrap slings can be made yourself if you are crafty. The softpack style ERGObaby carrier is comfortable for long periods of baby carrying, sturdy, versatile, and has useful pockets. Its especially wonderful for older babies and can be worn with them on the front or back. The ERGObaby also has a wonderful infant insert, so it can be used for babies through toddlerhood.

There are numerous ways of carrying babies, and many different styles of carriers including slings, wraps, pouches, mei tais, onbuhimos, podaegis, and rebozos. There are many online communities to nd out more about baby wearing. Its important to carry babies for health, bonding, and attachment. Research shows that preterm infants who are held in what is called Kangaroo Care gain weight faster and leave the hospital sooner than babies that are not held. It has been speculated that baby carrying devices may be humanities earliest invention. Babies love it, and its simple, economical, and environmentally friendly. Plus it lets Mom and Dad have their hands free to get stuff done around home and life while still being in close contact with their baby.

Baby Massage
Babies love massage! Babies love to be touched by the compassionate loving hands of their parents. Immediately upon being born, newborns thrive when held in the arms of their mothers or father. Studies at the Touch Institute at the University of Miami have demonstrated the powerfully benecial qualities of touch therapy for babies and children. They discovered that babies in the NICU who were given massage every day then left the hospital an average of 2 weeks earlier than other babies, and gained weight 50% faster. Bodywork is a word that includes all kinds of hands-on healing therapies, including massage therapy, shiatsu, acupressure, reexology, craniosacral therapy, energy healing, reiki, and more. I like to use the term bodywork in my writing and healing arts practice to encompass all the many different kinds of

healing touch available beyond the well-known and loved art of massage. Massage is a wonderful universal touch therapy practiced all around the world. Energy medicine is a very gentle non-invasive touch therapy that can even be performed off the body for very sensitive babies and adults, as well as everyone. Continuing throughout infancy, babyhood, the toddler years, and childhood, it is easy, fun, and healthy to provide loving touch, massage, or bodywork to your children. Learning to practice bodywork for your baby is fun and enhances your communication with your child. If you are interested in learning about baby massage or other kinds of bodywork you can nd books and movies at your local bookstore or library, or you can seek out professional bodywork in your community.

Getting Ready for Baby Bodywork

You and your baby can enjoy baby bodywork every day. All you need to get started are warm clean hands and a at surface to lay your baby down. Adapt the room temperature, lights, and sounds to be soothing for baby. I recommend working on a bed or the oor, with a soft towel underneath the baby if you are going to use oil for massage. When choosing a safe massage oil, please avoid synthetic oils, such as mineral oil or chemical perfumes, such as found in common baby oils. Instead choose an all-natural cold-pressed vegetable oil such as coconut oil, sesame oil, almond oil, jojoba oil, or for older babies, a natural baby massage oil blend by Mama Rose's Naturals, Weleda, or other natural body care product companies.

When introducing your babies delicate skin to a new product, try testing the oil on a small patch of your babies skin, then waiting 24 hours, to make sure there is no irritation or skin reaction. You can also do gentle touch, massage, or energy work while your baby is dressed in comfy clothing. Bodywork can be integrated into your regular day. I used to massage my baby's feet when carrying him in a sling around during the day. At night time, I like to gentle massage my son's back in small circles down along each side of his spine at night to help him fall asleep. During the busy toddler years, I would massage his legs, arms, back, and head as he was playing, following him along as he played with trains, read a book, or played with a toy. Feel free to be creative and anytime can be bodywork time! Just remember to have fun! Babies only need a very light touch when massaging. A newborn needs no more pressure than the amount you can press on your own eyelids without feeling uncomfortable pressure. You can use a little bit of oil to make your strokes smooth and uid as you massage your babies belly, back, head, arms, legs, feet, and hands. Massage time is a wonderful regular practice for parents and babies to bond, and to also assist growth and development as baby is learning how to use their body, make new movements, and working hard everyday growing and learning.

Baby Bodywork Tips

Wrap your hand around your babies arms or leg and glide down to the hand or foot and back up to the shoulder or hip. Massage your babies belly in clockwise circles to enhance digestion and relieve gas. Bicycle pump your babies legs to relieve gas. With baby on belly or across your lap, massage down their back and up. Glide your hands down and up the spine. Make little circles with your ngers down along each side of the spine. Make little circles with your ngertips on your baby's scalp. Massage each nger and toe. Massage the soles of your baby's feet.

Baby Energy Medicine Tips

Hold your hands on either side of your baby's body, where ever you feel energy is needed and send love and clear light to your baby. For a tummy ache, hold one hand one the belly and one hand on the small of the back. For a headache or for excited children, do the head-hold, with one hand on the forehead and one hand on the back of the head. Palm both calves with your hands to calm baby, ease digestion, and sooth colic. Listen to your intuition and use energy medicine freely with positive intent.

Create a regular time for baby bodywork in your family. Remember that with gentle touch and attunement to your baby, no harm can be done. Offered simply and with love, massage is a powerful bodywork practice for whole family health. Energy medicine offers many tools for parents through raising babies and children, as well as self-care. Remember to have fun and trust your intuition!

Co-Sleeping
Sleeping with your baby is a wonderful way to spend time close to your baby and save on sleep in the middle-of-the-night wake-ups. Sleeping with your baby is safe, as long as you baby-proof your sleeping area and no one in the bed is a cigarette-smoker, been drinking alcohol, or on prescription drugs that cause drowsiness. In fact, babies that co-sleep wake up less and have much lower rates of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) that babies who sleep alone in cribs. There are also side-beds that attach to the parent's bed that baby can safely sleep in and still be close to mom and dad without actually being in the parents bed. Cribs can be helpful for naps during the day, or when baby is sleeping alone, however most parents nd that co-sleeping allows for them to not have to lose as much sleep as going to another room to sooth baby multiple times in the night. Research from New Zealand on crib safety has shown that crib death is related to fungus that grows in mattresses, especially old mattresses, and off gases when you are sleeping. Wrapping mattresses in plastic covering has shown to prevent exposure to off-gassing and prevent crib death in babies. Baby can sleep on their back or sides, and it is good for baby to change positions during sleep and not always sleep on their back, because this is causing increased rates of at-head syndrome from babies. Also, do not let baby sleep or sit in the carseat, except in the car. Continuous sitting and resting in the plastic car seat bucket may also lead to at-head syndrome. Sleeping with your baby will allow both you and your baby to get more sleep, as you do not need to wake up all the way to walk into a different room, pick up your now crying baby, feed the baby, soothe the baby, put the baby back to sleep, and return to your bed. Cosleeping will not spoil a baby, the baby

biologically needs frequent waking and feeding during the night for optimal brain nourishment, and being close to the mother and father allows baby to regulate their own biorhythms. As baby grows older, then you can decide to transition baby to their own bed when you see t as a family, for some thats 4 months, for some 2 years, for some 4 years or more. Ultimately, where you baby sleeps, and if and when you decide to have your baby sleep with you or in a crib is up to your family. This can be a personal decision based on personal sleep patterns, needs, and preferences. I encourage you to also observe your baby as you make your choices. Does your baby sleep better with you or when alone? How about yourself?

Natural Diapering
As new parent, you are faced with choices about your baby's diaper care. There are now numerous options available for parents, including cloth diapering, cloth diaper services, disposable diapers, and biodegradable disposables. Additionally, some parents are practicing elimination communication, raising their babies diaper-free from the beginning, or considerably cutting down on the amount of diapers dirtied. Truly, many natural parents use a combination of cloth diapers at home, disposable diapers while traveling, catching some pees and poops in receptacles, and pants-free in the backyard in the summer. Cloth diapers are a wonderful option for modern parents because the are ecological, economical, healthy, reusable, and easy to use. Gone are the days of diaper pins. Now there are all-in-ones, pre-folds, and velcro diaper covers. Cloth diapers will save a family hundreds and thousands of dollars not spent on disposables, and also keep tons of biologically hazardous garbage out of the landlls.

Babies in cloth diapers also get less diaper rashes, because when they wet themselves they can feel it, and will cry and let someone know to change their diaper. Disposable diapers wick the moisture away from the skin with chemicals and plastics, and thus babies will actually sit in their wet diapers for a much longer time, allowing bacteria and yeast to grow, and chemicals to leach into their bodies. There are some natural versions of disposable diapers that are healthier for babies, as they are produced with less chemicals and irritants, as well as biodegradable disposable diapers. All babies will get diaper rashes at sometime, however breastfed babies will get less rashes than formula fed babies. A little breastmilk squirted on the irritated skin is an excellent treatment for diaper rash. Additionally, babies should spend a little time every day without a time on for fresh air and sunshine to dry and heal the delicate skin on their bottom. Put a waterproof sheet down, then a blanket, and rest your infant on the blanket to play every day without a diaper. There are also diaper services available in many metropolitan areas and communities. This can be an excellent choice for the rst few months, as newborns pee and poop more, thus creating more laundry right at the beginning of new life. A cloth diaper service will pick up your dirty diapers and drop off fresh clean diapers at your door weekly. Cloth diaper service is an excellent gift for new parents, ask for gift certicates for your baby shower or mother blessing. Cloth diapers are also excellent burp rags and helpful for breastfeeding mothers to have on hand. They can also be used to change baby on in public, when you don't have anything else. Check out your local baby consignment stores for good deals on cloth diaper covers and all-in-ones. When washing cloth diapers at home, I wash twice, rst in cold water to prevent staining with baking soda added in, then a second cycle, hot/cold, with vinegar added to deodorize. Some people recommend

storing your dirty diapers in a pail of water with baking soda, but I always used the dry pail method, with baking soda sprinkled in it, and they washed great in the two cycle wash. If the diapers do stain, then hang them in the sun to dry as the sunlight is anti-bacterial, deodorizing, and naturally bleaching. The essential oils of lavender and tea tree oil are great to add to the laundry also, to freshen them up with antibacterial and antimicrobial therapeutic aromas.

Natural Infant Hygiene

Babies are highly conscious beings who are intrinsically aware of their bodily needs. Just as a baby makes particular sounds or movements to indicate their desire to breastfeed, a baby will also show their want to eliminate through verbal cues and signifying motions. Practicing natural infant hygiene with a newborn and infant assists parents and caregivers to understand the baby's needs and provides a greater awareness of baby's digestive wellness. This is a vital aid in supporting successful breastfeeding and improving baby's physical and emotional wellness, as well as developing valuable communication skills with your baby from the beginning. Offering babies the opportunity to pee or poo in a sink, receptacle, or infant potty, from a very young age, makes regular elimination care easier, supports parent-infant bonding, and minimizes laundry and dirty diapers. It's also much easier and more enjoyable to care for a baby who's natural need to eliminate is recognized and honored, as it is wonderful to watch them smile, sigh, and relax when pooping in their potty or a sink at just a few days or weeks old. Natural infant hygiene greatly reducing fussiness and crying by encouraging parents to recognize and respond to their babies natural need to regularly go eliminate

their bowels and bladder. It also reduces or ends dependence upon disposable diapers and cloth diapers, saving time, resources, and planetary balance.

Baby Bottles
There may be a time when you want to feed your baby from a bottle, whether to offer your baby your pumped breastmilk when you are working or away, or if you need to feed your baby formula. There are many different kinds of bottles on the market, read on to discover what kinds of bottles are healthy, safe, and non-toxic. A study on plastic baby bottles showed that all of the ve leading brands of bottles tested leached excessive levels of bisphenol A into liquids contained within. Bisphenol A is one of a variety of toxic chemicals that are leached into our liquid, food, and environment through common plastics. Environment California released a study Toxic Baby Bottles: Scientic Study Finds Leaching Chemicals in Clear Plastic Baby Bottles in 2007. Bisphenol A is linked to chromosome sorting errors, early onset of puberty, obesity, diabetes, impaired brain development, impaired immune function, increased cancer cell growth, sperm defects, miscarriage, and impaired female reproductive development. Pregnant women and children should especially avoid exposure to bisphenol A. Avoid all plastic baby bottles on the market by using glass bottles or a safer non-polycarbonate plastic for infant feeding. There are eco baby bottles now available to purchase that are BPA-free.

Other ways to avoid plastics with bisphenol A are to choose wooden toys instead of plastic toys, particularly PVC toys or soft plastics. Also, opt for wood, bamboo, ceramic, glass, and metal utensils, instead of plastic dishes or plastic coated utensils. Carry a lightweight stainless steel or glass water container instead of a plastic water bottle. Most importantly, governments and manufacturers must take responsibility for testing new chemicals and ensuring their safety before introducing to consumers, for the sake of our children.

Raw Goat's Milk Formula

If you need to give your baby articial breastmilk, consider Goat's Milk formula instead of commercial infant formulas. Goat's milk is the closest to human milk, and is an option to commercial formulas which use numerous chemicals, soy, and dairy derivatives in their blends. Goat's milk formula is also suitable for formula-fed babies with colic and reux, as it is less allergenic than cow's milk. While not common in the U.S., raising babies on goat's milk in widely practiced around the world. The famous wise women herbalist Juliette de Bairacli Levy, writes in her book Nature's Children, about how raising her children naturally in Greece, she trained her mother goat to stand by her babies cradle and nurse them with fresh goat's milk from her teat. Raw cows milk from animals that are grass-fed, living on green pasture, is another healthy infant food for those who cannot breastfeed fulltime. The Weston A. Price Foundation has more information about making a healthy infant formula based on raw goat or cow milk.

Awesome Dads
Welcome to fatherhood! You are an awesome dad with an important role in raising this unique and marvelous human being throughout their life here on Earth. Fathers have a special and important role to play in the early postpartum days. Your baby recognizes your voice from before they were born. Babies love to be held and loved by their dads. Skin-to-skin contact is important for baby and dad too. When your baby is born, take off your shirt so you can hold your baby to your skin to keep them warm and connect. As your baby grows you can sleep together, napping with baby on your chest, and wear your baby in a sling. Infant massage is a wonderful father-baby bonding activity, in the evenings after a baby, and before baby goes to bed. It may be frustrating at times, if your baby cries and only seems to be consoled by mother. You have an important role during this time to care for mother and baby. There are lots of little things that can be done to make a big impact. When your partner has her hands full with baby, she needs you to make sure there is a glass of water by her side while nursing, and that she has food to eat, since she will not be able to prepare it in the early postpartum time herself. The vital need is for you to share your love with your partner and baby. Babies are amazing, and they grow up to be children who love to play with their daddies and want to grow up to be just like them. So start today being the most loving person in the world, so your baby can grow up to be a loving individual too, and care for their family just as well as you care for yours now.

The Parenting Path

Good luck as your journey along the labyrinth birth becomes the journey back out of the labyrinth into parenting. You have faced the minotaur in the center of the labyrinth, the mythical beast that represents your fears. You labored and birthed, and have come through the other side. The strength that you found during labor, through challenges, and unexpected feelings, sensations, and experiences has now prepared you for this. A life with your child. Know that as nature has perfected equipped you for birth, you will also be guided by nature to grow into your role as a parent. As each challenge appears, you will remember the minotaur, and you will remember your power. You will overcome each challenge, and experience ever greater joys, love, pleasure, and life experience as a result. Enjoy the unique time in your child's life when they are a baby. Be there, take pictures, keep a baby journal, blog about parenting online, do whatever you need to do to commemorate this time. It is amazing how slow life with a baby can seem in the moment, yet how quickly it goes by, with new rsts all the time. Honor the important and challenging work of parenting that you and your partner are embarking upon. Take time to care for yourself and connect with spirit and nature. You have been chosen for a very special role in this lifetime - to care for and steward the emergence of a new soul upon the Earth.

Part II

Awesome Birth Stories

The Love Which Holds My Baby Boy by Jade Beall

www.jadebeall.com
These are my rst thoughts put to paper with a beautifully-perfect 7-pound-and-some-ounces baby attached to me, sucking at my breast. !As I sleepily search for words to write, I can not help but pause frequently and stare at the perfection feeding from my bodys milk. Sequoia, my sweet 11 day old son. Every little sound makes my heart melt. Every movement a source of pride to my soul. ! Every inhale and exhale a source of peace for me.!I feel so beyond blessed. We had all been anxiously waiting: fve days had to pass beyond his supposed due-date before he began his grand entrance! ! My mother and sister had own in to help Alok and me, and they began to worry he wouldnt come before they had to return home, a disappointing proposition, but we cant time such arrivals, can we? Hundreds of people were praying and giving me amazing herbal remedies to get my cervix to efface and to help contractions begin. I even danced at 10 months and four days bulging at my own Friday night dance class that was being subbed by my dear friend.! It was juicy! I gently danced with my! enormous! belly and at the end of class I asked all the dancers and drummers to encircle me and Baby to send inviting energy to my Boy. I asked the group to hold in their minds eye one thing that they absolutely loved about this Planet. Finally, I asked them to tell him its safe out here and that he was surrounded by love. Would you believe it, he listened: that very night, I went into gentle labor. With grace,

my son Sequoia was born 2 days later on 2.12.12 at 3:49pm on a peaceful and perfect Sonoran desert Sunday Sunday morning my contractions were 8 minutes apart and quite startling to say the least. I made no rush to get to the birth center. I showered for the last time with my! endearing! and! enormously ripe belly, climbed into a white dress, put on my handmade jade! earrings! and asked my mom to make breakfast.! In between contractions, I ate local eggs with local spinach scrambled into deliciousness. I sipped perfect coffee.! I lit some candles.! I danced.! And in my own time, at 10 am, I told Alok that I was indeed ready to go to the birth center. There were no cars on the road. The sun was shinning and the air was cool.! On the ride, Alok and I discussed our babys name and laughed about how strangely perfect the day was.!I gripped the leather seats during contractions as they increased in intensity.!Auspiciously, we calmly arrived at the birth center just as another baby was being born!! We were shown to our sweet, private room which had a four-post wooden queen-sized bed and a cavernous birth tub, put on soft music, lit candles again and took out my drum from the Taos Pueblo.! The midwife came in, checked me and supportively told me I was already 6 cm! dilated!! I danced again. I moved about the room in an improvised choreography of positions. No machines were attached to me and only my family was around, plus my dear friend Kacey, the midwife and the nurse. Alok and I even went for a stroll outside in the middle of my labor!! I squatted on the bed, danced on the oor, got in and out of the tubs warm water. As the contractions got more! intense, my! sensitive! and! gorgeous! partner Alok guided me through afrmations:! Say it, Jade: Tell me you can DO THIS! he would compassionately command and I would repeat. When my wails would ascend to the sky, he helped guide them back to a

low, belly rumble.! He held out his arms for me to grasp and cried when I cried.! He reminded me how strong I am, how beautiful this journey was. I began to become so utterly! exhausted as I entered active labor.! Thoughts of emergency birth stories that I had heard over the last 10 months whirled in my head and fear! knocked! at the door to my heart:! I wondered if I could do! it without! some sort of intervention.! The sensation of the contractions were like nothing else I had ever! experienced! and I still can not nd words to! describe them.! I had been in labor for 4 hours at the birth center when the midwife checked me again: I had progressed to 8 cm! dilated! The contractions intensied yet again signaling transition and bearing down.!I!squatted!on the edge of the bed, I lay on my side with my left leg up and my foot pressing into Aloks arm.! I was overtaken by a snake-like undulation and a deep!uncontrollable!urge to!expel my bowels.!Sequoias head had begun to crown! I looked at Alok and without words we knew we should get back into the water for this dances nale. We! climbed! into the tub and Alok got behind me in the water.! My family circled us and were ohmmmm-ing to help my wailing stay low. My water, intact until now, nally broke and with the very next contraction, Sequoia Narayan Appadurai danced his way into this world with one nal undulation of my uterus. Magic. He came out of the water in a ash and was crying!immediately. As soon as Sequoia was put onto my chest, he lifted his sweet newborn head and looked me right in the eye, silently choosing to! connect! visually with his mother. ! His head was perfectly round, his eyes were a deep sea blue and he had soft night-black hair all over his head.!He was perfect. My life has not been the same since that moment. I have become quiet and am at a loss for words. My reclusiveness has multiplied and I spend my days staring at this little creature that did

not! exist! physically 11 months ago. My passion is now feeding him, smelling him, asking him about the mystical magic of being!innately!inter-connected to that which I cannot see. Beautiful friends Tara and Jaimie took my placenta,! dried! it and made pills with it for me to take as a postpartum!herbal!remedy. I take them every day. I am amazed, still, by the!outpouring!of love and support I have been gifted thru this entire pregnancy and birth!experience.!I am not sure how I got so blessed.!I am not sure when I became so free. I do know, however, that without all the hundreds of emails, without the $5000 that was raised by my community for Sequoia and Is rst month together, I could not do this.!It take a!village: to raise a child AND to support new parents !Thank you, My Sweet Village And so now as I nish up these words, he has fallen!asleep!on my lap.!I am in tremendous awe of my body:!innately!creating and birthing life all by herself and now producing food for this new two legged. My female body gave birth to a perfect male human and I nally understand: Goddesses REALLY ARE everywhere ! I ask you, dear reader, will you go hug a mother today and honor her

My Cosmic Pregnancy By Debbie Pierce

www.rosegoddessbliss.com
I was rst aware I had a son waiting to come to me in 2007. My Father had just passed away and I was in my bedroom feeling so sad, missing him so much. In a ash of inspiration I felt I should name my rst son David, in honor of my Daddy. I was about to yell out to Bryan who was in another room about my feeling and before I could he said to me, Lets name our son David! We both knew we had a son, who we felt my Daddy had now become acquainted with on the other side. One great man had left my life physically and another great man was soon to enter it. I still felt, however, I had a lot of growing to do before I took on the sacred responsibility of being a mother. Massive physical, mental, spiritual and emotional healing took place for me in the following years. I transformed my fears of motherhood into faith and I learned about a more gentle, simple, and loving way to parent than the examples I had so often seen in our society. I knew in order to bring a child into this world I had to know how to do it. I had to know I could give him a childhood that would set him up for self-condence, spiritual connection, vibrant health, and deep joy for the rest of his life. When Bryan and I nally felt ready to make the leap into parenthood, we decided to start by consciously conceiving our child. We desired to know the exact moment of conception. We didnt want

our child to be conceived by some random night of passion or as a surprise (although those are fun), but from a prayer and focused love. We had a handful of tries before physically conceiving David, each time becoming clearer on our desire and intention. On January 29, 2010, the moon was full and I was fertile. Bryan and I decided to try to create our child that evening after attending a raw food meetup/party at our friends home. One of my friends, Shanti, was there. I hadnt seen her in a few months and was super excited to talk with her. In the middle of our conversation she stopped and said, Are you two trying to have a child? We looked at each other in surprise. We hadnt told anyone. We sheepishly admitted we were. She said I sense a spirit hanging out with you, ready to embody. Bryan and I looked at each other again with joy. It was a sign for us that tonight was the night!! We arrived home late and we both felt a little sleepy. I thought about trying in the morning after a good nights sleep, but Bryan and I both received the inspiration that THE TIME IS NOW! We said a prayer, stated our intentions, and visualized our baby as we made love. Two weeks later, a pregnancy test conrmed what I already knew. Its baby time!!! During my pregnancy I desired to give my child both physical and spiritual nutrition. In The Secret Life of the Unborn Child, Thomas Verny explains that a fetus can see, hear, experience, and, on a primitive level, even learn. In the womb a fetus feels everything the mother experiences on a subconscious level and learns about life accordingly. Knowing this, I would imagine my child, talk to my child, say afrmations for my child, and ask God to give my baby all the divine elements of a balanced, tuned in and turned on human being, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. If I was going through some emotional issue or unconscious behavior (which I seemed to do frequently during pregnancy as it is denitely a time of going within), I would tell my baby to learn from me and to choose a higher way. I told him he didnt

have to carry on Bryans or my negative patterns. When I could I gave him alternative ways of being. This helped me to grow too. My pregnancy was super easy physically. I had no morning sickness, no stretch marks, no leg cramps, and no swelling, although I did gain 50 pounds, including the 20 pounds I put on a couple months before I conceived as my body was preparing for pregnancy. My body easily adapted to my rapidly growing gure. I believe this ease is mostly due to the healthy eating and yoga practices I had incorporated into my life and the amount of pre-pregnancy cleansing I had done. During my pregnancy, instead of doing prenatal vitamins I did daily nettle and raspberry leaf infusions, which contain all the major vitamins and minerals needed for a growing fetus in a more bio-available form. I consumed lots of fermented foods, superfoods, juices, seaweeds, raw butter and free-range eggs. I kept up my yoga routines as much as possible. I did breath work. I took pregnancy dance classes, bradley classes, had an ecstatic birth phone consultation, did regular chiropractic and acupuncture treatments, and listened to pregnancy meditation CDs. All this was very fun for me. I really did love being pregnant and connecting with the amazing life growing inside my tummy. After 22 weeks I decided to nd a midwife. I really desired a home birth. At the time we were living with my sister Amy. It didnt seem right to have my baby there so I opted for the nearest birth center. My son, however, had a different plan for us. During the last trimester my nesting urge came in strong and I was obsessed with nding my own place. Through the grace of God we found an awesome rental home on 17 acres of land, closer to Bryans work yet further from the city! It was perfect! We quickly moved in and set up shop. This was the perfect place for a home birth so we switched to a home midwife and looked forward to the day when our baby would come.

My Labor of Love began on All Hallows Eve, a week after my due date. My contractions, which I choose to call expansions, started out regular, between 2-5 minutes apart and 30-60 seconds long. These were easy for me. All through the night I moved from my birth ball to the toilet, swirling my hips and clearing my colon as I easily rode the waves of my expansion. In between each one I basically slept sitting up or dropped into a very meditative state. I eventually told Bryan he better get some sleep while I could navigate my experience with ease. We informed our midwife, Amanda, and doula, Maria, about my status and told them to come in the morning, hoping they would be well rested too. By the time they arrived after 8 am I was ready for support. It was a gorgeous day! As the dawn was breaking we went outside for a walk on our land, as suggested by our Doula. This was very helpful for my labor. The horses who we allow to graze on our property seemed very aware something was happening with me. They took great interest in being near me and at one point formed a circle around me. Maria said it looked as if they were standing as guardians for this sacred event. All during the day I switched from walking outside to sitting or squatting in our birth tub lled with warm puried water. I was silent for most of my labor. My main words of communication were some sort of grunting, water please, and oh my goodness. I said oh my goodness so many times that Maria jokingly said Davids middle name should be goodness. Bryan and Maria were such an amazing support team! They massaged me, pampered me, encouraged me, fed me, gave me essential oils to smell, and loved me. As I was on one of my many walks outside, my body started to involuntarily push. It was the strangest feeling sort of like dry heaving, only on the other end. I rushed back inside and got into my birth tub. After several more expansions I started to cry. I didnt want to go on. Why couldnt I just push the pause button on this tedious labor? I could take a nap, read a book, and return to it when I felt ready. Maria stroked my hair and reminded me of my strength.

She reminded me I had a beautiful baby on the other side of this and asked me to breathe deeply into my pelvis so my baby could receive oxygen. I could do that! I could breathe and relax and continue on for my baby because love is stronger than any pain. This is why, I believe, I had a 17 hour labor. I required to reach the point where I wanted to give up but chose to go on because of love. It was my initiation into motherhood. I willingly surrendered to each expansion, giving my full attention and presence. Between each expansion I went into a deep and restful sleep, so rejuvenating in fact, that I felt as if I had a 20-30 minute nap in just 2-5 minutes. My midwife and I agreed that she would be there just for emergency purposes. I asked her to please not do any exams or check ups during labor, and besides asking me if she could monitor babys heart rate and my blood pressure a few times, which I agreed to, she respected my wish. Amanda also gave me a couple homeopathic remedies, exercises, and position suggestions which helped ensure David was in the correct position for birth, which I am very grateful for. Toward the end of my labor, when my body had been involuntarily pushing for a little bit, I desired to know how dilated I was and asked her to do an exam. I got out of the birth tub and onto my bed. Right then my water broke. She checked me and baby was almost out!! I lied down on my bed and nished hugging my baby out of my womb. He was delivered in the same place he was conceived:) My midwife went on automatic baby delivering pilot, my doula encouraged me and cheered me on, and Bryan watched and waited in awe. This last pushing part felt really good to me. The burn and stretching and bearing down felt invigorating like an intense yoga workout. The moment David came out I entered an altered state of consciousness. A ood of bliss hormones engulfed me and my body felt so relaxed. Bryan caught him and placed him on my chest. WOW!!

Completion! Here was the completion of my co-creation with God and Bryan! What a beautiful baby! I rst saw his ears and then his little ngers. He is so perfect!! I looked up at Bryan who had tears streaming down his face. We have a son! he kept saying. I was so surprised! Because of an experience I had in 2008 (which I may write about later), I really thought I was having a girl. Now, looking back, I do remember having 2 dreams during my pregnancy in which I gave birth to a boy. How wonderful to be so surprised and then so delighted. I looked at Bryan with gratitude and love. I loved both of my boys so much!! When our midwife asked what his name was we already knew its David! When I gave birth I felt brand new, like a baby, so sensitive and open. I cried over everything. I cried because my baby cried and I wasnt able to soothe him. I cried because I couldnt go pee for several minutes after giving birth. I cried because of how beautiful and precious my baby was. I cried because I loved Bryan. Over the next few days life was both tragic and beautiful as my heart expanded into motherhood. I could feel deeply all the energies and emotions of those around me. This is why it is so important to assemble a loving and conscious birth team. We are so imprintable in that moment. In Kids Learn from the Inside Out by Shirley L. Randolph and Margot C. Heiniger it says At some point during pregnancy, the interconnection between mother and fetus reaches a unique stage known as fusion, when the emotional separation between them becomes nearly nonexistent. While the fetus is becoming more mature, the mother is actually regressing emotionally. At birth, then, the mother can meet the baby emotionally, and her emotional vulnerability gives her an incredible innate knowing of her newborn child. This was certainly true for me. I felt as if everything was happening at once. The bliss hormones that shot through me the moment David arrived took me into a calm eye of the storm as a whirlwind of activity surrounded me. I wished so much that everything around me would have slowed down, especially my midwife who was eager for me to deliver my placenta and had forgotten, until I reminded her by

shouting No! (hey, its the best I could do in that moment), that I didnt want David to be cleaned right away. I feel this is what newborns and new mothers need most a quiet, calm, relaxed, loving, and unrushed environment. This is why I am so grateful I gave birth at home. A hospital birth would have been less than ideal for me to say the least. David cried for a long time maybe 2 hours. He had some mucus stuck in his lungs and it was super uncomfortable for him. After about an hour of him crying and refusing to latch on to my breasts, my midwife suggested I get into a warm herbal bath and try to go pee. After about an hour and a half, Bryan decided it was time to cut the cord. We were willing to keep his cord on as long as David desired it, even if that meant doing a lotus birth (in which the cord and placenta are left in tact until it falls off on its own accord). My placenta had stopped pulsing, nal nutrient transfer was complete, and Bryan intuitively felt David was ready to move on. Along with delayed cord cutting, we also opted out of most other after birth procedures such as vitamin K shots, eye drops, circumcision, etc. Bryan cut Davids cord with love and brought him into the bath with me. David seemed to like the warm water, maybe reminding him of the womb he just left. He stopped crying for a moment and opened his eyes. We looked into each others eyes and really connected for the rst time. For some reason, I felt a little nervous. I really hoped he liked me. I knew compared to him I was nothing. He was so present, so raw, so connected to God, Life, and the Universe. He knew everything. He could see through the illusion and into my soul. Maria commented on how much wisdom and power his eyes possessed, which is the exact same thing my mom thought when she looked into my eyes after my birth.

David started crying again. My midwife came in and patted him hard on the back. We watched as a huge glob of mucus came out of his nose and mouth. That was it! David relaxed and Bryan held him while I was being stitched up. Yes, I did tear a little. I believe this is because I was pushing really hard at the end. If I would have let my body go at its own pace I believe that would not have happened. Everyone I know who has relaxed and allowed their body to do the pushing has remained intact. Luckily, it was very small and clean. I only required two stitches. Anyway, while being stitched, little David was nally ready to eat and latched on to Bryans nipple! We still laugh about it today!! After everything had calmed down, I held my son and he started to breastfeed. Oh how adorable he was!! I was giggling with delight. My midwife kept trying to tell me how to care for him in the following weeks but I couldnt concentrate. I was bonding with my baby boy! We were in our own world. These are the precious moments which make life glorious! I was so grateful to be in my own home, lying on my own bed. I had nowhere to be and nothing to do. I was in the perfect place for me and David. My doula, my wonderful doula, remembered to follow my birth plan and made me some fresh orange juice and burdock tea after birth. Bryan later mashed me up an avocado with superfood esta mole mix and then made me a delicious free-range egg omelet. Food never tasted so good!! All I had during my 17 hour labor were some raspberries, coconut water, coconut meat, a bite of honey with spirulina, a nettle infusion, a few raspberry tea ice cubes I had made beforehand, and water. I channeled all the energy I would have used on digestion into my labor. I only ate a small amount to keep me going.

After our doula and midwife left it was just me, Bryan and baby. What a euphoric and beautiful night we had. Here we were A FAMILY! Here he was OUR SON! Our son who we had known about for over 3 years! We slept so well next to our little baby and woke up refreshed and rejuvenated. Birth can be an empowering, spiritual, and beautiful experience. It doesnt have to be the scary scene so often portrayed on TV and in movies. During my birth I learned so much about myself and my body. Because of this, I am super excited for my next child (although I will be waiting a couple years)!! Many things I will do over again, and some things I will alter. I can tell you one thing its going to be The Best Ever!

Elijah's Birth, HBAC by Kristen Avonti

www.windyroots.com
When my rst son was born I was young and uneducated about natural birth, standard medical interventions and the options available to women. When I went into labor, we arrived at the hospital, barely in active labor and as the cascade of medical interventions began I quickly found that I had lost my voice, my wisdom and my ability to advocate for myself. As one intervention led into the next I was swept away on the run away train that eventually led to a cesarean section. The birth of my rst son was traumatic and painful. It left me with a gapping hole in my heart overowing with grief for the birth that I felt I had lost out on. The scar that was burned into the most sacred part of my being was a constant reminder of the pain, heartache, shame and disappointment I felt. I was angry and outraged. It felt as though I had been raped by the men who cut into my womb, that they had cut the sacredness out of that which made me a woman. And yet, despite the pain and the anger, it taught me a lot about who I was and depths of my willingness to be strong for my child...even when it tore me apart. And I guess a part of me accepted it. A part of me assumed that this was birth.! Then one serendipitous day, that all changed. I sat in a lecture hall lled with 200 students as a beautiful, glowing woman with owing blonde hair stepped to the front of the classroom. A local midwife, invited to teach a guest lecture on natural birth, began speaking eloquently and candidly about orgasmic

birth. I laughed as the lecture beganhow could birth possibly be orgasmic?? ran loudly through my head. What I knew of birth was scary and painful. She concluded her lecture by showing a video of the freebirth of her youngest daughter. Tears streamed from my face and I could feel my soul awaken and my being begin to shift. I had to leave the room as my body began to shake and I woke up to the moment when I realized that this was birth, in all of its glorious and radiant beauty and potential. That moment would forever re-dene my life. When I conceived my second son it was with the knowing wisdom that this baby would be born at home, and my journey in self-advocacy began with convincing my husband that all of the what-ifs paled in comparison to the deep knowing that somewhere within me I still possessed the wisdom and knowledge to birth my baby on my terms. I was relieved and empowered to meet with my midwives and feel their comforting reassurance that VBAC or not, I was simply a woman giving birth. The established medical community didnt quite seem to agree. Time and time again, I had to look doctors in the eye and calmly afrm that despite the risks and fear driven advocacy, I was able and willingly to birth my baby at home. The journey of pregnancy took me into the depths of the pain I had felt with my rst birth. One by one, I looked my fears in the eye and stepped through countless gateways of transformation and healing. I continued to struggle with the visual reminder of his birth every time I looked in the mirror and I prayed that that which my scar embodied would be transformed through the healing power of birth. When I went into labor I eagerly prepared and sent my son to my mothers house. But after a long night of labor, contractions petered out in the waning hours of the morning. I called my mother and told her we were going to go grocery shopping and pick up my son, as it seemed this wasnt going to be the big day after all. I was frustrated that I had worked so hard for nearly 24 hours just to have it not be time. In

releasing that frustration I learned my rst lesson in surrendering to the unknown nature of birth. I was forced to let go of some of the determination and strong willed fervor I had spent nine months cultivating. In that moment of release, in the middle of the grocery store isle, the contractions suddenly re-appeared with a force and strength that nearly knocked me off my feet. And with the suddenness of a change in the winds, plans were once again re-routed as I called back my mother and the midwives to let them know that the show was back on. I tried to relax, knowing that there very well could be a long road ahead of me, but my attention was diverted as I felt the thickness of a midsummer storm roll over our small, river front cottage. As the rain began to fall in horizontal sheets, the wind picked up with a fury I had never before seen. I sat on my birth ball, crouched beneath the main beam that supported our house, watching tree after tree be ripped from the ground and thrown past the panoramic windows that surrounded me. In the eye of the storm I found myself once again transported through the gift of surrender. The presence and power of the storm echoed in my being with each mounting contraction. And as I entered into the timeless space that holds the container for birth I found my inner goddess as she rode in on the waves of the wind.! When the storm began to subside, my husband and I walked out into the cornelds that surrounded our home. As we stood in the eerie silence after the storm, we wondered for a moment, if anyone else had survived the power of the storm. As we walked through the rain drenched rows of corn I could feel so strongly that the goddess who arrived in the wind, was very much still there, holding my hand through the rest of this journey. As we continued to walk we discovered that both ends of our street had been blocked by huge trees that had come down in the storm. A frantic call to the midwives revealed that just one town

over, they hadnt gotten even a single drop of rain, let alone the tropical storm that had seemed to carry us into the next dimension of birth.! When my midwives arrived later that evening, I was nearing the limits of what I thought I was capable of enduring. We lled the birth tub and as I sank into the warmth of the water I remember the wave of relief and relaxation that washed over my body. But I was tired and nearly out of reserves to continue pushing this journey. For the last 40 hours I had been stuck at nearly 5 cm, the point at which my last labor had been abruptly cut short. Knowing that if I was going to make it to the end of this marathon I needed to shift my energy and somehow, by the grace of the Goddess, receive my second wind, my midwives sent us on a walk in the early morning air. As I stepped outside, I paused to watch the sun come up for the third time in the course of this labor land journey. I stood on the precipice as the sun hung on the horizon, crowning its way back into existence and I remembered a quote that I had received on a card at my Mother Blessing Ceremony. I knew the moment I rst read it, that it would be my mantra for birth, yet I never knew how powerful its wisdom would turn out to be. The quote read:! In her time of transition, she sat and opened to the great mystery of the unknown. And in this space of in-between, she found the clarity and peace of mind to continue on her journey. I repeated the quote, rst in my head and then aloud. I threw my hands in the air, turned to my husband and calmly said I cant do this anymore. He frantically panicked thinking I meant we were going to hospital for a repeat c-section. No, I reassured him. I cant keep being afraid. As I said those words out loud, I felt a wave of release wash over every ber of my being. I re-emerged in my house and told my

midwife of the wonderful epiphany I had as the new day dawned upon us. Its easy. I just cant keep being afraid. Within moments of proclaiming my willingness to step through the threshold of surrender, my water broke, in a physical analogy of the spiritual release I had just experienced.! As I got into the shower and let the warm water wash down my back, I could feel my son move into my pelvis. I felt more full and more embodied than I ever imagined possible. As I stepped out of the shower I made my way to the couch, overwhelmed by the feeling of fullness and the whispers of the fear I had of the, unknown by me, transition phase of labor. As the next wave of labor took over my being, I felt myself submerged in the piece of labor that had terried me nearly to death. What I expected to be an intense and overwhelming period of contraction on top of contraction, turned out to feel more like the strangest, tickling feeling of presence and pressure in my sides. I lay, with my head in my husbands lap, and my midwife at my feet, LAUGHING through the entirety of my transition. I paused for a moment at the end of the contractions and looked at my midwife and said was that it?! Was that what I was so afraid of??. And then looked to my husband, smiling, and said Im going to do this. Im going to birth our baby.! Suddenly, as though pulled by some unseen force, I was jolted from my back and found myself, hands and knees on the ground. As I rocked back and forth, I let my voice ring out in mounting tones that echoed the power contracting in my womb. With my eyes closed I saw the face once again of the Goddess who rode in on the waves of the wind. I watched as she was bathed in glorious tones, showering her love and light upon me. As my body took over, it was the Goddess within me who birth my baby. As his head slipped gently through the lips of my yoni, I opened my eyes for a brief moment to see his tender eyes as his head restituted and he turned to look me in the eye for the very rst time. As he hung on my perineum awaiting the next contraction, he little tongue was already actively rooting around, eager to taste his rst

meal. As the rest of his body emerged from within me, he was lifted gently through the arms of my midwives, straight into my open and waiting arms. As I laughed with release, I smiled and said Oh my god! Its a baby!! I had done it. I had overcome that which the doctors told me couldnt be done. I had proven, to myself and the doctors, that somewhere within me, the Goddess of birth still lived. And I was reborn, in the image of the Goddess and the form of the pheonix who rose from the ashes, I reclaimed the beauty of birth. I transformed the symbolic scar upon womb. The line that had haunted me for years, was no longer a reminder of the way I once believed I had failed as a mother. I now wear my scar with pride, a badge of triumphant honor and a constant reminder of all that I am capable of.!

Koru's Homebirth: Powerful & Primal! by Jaya Sat Kriya

www.blessedwellness.com

The rst thing people always ask is "Was it painful?" While pregnant, I researched tons about birth without drugs or surgery. The women who had birthed naturally all said that while it could be considered "painful," the word pain is inappropriate. Pain construes that something is broken or wrong. The sensations during birth are powerful and perfect for this natural act that women's bodies are designed to perform.! The moon was full on the 12th of October, and I was secretly hoping to deliver soon because I had heard that babies born on or near the full moon have healthy constitutions and also have stronger planetary inuences, according to Vedic Astrology. Sharu, the father is a Vedic Astrologer and had already been calculating all the stars for various birth dates and times. The night before, I didnt sleep well at all. My body must have been excited to birth! On Wednesday, the 12th, I pooped about 5 or 6 times, clearing the way for a baby to come through! I started having contractions at 7:30PM. I called Cindy, my midwife. She agreed that it sounded like it was the real thing, but I should try to sleep as it could still be days away. The surges were getting stronger, and sleep eluded me. I started low toning vocalizations and long deep breathing to stay focused and grounded with each contraction. Sharu and I rested, toning together with each contraction. It was extremely helpful to have him there.

Morning came and the contractions were still irregularly timed, from 6 minutes to 15 minutes apart. They kept coming, and they werent easy. Id say they were like really intense period cramps. Our new doula came by and helped Sharu set up the birth tub. I stayed in bed, still trying to rest while toning and breathing. Our space was very small and I was feeling very internal and didnt want many people there or anybody up in my energy eld, so we didnt call the doula back after she left for dinner. At some point during the day/evening, I had bloody show, where you lose the mucous plug that had been creating a seal in the cervix for a sterile and safe womb. It looked like a bit of blood in the toilet. I also had some bites of my last meal before the birth. The midwife and her apprentice came by around 9PM to check on me. She did an internal exam and couldnt reach my cervix. She also pulled out the rest of the mucous plug. It was huge, around 4-6 inches long and about a centimeter thick! Wow, our bodies are amazing! Korus head was not directly over my cervix, which would have pushed it down and open, so this created some delays in the progress. The exam had been very painful, with her reaching up deep into me to try to nd my cervix and trying to move his head over my cervix. Fortunately, the painful exam must have activated something, because I went into active labor shortly after they left. Each stage of labor brought deeper levels of contractions, sensations and sounds in my body. In this stage things started to feel more out of control. My body was denitely on a mission now. Koru was probably ready to get on his way too! My sounds went from low soft toning to low tones that rose like a siren into louder and more medium toned yells. Each contraction came and the sounds came with it of

their own accord. The contractions were more painful, yet manageable. I was on a journey, pulled along by the powerful waves of sensations that were moving through me. My water broke in a few little squirts over a few minutes in my underwear. After that, I decided it was time to stop trying to rest and get into the birth tub, which was warm and ready. I slipped in and it was heavenly! The contractions, or surges, were coming strong and regular now and I rode them out, rocking and spiraling in the waters. The setting was beautiful, as Sharu had created a temple space with candles, and my musical playlist I had created for the birth was playing softly. I had also previously decorated the living room with positive birth imagery from my friend Jahsah Ananda and other lovely art, as well as our altar. Sharu called Cindy and told her we were in active labor and she got ready to come over. They arrived around 1AM. She did another check and I was just barely dilated about a pinkies circumference. I was in the tub for around 2 hours when she suggested I get out to speed up progress, to allow gravity to help. I got out and tried lots of different positions, squatting, side-lying, hands and knees, hands and knees squat, sitting on the birth stool, and on the yoga ball. Active labor was wild. I pretty much felt like I had to poop the whole time. This is common, as the babys head puts pressure on the rectum. There were frequent trips to the bathroom to see if anything would come out and little tiny trickles of pee would come from time to time. Sometimes the midwives just brought a pan for me to pee in. You loose all modesty in that primal state! Also, spontaneous pushes were surging through my body at the same time as the contractions. My body would just push down and out on its own. I wasnt doing anything! Cindy told me to just ride the pushes, but not add to them, as I wasnt fully dilated yet.

At one point I was so tired I asked for ideas for a position that I could really rest in-between surges. They took me to the toilet and put pillows on the back. I faced the wall and rested my head on the back of the toilet. It was awesome! I could just relax all my muscles and if I peed or pooped, it would be right into the toilet. I nally got some actual sleep in-between contractions. I highly recommend this position. I kept hydrated with water and coconut water and snacked throughout the night. Each surge would come, I would tone and yell, then relax between them. I was exhausted. Sharu took a nap for a few hours. I think my yelling was getting overwhelming and he needed some space after being up all night and helping all day and into the next night. Cindy told me we needed to choose a way to stimulate the contractions to progress better. (My contractions were still irregular. Some were strong but some were weak) There were herbs or nipple stimulation. I chose nipple stimulation. So she showed me how to stroke, twist and milk my nipples to stimulate the contractions. It worked! In the middle of the night I was dilated to about 6 cm, and at 7AM we did another check and I was complete, ready to push! (Sharu came back around this time.) Some women talk of the transition from active labor to pushing to be the hardest. Some say it is a time where you pray to make it through, doubting your ability. I didnt really feel that. I think it was my Kundalini Yoga training, where we did hours of White Tantric Yoga that helped me through. We would sit and chant, staring into each others eyes with difcult and painful arm positions. Push yourself beyond what you think is possible and keep going was the lesson. It gave me lots of stamina and condence. Also, being so deeply versed in alternative healing methods made me sure of my decision to birth at home without drugs. I was surrendering to this journey, knowing it would pass and I had the power.

Pushing was a nice change of pace. It was a bit awkward at rst to switch from trying to relax my pelvic muscles as much as possible to pushing as hard as I could. Cindy suggested I close my mouth and send the sounds down to help along the push, rather than yelling out loud and letting the energy escape. This really helped. Once I started doing that, I felt my whole countenance change into a crying infant. My face contorted into tightly squeezed-shut eyes and sad frown, while I pushed the sounds down. I sounded like a wild bear! This became my new toning for the 4 hours of pushing! Cindy asked me to nd a deeper place and push harder. I had to go two layers deeper into my musculature and sounds and work muscles I had never really used in that way before. What a cool sensation! The tones got even more primal and animalistic! The birth stool was a particularly effective position, with me resting against Sharu as he sat in the rocking chair behind me with pillows between us. Towards the end, on my back on the futon mat on the oor, the midwives started massaging my belly to help the contractions. There was one spot where I could feel it really helped, and I guided their hands there. Koru was crowning, and they asked if I wanted to see in the mirror. I saw a little black furry circle out of my super stretched yoni. Wild! I kept pushing while Sharu & I tweaked my nipples and the midwives cheered me on. At this point Sharu was in a strange position, standing and leaning over me with my foot up on his shoulder! One hand was tweaking a nipple, the other ready to catch Koru. During these last contractions, the midwives asked me to take deep breaths after each one. I heard his heartbeat going way down on the Doppler during each one. Every deep breath afterwards brought it back up. The midwives were applying a compress to my perineum during each push and were pouring a wonderful healing oil made by my friend Wendy on me. Just as I thought it would never end, his head

came out! He took his rst breath at 11:11 while the rest of his body was still inside me. His shoulder was stuck behind my pelvic bone, so Cindy reached in and dislodged it. The rest of his body slowly slipped out into Sharus hands at 11:12 with the cord wrapped around his neck and body. I saw a ash of purple baby as they worked to release the cord and stimulate him. Then the most magical thing happened, they placed my baby on my chest. He was all warm and slimy and it felt WONDERFUL! After an intense 9 months and 40 hours of labor, my little Koru was here! After that, everything was a daze. About 15 minutes later, they asked me to push out the placenta. It was a breeze and came out in one push. I asked them to massage it to encourage the nutrients to go into the cord and into Koru. After about an hour I tried to nurse him. He went for it and latched on, nursing intently. How sweet his presence was from the beginning. Cindy even commented on it. I was delirious, exhausted, and in a deep bliss trance. About an hour and a half after he was born, Sharu cut the cord. I had a healthy baby boy! He was so beautiful. His skin was peeling and he had a uid bump (cephlahematoma) on his head from a run in with my pelvis, but was beautiful anyways. I will be forever grateful to the calm sure presence of my midwives, and for Sharus courage. Birthing naturally without drugs is such an important initiation for women. Most of the women in our society miss out. I think this has incredible effects on womens empowerment. Who would women be in this society if we all knew our own strength from giving birth naturally? Women, try birthing at home. Youll feel like the most powerful Goddess! I sure do! ! !

Sol's Freebirth By Kristie Joy!

www.velvetplume.com Week 25
I have a rock in our path that I need to lift....I don't feel as though our midwives are what we need on this trip. I want freedom. I want to birth you in darkness. I want to birth you in peace. I want to birth you in condence. I want to birth you with glorious energy. I want to birth you in love. I simply want to just birth you. Bring you down and out. Breathe life into you and hold you close.!

Week 26

Why is there so much emphasis on the fears and complications and why has so little has been done to build trust and encouragement for the woman who is the most connected to her baby? I could write a list of things that could go "wrong", but I truly and deeply feel that you know how to travel this journey..I just need to be open to it and listen. I have so much faith in God/Universe/Source...the beginning to the end is known. Why then should I try to control or meddle in this magical soul journey, if the outcome has already been decided.!

Week 37!
At midnight, your birth journey begins!

The Journey of Birth

I've slept for maybe 1 1/2 hours and then need to get out of bed as I am not comfortable. Subtle rushes that feel like menstrual cramps have begun. I spend the night in our living room with our beeswax candles lit, resting in childs pose supported by a nest of pillows on my yoga mat, and I read inspiring birth poems...catching glimpses of sleep in between these slowly growing baby hugs. As the sun rises,!I make myself a fruit smoothie and make sure I'm drinking plenty of water. I wake up Graham at 8:30 am and let him know everything feels great and normal but to get out of bed to feed me

and take care of things. I'm being pulled deeper into myself and needed him to cover the windows from the days light. He plugged the windows perfectly and lay on the couch while I was going through rushes every two minutes or so. It felt so nice while he rubbed my back and he kept giving me water to drink, breathing with me, taking me pee and encouraging me to rest. Throughout the day, I! walked around our sun room and spiraled my body, danced with my baby, squat during rushes and had a warm bath. I! felt completely grounded in myself, physically, mentally and emotionally. I didn't once think, "I'm in labour!", or voice this to Graham at any point. We were simply able to just be present in the moment. This felt so real and so right to me. We had decided not to call our licensed midwives and called our friend instead, sometime around 6 pm.! She has a deep trust in birth and held the birth space beautifully. I think Graham was getting pretty anxious by this point, not about the birth, but simply needing some fresh air as he had been holed up in our dark apartment all day! I decided to climb the stairs to our loft and squatted and breathed through a few rushes up there. Soon after, our friend came up and thought it best if I stayed away from climbing stairs to keep my energy full. She spent a few rushes with me, standing and holding me and letting me sway with her. The rushes were in and out and I was nding it all very peaceful and mellow.

I had been getting a little distracted just before she arrived, with a fear that I wasn't visualizing or breathing "right" to make my babies entrance faster. She asked me to voice any fears that I may have and I had told her what had come to me. She said that where I was at, was where I was meant to be. That's all I needed to hear to let that go! The only other fear I had was Graham calling our midwives!. So paranoid was I, protecting our Birth Space!! Of course, he had no intention of doing so. Right away, our friend created a comfortable nest on the couch with pillows, so I could lie on my side and rest. Graham went for a walk and she started cleaning up a bit. The sun wasn't shining anymore, so off came the window blankets and the energy started owing free. This had a huge effect on me. I felt at ease and all of a sudden, incredibly clear and open. The rushes started intensifying and I chose to melt into them. Every time I felt one come on, I breathed and chanted Aum, melting like wax on a candle. I felt on top of these rushes. I was so much bigger than them! Our friend had to leave and nurse her babe and asked if I'd be okay with her gone. I knew I could do this without her but I felt her womanly and motherly presence so nurturing. I asked if she could come back with her babe. It felt like no time had passed with her leaving and coming back. I was now on this crazy rush journey, still lying on the couch and melting into each one. They were coming on more intensely and seemed much closer together, to the point of lifting myself up from the couch each time needing to physically rise above the rushes. I saw glimpses of! our friend and her baby in the sling, heard her softly sung songs in the corner and felt her toning with me from another space. Huge deep breathes swirled in me

and around me, deep rooted rushes pulled down. I was entering the realm of working to meet my baby and went down to the oor on my hands and knees breathing into childs pose on my birthing ball. I was heavy into the Birth Energy by now. I felt drenched with sweat and my breathe came from the depths of Mother Earth. My voice was my instrument with meditative Aum's and moans, that radiated from the moon, my heart chakra, and deep into places I had never felt in my body before. Graham sat on the birthing ball and I leaned into him, I hung from his shoulders and he submersed his own self and breathe with me. We breathed in and we breathed out together as one. At one point, Graham told me to breathe out like Miles Davis! This is the moment where I was fully absorbed by the Spiral of Birth, transforming from maiden to mother and all that was around me was love. The rushes were still rushes but I had another layer of intense pulling down sensations, I gave into them and followed their lead and climbed on top of each pull to meet Graham with breathe. Again and again, my body was being pulled and spiraled from the stars to the deepest roots of my inner self. This baby was coming down. through me, with me and for me. I left my body and came into myself again as powerful, earthly mother. At 10 pm, with this initiation and amazing journey of love and life, our son, Sol came through with his soft, round head and I felt my body release. I put my new motherly hand on his head and guided Graham to do the same, a new father to feel this head of love before I released his body into the world. As soon as our hands met his head, we met his little soft, wet body as he ew out , guided with my hands onto my yoga mat!

I cried out! words drenched in love and I held him close, looking into each others eyes for the rst time, kissing him all over his newly born face. He was so beautiful and cried a small, sweet cry of greeting. We lay on the couch and he was already prepared for that rst suck on the nipple, with his tongue curled and sts by his cheeks...and what a powerful suck that was! The placenta was encouraged to birth after a while and once we wrapped the placenta up in blankets, still attached for a Lotus Birth, we snuggled into our new family bed, and he was the most beautiful being to fall asleep to. I feel blessed, honored, empowered, ecstatic, peaceful, energized, blissful, in awe, thankful, and absolutely loved by Sol's birth.

Aldens Birth Story by Valerie Atwood

The birth of my second child, Aldon, was empowering and profound. I had decided that I wanted the guidance of a midwife and to birth in the birth center, close to the hospital. My rst child was hospital born, but that experience did not allow me to take control of the birthing phase. This way, I thought, would allow me the comfort of being in a homey environment yet quick access to medical staff in the event of any complications. I was told by my midwives that I could expect this bundle of high energy around July 2nd. On June 28th I had a feeling that we were going to start the nal chapter of our 10 month adventure. I awoke at 2 a.m. on the 29th with the aching waves sweeping across my lower abdomen. I was so excited, this was it! Its nally happening! I quickly called Kara, my doula, to let her know that I was entering the rst phase of labor. Since it had been 6 years since my body had gone through the process of labor and delivery I was somewhat concerned about where the events would lead us. Then I pulled out the knowledge I had absorbed the previous months and reassured myself that my body is wise, my body is in control. I continued to labor at our home, although I simply could not rest due the overwhelming excitement and anticipation that was building inside me. Activity was essential in keeping the waves of contractions owing in ease. I lightly bounced on the birth ball and massaged my belly during the more intense sensations. Eventually I decided to try a nice warm shower, to ease the tension I started to feel in my back and legs. While I absorbed the healing beads of moisture and tension relief I began to feel my contractions

intensifying. My body had nally relaxed those nal points and my mind had let go of any apprehensions. I stepped out of the shower and made my way into our bedroom. As I was dressing myself I felt something drop inside of me. My baby boy had moved into position, his head resting on the surface of my cervix. ! A gush of warm uid ran down my legs and then I felt the most intense contractions begin to take over my belly. Its time to head to the birth center! With the help of my husband, Justin, we made our way into the birth center where we were met by Kara and our midwife. I was becoming completely in tune with my bodys rhythms. I do not recall many details during this phase since I was so completely absorbed in the waves of contractions. My #1 goal was to focus on any pain that would begin to rise in my belly and thighs and concentrate on diluting them. I was able to transform the sensation of pain into a feeling of power or energy. I channeled this energy into my belly, my baby. I would moan, breathe and move my body. My eyes remained closed throughout most of this phase as I let my body transform in primal rhythms. By around noon or so I felt my body start to tire. My baby was still not facing correctly for the birth to progress. It was at that point that Kara suggested trying the rebozo with me. The swaying from left to right and cradling of my belly encouraged my baby to rotate into position. It was simply wonderful, almost miraculous! Within 30 minutes or so I was on the bed and ready to push. This baby was noticeably larger than my rst; I had to really focus my energy on pushing correctly. The head was nally out but it was then noticed by my midwife that my babys shoulders were not passing through the birth canal. My midwife, Michelle, quickly directed me to ip over on my backwe need to get the baby out. I held onto the headboard of the bed while Michelle twisted and pulled my baby until his shoulders came free from under my pelvic bone. From that point he quickly slid out into the world, all 9 lbs. 2 oz. of energetic glory!

The seriousness of the situation did not hit me until after everything had calmed down and baby was in my arms. Yet I did not feel a sense of fear or trauma. I was enveloped in a sense of joy and relief that our baby was healthy and my body was in great condition with no tearing (although exhausted). I am grateful to have had the calming presence of Justin, Kara and my midwife. We eventually made our way home where Aldon and I snuggled together in bed on the couch for several days. Justin did a magnicent job at keeping house and feeding me copious quantities of fruits, vegetables and other tasty tidbits. My oldest son was 6 at the time; his eyes were big and bright with excitement to see his new brother. I am grateful for my bodys wisdom and my ability to let nature take control of my labor and birth process. The key to what I feel was a successful labor and birth was the ability to let go of fear and focus on the waves of light within my body. Thank you Mother Nature.

With My Body I Speak the Truth of Birth by Sammi Cambray

www.birthstoriescounseling.com.au

Was it all for this? To travel through four years of healing from Bodhis birth, delving into my soul to nurture those broken parts of me; ten months of wonderfully delicious pregnancy, setting intentions, connecting with my baby and nourishing both of us on; and many blissful hours of early labour - just to come back to this dark place? Surely it cannot be. It is late in the afternoon, and I am laboring hard. My pulse beats robustly with the strength and intensity of this pain, this task. I nd myself no longer saying I can, embracing and being present with each expansion, using my voice to ride with the sensations of birthing. I lose myself. I am pleading now, please take me to hospital, please give me pain relief. I cannot bear the physicality of this experience anymore, and this is now reected in my mental and emotional being. I feel desperate, empty. I feel like no one in the room is truly hearing how bad this is for me. I believe deeply that I cannot do this, and that no one else shares this belief is the ultimate loneliness for me. That aloneness, these travails, brings me straight back to Bodhis birth. Transcendent trauma. History repeating.

Most of all, I feel a sense of betraying myself for harbouring these feelings within me. Before this, in the deepest hours of nights darkness. Two nights ago, I labour overnight, after many days of surrendering to the ebb and ow of a body and heart approaching labour. I realise the truth that this ebb and ow- the contractions that would come and go, the mental readiness I felt, or not- was a mechanism that would ensure that once I truly did enter labour, I would be undoubtedly ready and would embrace it with all of my being. That rst night of labour is bliss. On a physical level, I could actually feel the opening of my womb with each expansion. It was not a painful feeling at all, but a pleasurable one, and even in those early hours, as it became clear that yes, this was labour, I felt the peak and rhythm of each one, like a wave. A few seconds before each one, I would feel a tingling, like excitement, and energy spiralling into me. I felt alive in every cell and totally inward. With each expansion, my mantra was this: I am opening in sweet surrender To the beautiful baby inside my womb I am opening in sweet surrender To the beautiful baby inside my womb I am opening

I am opening I am opening I am opening Bodhi wakes and lies with me, I hold him as I labour. Zai lights the re, it feels to me like he is standing guard. Then we all sleep again. The contractions stop at dawn and return two nights later. Again, bliss. I do reiki on baby and me, speak softly to reassure her in the midst of the fear I sense she holds. I see her clearly in these dark hours, a vital and lovely newborn girl, red and healthy. Feeling completely whole in my energy system, and that of my little baby, we journey on. With every expansion I felt the energy of the universe spiralling into me, and then dispersing back out. It was ecstatic, expansive, open. Incredible. I have created the perfect birthing nest- dark, private, warm and quiet. By candle and relight, in my bed bedecked in muslin curtains, as my family sleeps and the wind howls outside, I labour. This birthing continuum- the sacred cycle from calling this baby into my womb, through conscious conception, a pregnancy lled with yoga and art and stillness and love, and into the bliss and tribulation of labour and further through into the babys emergence into the world- has brought me into alignment with the pure woman who lies inside. The archetypal woman in all of us, Great Mother, Ever-loving partner, Creative consciousness and being.

Part of this initiation lies within Bodhis birth, and perhaps more importantly, choosing to do everything to heal those wounds rather than allowing them to remain stagnant and hurt me more. Part of the initiation comes from moving to Bellingen, and the energies of transformation and growth that both this land, and the community I nd myself within, moves within me. Some of it comes from my work with women, and the psyche. But all of this is just the path- the initiation truly springs from the seed inside all of us, the feminine energies who yearn to grow. As the sun rises, again my contractions leave. We journey down to the farmers markets. I feel Birth still dwelling beside me, and before long I am rolling with the waves of blissful expansions again. This is transcendent. I start to feel an altered sense of reality. Like I am much, much taller, and feeling dizzy. I see people in the crowd. All these people from the community that I am so connected to, this beautiful community, this sacred land, the band playing a song about the pureness of a beautiful day. For a little while I dance. I am at the centre of it all. And at the centre of me, my baby. The expansions are coming swiftly now, so we retreat. Later, the sensations now painful. I sit in our hammock, rocking gently with each expansion. I chant a few long oms with each surge and stare out over the valley and the ridge; the beautiful verdant green landscape that grounds me and reminds me of the web of life I am part of. At the end of each expansion, I whisper Om Jaiya. In between, I listen to the sound of Zai chopping wood such an earthy, homey sound that reassures me of the natural process I am in, and lls me with love and gratitude for my ever-loving man.

Later again, retreating from the expansiveness of the veranda to the shower. In my dozy, trance state, I notice two daddy long legs spiders climbing up the shower wall, trying to avoid the stream of water. I feel a connection to these spiders, and an incredible compassion for them. I also remember a conversation that I had with my doula some weeks ago- that birth is a verb- the giving part of giving birth is the most important way to help birth ow easily. If we as women can be focused on what we are giving to our baby- the immense act of love, and allowing ourselves to go through such a challenging, painful event- as well as keeping the love owing from us to our partners, children and others in the birth space- we will be less engaged with the physical pain, and come from a frame of mind more apt to deal with it well. So those spiders mean a lot. At this moment, thats where my love ows. One by one, I let them crawl onto my hand, and place them safely on the window sill, where they can continue their creation of intricate webs and whatever else it is that spiders spend their time on in peace. Later again, surrendering to the intensity and immersing myself in the relief of the warm birth pool. As the intensity begins to bear down on me again, I look up at the ceiling of the yurt. On one panel, in the knots and natural patterning in the timber, I see a goddess in woman form, with two circles of light at each hand- her children. I am that goddess woman, mama of two children, one being born as I watched. That goddess looks over me all afternoon- it was now well past midday- and I x my gaze on her many times as the afternoon ages.

I am aware of Zai, Bodhi, my doula and midwife moving around me, but I begin to feel further and further away from them. And I feel myself begin to disintegrate, an urge to scream and complain about the pain, a rebelling against the process. Was it all to come to this? All my preparation, my healing, my intentions are lead to this, and still this outcome, this trauma. I cannot accept this. Is this the surrender and letting go I never truly could conceptualise before this moment? The course is set now, there is nothing I can do but endure. But there is something. I can bring myself back into strength, mentally. I know when I look back on this birth, this is the moment I will most regret or celebrate- that point in time where I could lose myself forever in the trauma, or whilst acknowledging its message about the strength of my labour- the very strength that comes from me- is equalled and countered by the strength of who I am at my deepest core. So I start in a small way. On nding myself shaking my head with the onset of the pain, I instead nod. I say yes. I smile. I stop myself from complaining verbally, and instead harness that energy back into my toning. I connect with my baby, rub my belly.

And things begin to shift. The greater part of me, the wise woman, the ancient, rises above the part of me that is already done in and cannot go further. And in the stage of bringing my baby down, I witness an amazing transformation in my body. The urge- the full engagement of my body into pushing moves so powerfully through me that I have no fear when it takes a little longer than expected for her to crown. Still great pain, and tiredness, and a rushing pulse, and perhaps most acutely discomfort from kneeling on the soft bottom of the birth pool for so long. I can feel my baby now, when I reach a nger up, she is right there. Right there, just an inch or two from my vulva. My baby, so close. And then, the feeling of the stretch of the vulva and perineum. Not as intense as I would have thought. I can feel the expansion, but the pain is lost in feelings of love and anticipation. The head emerges halfway but retreats back in again. Zai holds my hands. The head emerges again and remains out. My midwife says the baby will now turn and the shoulders will come out one at a time. I feel the surge approaching. This was it- the moment of truth. Shoulder dystocia, all my fears around having a big baby- all of this was about to either happen or not. The moment of truth, in experiencing and exploring this fear and the meanings of it, the most signicant moment of my pregnancy and perhaps my life. I summon all my strength and open to births path. This was it- the moment I was pure woman, pure mama.

The expansion begins to fade. I reassure myself, the shoulders sometimes take a contraction or two to come out. It is not an emergency yet. I am totally in the moment, not fear. Keep going! The midwife exclaims from the mists of the fading expansion. Its just the body to go! The moment of truth- the shoulders were born with such ease I didnt even realise it! A second of deep surprise and back into my womanly giving. I push, so hard but at the same time so effortlessly, and feel the most amazing, vivid, shifting feeling ever- my baby emerges completely, slides out of my body, and into a world surrounded in light. The sun has set. And then, I take her through the water and into my arms. Oh my God. My little one, my little baby, here, alive, with me. She looks straight into my eyes with a look of awe and surprise. She is here. She is here. All there is, is her. The weight of her, the slippery feel of vernix. Her presence. Youre here, I whisper. Welcome, little one, your birth journey is over. It is Bodhis presence I am rst aware of outside of the sacred cocoon of baby and me. He comes to my side, amazed, looking at the baby. A minute or less has passed since the birth, and baby has not yet cried or taken breath. The baby needs you to call him in, Bodhi I say. You stroke his head; tell him how much you love him.

Bodhi reaches out and strokes the wet hair of the baby, whispers, I love you. The baby squirms, and then starts to cry. Loud, lusty cries, which I speak to soothingly. Its okay, youve had such a big journey. You are here now, you are safe in mamas arms, I am your mama. The baby cries on until I offer a breast, and she latches on easily. I invite Bodhi into the pool, and swiftly he takes off his clothes and jumps in. I am holding my two little one, mama in bliss. Baby suckles easily and lovingly. We soon discover, to my delight, she is a girl. A moment of surprise for the others, because despite my visions and intuition, I had expressed that I thought she was a boy after birth. In a quiet, private moment by the re, Zai and I name our little girl Jaiya Indali Samara Cambray. In the hours and days that follow, the birth settles into me. At rst I feel battered, drained emotionally and physically, raw. But at the same time, euphoria as I spend hours gazing into Jaiyas eyes. This love and bond that is blossoming opens the path for euphoria of birth- that I come to experience the full and complete satisfaction of birthing my baby lovingly at home, birthing after a caesarean, at forty two weeks to a large baby. I had conquered so many demons and listened to that inner voice that told me to simply trust, love, and birth. The story weaves itself into my psyche. In the weeks that follow, I have reframed the disappointment I held in myself for the way I experienced transition as gratefulness for the complete disintegration and reprogramming of myself that

happened therein, and deciding not to choose the path of trauma as in Tajs birth, but to uncover untold wellsprings of womanly strength. This birth is the ultimate resetting. I completely countered and brought to an end the belief and pattern that I do not bring my intentions to fruition in my life. I birthed with the deepest authenticity to my beliefs about birth as initiation, as an act of love, as natural and sacred. I see in myself a greater sense of self condence, as a greater presence as a mama. My little girl has gifted me all this. And I love her, so deeply, and so completely. Om Jaiya! !

Jais Birth Story By Ana Camacho Hansen

Oh Daddysaurus is coming! We have to hide! Jaidon digs deep into the mountain of blankets on our king size bed. I snuggle close to him as we play hide from Eric, making a tent with the comforter and pillows. Eric makes growling noises that sounds more like a dog, rather than a dinosaur. Then Jaidon breaks out in a hilarious laugh; a gut laugh that only a child can perform. Daddysaurus had transformed into Ticklesaurus. Oh no! Ticklesaurus is here! I say smiling. Eric tickles Jaidon in the tummy, and Jaidon laughs uncontrollably. I begin to laugh too. We are a family; the three of us. A very short time ago, the words, Daddysaurus and Ticklesaurus, were not even an utterance in my vocabulary. Although it has been almost three years since I gave birth to Jaidon, I still remember the details as if the memory is like my own very special movie that I can replay in my mind over and over again to relive his entrance into this wonderful world. Jaidon is special for many reasons. I am sure every mother feels this way or should feel this way for her offspring. In my heart, spirit, and soul, Jaidon will be my special beautiful baby boy forever. I remember the weekend before I began labor; I talked to him. Throughout the pregnancy, I talked to Jaidon about every step of the process from prenatal care to current events and news. I am so lucky. Early on, my husband and I made the decision to have a home, water birth assisted by a midwife. I saw a talented psychic friend of mine that counseled me on the decision, and it just felt right in my bones.

I was an elementary school teacher at the time, and I had a break from work. I was determined to talk Jaidon into entering the world during this prime opportunity. And my communication payed off! I went into labor on a Tuesday night, March 24, 2009. It was about at midnight sometime. I called my midwife, Pam, and she had told us to keep a report of the contractions and the time in between them. Right away, Eric started his contraction log. It was exciting to see him involved in the process. Eric was a little anxious and nervous, like any new father-to-be would be. Eric and I met in January of 2001, and the rst thing he said was that I am his destiny. It was the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to me. He was a 4th grade teacher at the same school I took a job as a long-term substitute. Still unsure of my purpose in life, I thought teaching school would be an experience. In fact, he was my mentor teacher, which looking back on is funny to me. Eric and I got married in front of our friends and family in Sedona, Arizona, on April 14, 2006. I was 27 years old and about to go into my Saturn return. Eric and I are really difcult to put into words properly. Our relationship is like a ne wine that gets better throughout time and maturity. This really only scratches the surface of it all though. One time, I tried to put the love between us into poetry and failed miserably. Upon much reection on this issue, I resolved that words cannot express my feelings for Eric. I thank God every day for sending me such an understanding, low-key, genuinely down-to-earth, sweet man. So when he and I got pregnant in July of 2008, I knew right away that he was the right father for Jaidon. Moreover, he was the right man to create a healthy family with. Before the contractions began on the Tuesday night, I said to Jaidon, All my time is for you now! And I am ready when you are ready. I love you and am waiting for you every day. Remember, you are wanted and we planned for you to come into this world. We cant wait to see you. My wish for Jaidon was not

only to know my voice, but also to know me. Even in the womb, I wanted him to know me as a friend, ally, and kindred spirit. Talking to him just made perfect sense to me. I read him books. I included him in every decision for nine months. I loved this time and absolutely adored the intimacy. Sometimes I wish I could get that time back again. On that Tuesday night, I called my mom and my sister. I envisioned my labor journey with a team of loving, supporting people by my side, and that is exactly what happened. I gured that with a team of beautiful friends and family, I could do anything. Just knowing that I had my favorite people around me, it would be okay. The contractions came and came but still not too close together. However, it was impossible for me to sleep. And I wanted Eric to rest as much as possible. There was no point in both of us being sleep deprived. I decide to practice yoga nidra instead. Yoga nidra is an ancient practice of guided meditation. I had been practicing yoga nidra throughout the entire three trimesters. In the practice, you have to set an intention or resolve. My yoga nidra statement stated that I wanted an orgasmic birth for my baby boy. During the practice of yoga nidra, you restate your intention six times; three times in the beginning of the practice and three times at the end of the practice. I was determined to have a joyful experience. Pam, Jennifer (Pams apprentice), my mom, and my sister did not actually get to my house until Thursday, March 26, 2009. The birthing team was present and I was still in the early labor stages. Actually this day was my birthday. I recall having a birthday cake on that day, but I dont remember too much. I remember drinking a lot of liquids and eating falafels. But by this time I had been two nights without anything I could really call sleep and the contractions got closer and closer and then they would space out a little more. I did not expect the inconsistency of the contractions. By this time, Pam and Jennifer were

giving me healthy herbs to speed up my labor, since I had already gone two days without any progression to pushing and my dilation stayed at 4 centimeters. I do remember listening to music, being in and out of the water both the shower and the pool, and being tired. It was early morning on Friday, March 27, 2009, and I had just listened to my favorite, uplifting music. Active labor began around 3 am. And this was it. The contractions were coming and coming with power. Looking back on this, the pain wasnt like the pain we commonly think about. When you cut yourself while cutting vegetables, it is another category of pain and sensation all together. When you go into active labor, the sensation is not painful. You just feel everything that is happening to the sacrum and the pelvis. I often do not describe it as pain. I just know the feeling as a great spreading of continents; mind bending and earth bending. I just felt like my bones were moving and morphing for the sake of the next phase to follow. Not pain though. Just pure light sensation. During this phase, my consciousness turned inward mostly. I had intense feelings of doubt and sadness. I felt like I was failing. It was just taking so long. Did I do something wrong? Am I really ready to be a good mom? My head was lled with so much tension. I was in a daze and it was a blur. I screamed and screamed, but it seemed like I was the only one listening, even though I was surrounded by my loved ones. My sister who is an acupuncturist inserted needles and helped me to breathe more deeply. Really breathe. Breathe like I never have before and I am a yoga instructor. This was the most healing of all. Since I was so sleep deprived and exhausted, my trouble was in the breathing. I couldnt get deep enough to totally relax. But when my sister inserted the needles to open up the bottom of my lungs, WOW it made such a difference to me. I also used a birthing ball to keep squatting and breathing. By this time, I was naked, naked, naked. Like I stated before, I was in a daze and all my inhibitions went out the door. Also, my

mom, my sister, and Eric all took turns partnering with me and massaging my lower back. I kept practicing yoga nidra. I must have practiced yoga nidra about 50 times. Later I found out that my birthing team was losing cohesiveness and unity. Again, I was so lucky to have Pam as my midwife. My mom was causing tension in the house, because she thought that I had labored too long. My mother wanted me to go the hospital. Pam was so self-condent and calm. She reassured us all that it was common and natural to have a long labor. She told me over and over again that everything was ne. I believed her. Upon more reection, my mom is a product of her generation. And she was scared for me. She did not actually understand home births. She had more faith in the American medical community than in my own ability of motherhood. To make things even more complicated, I was being ultra short and irritated with Eric. I wanted him to go through what I was experiencing. I snapped at him several times while he was massaging my back. He had been sleep deprived like me and I thought he wasnt doing it right. (Really, what does that mean anyway?) I was angry with him. My anger was unlocked without any restraints. I had no control over my emotions and I had vomited it all over him; green gunk with smelly funk. Emotional vomit is not lovely and it smells a lot like shit. The truth is that I had repressed my anger for years, and this was the prime opportunity to release it. Whether it was genetic or not, it did not matter. It had no other place to go. Energy is real and it moves and requires space in your aura. It has to move somehow and it cannot be ignored. Pam said something completely profound. She told me to never get dragged down by the negative aspects of life. Her words were heaven-sent. Pam was an earthly angel, but my invisible angels were with me as well. I have always believed in spirit guides and angels. On this particular Friday when real sleep had escaped my grasp and the sensation

of my body changing was sometimes unbearable, I remember the touch of an angel. I was laboring in the birthing pool, and had my eyes closed. I felt a pair of beautiful soft hands on my lower back. I thought at rst: This must be Eric. But I just saw Eric leave the room. It must be my sister or my mom. It feels so nice. Oh, what a relief! I turned around to see who it was and no one was there. I looked all around. At that moment, no one was near me. My mom and Melissa had been napping in the other bedroom. Pam and Jennifer went out to get food. Eric was outside in the yard. I know that the angel of God was there, just reassuring me that I was ne. The encouragement and the security of those hands are with me even today. When we are in the depths of the unknown and the unexplainable doubt that hardens the heart, soul, and spirit, the hands of God touch us and bring love, courage, and divine light. I had been in my third day of labor and by this time, I lost my mental and emotional alertness and energy. This spark from above had motivated me to keep going. I started pushing around 6:30 pm (I was told). I found relief in the brief periods between the pushing. During the pushing stage, I was totally immersed into the pool of water. I distinctly remember Eric pouring warm water into the pool over and over again. I remember my birthing team yelling, Push! Ana. Push, Ana! This was so encouraging. Around 9:15 pm, I remember Pam saying something to Eric about catching the baby. And he did! Eric was the very rst person in this world to touch Jaidon. Eric was in a state of complete shock. Speechless. Wide-eyed. Completely dazed. Jaidon entered the world in silence. He did not cry. It was one the most beautiful moments of my entire life. I will forever remember it! He just looked around without any fear. Complete love. Untapped. Pure. Divine. Love. Shining manifestation. Pam took a towel and rubbed his chest and was ready for the chord to be cut. Who gets the scissors? It is time. Pam announced. My sister and my mom pointed to Eric, and again, Eric was in total shock. When they talk about it now, they both laugh. His face was so white, like a ghost, he did not even know his own name.

Pam gave him the scissors so he could do the deed of cutting the chord. Then Jaidon was given to me. He was on my chest. My baby boy, who came into this wonderful world, weighing 6 pounds and 14 ounces at 19 inches in length, lay gracefully on my chest. I cried a little. I couldnt believe that we did it! Ultimate success! Ultimate victory! (Which is the Sanskrit meaning of Jai.) Ultimate love! We did it! We did it! Baby mine, dont you cry. Baby mine close your eyes I started to sing. I didnt know what else to say. Within a half-hour, he latched on my breast naturally without any problems. He was perfect. He was happy and he had nally arrived. We both slept that night for twelve hours. To conclude, Erics and my journey as parents keeps going and going in cycles. Daily, we learn about Jaidon, and surprisingly, I am learning about Eric. Our relationship has weathered so much, and we have established a true family. Jaidons labor and delivery has been the deepest, most spiritual experience of my life; nothing can ever compare. I am thankful. Every day, I pray and meditate and give thanks for Jaidon and Eric. I am extremely lucky. I love my family and I love my life.

The Lotus Birth Story of Kestryl Joleen Decker

It was January 1st, 2007, in a small one-room efciency apartment in East Anchorage, Alaska. I was one week past due and had been enjoying the wait alone. My sons dad was away working on the slope since two weeks prior and was arriving home that afternoon. The cold and dark winter made it that much more inviting to ignore the morning and soak up the warmth of snuggly blankets wrapped around me, and my peaceful big belly. I was tucked deeply into a vivid dream state when I was dreaming of ying in a helicopter, near the city of Girdwood, ying over the largest turquoise blue waterfall Id ever seen. My friend Suraj, who was piloting, attempted to y upside down, and I screamed through the noise of the chopper, I dont think you should do this! My water could b-r-ee-aaa-k! The chopper went upside down and the next thing I knew, my eyes were open, my body was leaping to the bathroom. At the exact moment which both feet hit the bathroom oor, my water, as I called it in when dreaming, broke! I was greatly relieved knowing this was it, since Kestryl had rst tried to come three weeks early and now was a week past due. I also had experienced a false water break four days before, when during that late night wait I joyously cleaned, baked cornbread, and painted a large canvas until 3 a.m., only to be let down when other functions didnt follow suit. This time I was overly excited and relieved, watching and feeling the procession of uids leave my belly, accompanied with the larger and sharper contractions. The phone was with me when I landed in the bathtub, and I called my Midwife Tora Gerrick, of the Midwives

Birth Center at the time, and waited happily for her and her assistant Becky to come over and help me bring the little guy into the world. Then I called my friend, Doula, and Chiropractor Dr. Jessica to come over, and also my friends Tina and Pam. Tina brought her four month old daughter Eliana and a video camera to capture the pre-party, as it would turn out to be. Pam had brought her hand drum, her singing voice, sage, candles, and roses to bless and protect our space and new life. The stove pot was steaming up a lavender, rosemary, and cedar essence, lending warmth, moisture, and aromatherapy to our celebration. My favorite organic goodies were displayed on the kitchen counter for all to share, and I favored the fresh-cut watermelon and dark chocolate the most! In the late afternoon Tina picked up my sons father, Tony, from the airport and they arrived with more roses in hand. The fact that I was wearing only a Depends diaper added play and laughs to it all. Despite my ecstatic enthusiasm for birthing, my progress was coming along slower than I had expected. I did not read much of anything birth-oriented, save the Bradley Method book before this day and so I hadnt any preconceptions of birth other than pure afrmative knowing and my own positive will that I could and would, in fact, birth this baby. In life I have found that being present is the best medicine for getting through any experience, and that was what I had intended to work with, although I admit to slowing down all our efforts when I had a hard time getting out of the facilitator role I had put myself in during the initial fun of it! Getting down to business was, at that time, more difcult to entertain. Each of us involved had different dinner invites for New Years, so when early evening came, we all went to our respective places. Tony and I went to his Auntie Rosalies, where she always cooks a delicious homemade meal of subsistence food. In this case it was King Salmon, and if I had only known I would be throwing it up later, I might not have eaten so much of it! Rosalie lived fteen minutes away and we stayed

for an hour. No one at her house could believe that I was actually in labor, although all the appropriate things in my body were still taking place. Upon the return from dinner only my Midwife, her Assistant, and my Doula made it back. We decided to call Tina and Pam when things were getting closer. But as the birth ball goes: once it gets rolling - it keeps on going! I never did get to call them back. Later that evening, the labor pains nally increased. Tony was a great help steadying me when I was standing during the contractions. We took a walk around the block in the freezing cold while the full moon shone directly above our heads. It looked so pearled-egg-like, with a rainbow ring around it, truly it was a beautiful night. My vocal expression was increasing in volume with each contraction, so we returned to the house, and I continued labor in the bathtub and on the bed. Neither place was helping me progress very much, and I started wondering how this baby was really going to come out. I am small boned and slim enough that a friend once perfectly suggested I looked like a toothpick with an olive around it. The extra 35 pounds I did gain was all in the belly! I did not have the voluptuous goddess gure that is so depicted in artsy birth images. In my questioning the grand nale of this more difcult process at hand, Kestryl, my body, and I took a break. When I came out of my time of thoughtfulness and rest, I noticed everyone had made sleeping space on the oor and were attempting also to rest. It was about 3 a.m. and I decided that was it and I was going to have this baby! Once again we were at it. This time Dr. Jessica, knowing of my lower back pain, adjusted me with her Activator device and all owing intensity ensued to the end. I was sitting at the bottom of the bed and slipped down toward the oor on a birthing stool. Unfortunately, I was not using it properly since we thought every push, for the next two and half hours, was going to be the nal one. So I birthed as if I were on the bed, but on a stool. Although I was progressing in

this position, I would not realize how uncomfortable it was on my tailbone until days later. Jessica sat on the bed supporting me from the back while I pushed and pulled vertically on her shoulders and arms, giving us both new muscles by morning. Our most laughable scene was when I accidentally grabbed her breast instead of her shoulder! It obviously wasnt the common brush-by; it was in actuality a laboringmamma-grasp and made for a total shock and hilarious uproar for both of us. Tora was straight below me, Becky behind her, and Tony next to me waiting to catch Kestryl. Everyone served as excellent encouragement and inspiration, while I was busy breathing, pushing, and chanting vowel sounds likened to a Maori elders singing voice that was instinctively owing out of me. Tora commanded that I reach down and feel my babys head so Id know he was real, and very close to coming out. His head was full of hair, he was real and he was coming out. Yes! I thought. ! Then by the insistence of my Doula, his Dad called his name, and with one more long push, through a ring of ery sensation and a primal sound of earth shaking vocal release, he slowly slid out from me and into his daddys arms at 5:44 a.m. Words cannot describe here the feeling of awe at the exact moment I saw my son and after my body had just experienced the most potent wave of power thus far in life. Twenty-two hours of labor later, they laid my babes slippery body in my perspiration-covered arms. I had trouble holding him in our slipperiness, so I asked for us to be dried off quickly. Once we were dried off enough, I held him perfectly, and he latched on like mother nature intended. Thats when I had the moment to pause and realize the miracle of Kestryl. I told him, I dont know what you look like, but I Love You. The placenta was next to follow birth, and I gave him back to his dad, this time with skin-to-skin contact, and Kestryl quickly found another nipple to try and suckle! When the placenta came out, I reminded Tora and Becky not to cut the cord as I was having a Lotus Birth, which implies the nonseverance of the umbilical cord, connecting baby and placenta, until it detaches naturally. Years before

pregnancy a friend had suggested to me that I bring my babe into the world that way because it is the most gentlest and non-violent. At six months pregnant I remembered this suggestion, I did my research, acknowledged its health benets, and approved it for the birth experience. I also had prepared a large wooden bowl, gifted to me by the Grandmother Drum Project, in which I placed a colander for the placenta to be drained of blood for the rst 24 hours. The ultimate purpose for the wooden bowl is to absorb some of the blood, and hold the ashes of the placenta once it was burned, to then be made into a baby drum and continue to pulse with the rhythm of Kestryls life. Kestryl was dabbed with a warm washcloth, but his vernix was left to be rubbed and absorbed into his skin. He smelled so good! ! Dr. Jessica adjusted his spine. I took a rejuvenating shower, and then we weighed and measured him at 7 pounds and 3 ounces, 21 inches long. He was very alert and perfectly colored. ! In fact, he was darker than I was, but thats no surprise living in Alaska! We took some pictures, and then Tora and Jessica said goodbye and left us quietly in the warm and balmy atmosphere with only twinkle lights to illuminate our space. Becky and Tony stayed with us while Kestryl, and I took a three hour nap. I woke up with Kestryl sleeping angelically in my arms and told Becky, Okay I could do this again! The umbilical cord dried within the rst day, and when the placenta was more drained, I attended to it with lavender sprigs and essential oils before wrapping it in a diaper so we could move around the house more easily and sleep in different positions comfortably. Kestryl only wore a folded-down diaper for the rst six days in our steamy warm studio apartment. We didnt drive anywhere, and he didnt take a bath. We were skin-to-skin, and it was a heavenly rst week to just be in total peace, warmth, and simplicity.

Umbilical cords have been said to stay attached between three and ten days. On the sixth day at home, Tony was bickering with me about The Cord, and I was insistent that all was happening in its right time and to not complain about it getting in the way. Then Kestryl, while laying between the two of us, dgeted his hands in such a way that he pulled it right off, and he held it dangling between our faces. The argument was silenced into joy as he could take his rst bath now. It was an easy pull given that it was already very close to falling off by itself. And it went to show that babies do know whats going on and that there is purpose and timing in all relationships: including the ones between parents, baby, umbilical cord, and placenta. Kestryls rst trip out of the house was to the Midwives Birth Center where we showed off his new belly button. He was the rst known Lotus Birth in Alaska and it surely impressed the midwives to examine one so clean and un-infected without having put any salves on it. Lotus birthing also ensures that the baby gets all the cord blood which boosts and protects the immune system. Truly, it was a whole year and a half before my son was ever sick. He was never vaccinated and only had his rst few well-baby check-ups. At 4 years old today he is still bright, healthy, and very happy.

Trusting the Voice Within By Michelle Peterson

My son, my sun, the light that shines above, within, and now through, has taught me so very much about trusting my voice within. Four years before my son arrived into my body, I was contacted by a little boy who told me I was his mother. He said he would be coming soon and prepared me for the kind of soul that he is. When I met my now husband, I was very resistant to him as I was planning on embarking on a trip to go study plants in the jungles of Peru. I was not open to another relationship but there was something very special about him. On New Years eve a few months after meeting my husband, ! I had a vision, it was my now husband on a dirt road.! A four year old boy ran up to him and into his arms and I came walking up behind him. I knew then to surrender to this man and trust the process. We soon came together and nine months later got pregnant with our son.! I was supposed to be taking a group to Peru, instead I got pregnant. My due date was the same day I was supposed to leave for Peru. Clearly my path was re-directed, and deep down I always knew this was the true path. My sons arrival was a series of events showing me my true direction. !It continues to this day. !! No one prepares you for pregnancy, its a personal journey. They try to tell you how its going to be, but no one can prepare you for the feeling of building life from within. It was the most spiritually charged

initiatory experience of my life. I felt like a vessel of divinity, I felt myself truly as a woman, I felt myself trusting my instincts, and this was the greatest power that was gifted to me from all of it! With such a deep well of love for my son and his wellbeing, I listened to every single assertion from my body; more protein, more water, less sugar, more raw cheese! My diet shifted dramatically and my body felt rich, healthy, and nurtured by me. I nurtured myself beautifully because I love my son. I realized to always nurture myself in this way out of love for myself. That was the rst gift. ! Throughout my pregnancy people had opinions about what I should do.! I was very clear I chose a homebirth. I did not see birth as a medical emergency and I trusted in my body to do what it was naturally capable to do. I also trusted in my ability to discern if I did need outside interventions and my ability to know when to proceed. I had an incredible midwife who was very hands off and supportive of my desire to navigate my pregnancy and birth journey with instinct, intuition, and sacred ceremony. Pregnancy to me was an initiation into my wise woman within.! It was my sweat lodge, my vision quest, my Sundance, my ceremony as a woman. After embarking upon all these ceremonies; sweat lodges, Native American Church meetings, ayahuasca ceremonies, I realized while being pregnant that this was MY ceremony as a woman. I was the sweat lodge, I was the Sundance, and I was on a vision quest! ! I prepared for my birth in the very same way with my son instructing me as to his needs.! I would check in with him and ask him how he would like to arrive. I got the clear answer: water. I got a birthing pool and set up my birthing room with an altar and different items that reminded me of him. A dolphin card at the foot of the pool, an eagle feather above the pool, a music playlist of the music that feeds my soul. All was guided by the rhythm of my heart. My son would visit me in dreams and sometimes even in a waking state I would see him, hear him. Everything about our journey was so much a partnership, one in

which I was able to truly exercise my ability to listen and hear. I trusted it, I knew, my instincts were so ripe as a woman preparing to bear fruit. I knew I could always be this instinctual, but my love for my son caused me to focus deeply on these instincts to guide our journey. That was the second gift, to listen.!I work on this every day to listen in this way now. My son took his time arriving. It was a challenging journey when I listened to those around me and did not trust myself. That was the third gift, because in retrospect, I always knew what was going on, I just had to continue to trust myself. We were at 41 weeks when my midwife told me she could not be with me legally after 42 weeks.!She did not plan on abandoning us but said she had to check the baby to make sure all was well via an ultrasound or sweep my membranes to initiate labor.! I did not want any of this. I just wanted things to progress at their own rhythm.!I knew all was well.!I did not like my labor being guided by state laws and not natural laws.!I knew my baby knew what he was doing, and so did my body.!Regardless, I had family members calling me saying I needed to get ultrasounds, go to the doctor; I should be worried, etc.! I did not get ultrasounds or anything because I knew my baby was okay.! I trusted myself.! However, I was getting barraged with everyones opinions including the grocery store clerks.! It weakened me at times, but when I went into the temple of my own knowing, I came out clear. I will never forget how trusting I was through the journey. I love myself for it, and seek to have that trust always!! It is a little more challenging in the day to day I nd.! At 42 weeks I did agree to my midwife sweeping the membranes as my mother told me this is how all of us started out. When she went to sweep them, I felt my cervix pull away from her! She could not reach it and we both agreed to stop it and just let things proceed. I had acupuncture twice and

both times both the acupuncturist and I heard the same message, I will come when I am ready. We both trusted it as well. The day I went into labor I woke up one morning and heard, Go out on the land and pray. I went to my favorite mesa with my big belly and sat down and prayed (after of course eating a peanut butter sandwich). I looked into the energy elds surrounding me and my baby as well as the pathway he was coming down. I saw my uncle who had passed three weeks earlier close by the pathway. I dont know what else to call it but a pathway. I could see where he was coming down.! I asked my uncle to back away from my babys space and give him room to come in without him latching on for the ride. He backed away and gave me his blessing. I then, after praying and smudging, and asking the angels to care for my uncle, saw the pathway clear. I knew my baby was now ready. I knew he was coming. I asked the angels to hold a clear and safe and sacred space for my son. I saw them do it. My phone then rang and it was my husband.! He was out guiding a tour in Sedona at the same mesa where I was! He was only 10 minutes away so we met up on the trail.! This was hilarious to me. He was with two women who both gave birth at home. One of them suggested that when I labor to hang from my husbands neck to stay vertical.! I knew when I saw that, I would be doing just that (which I was 24 hours later). The synchronicities were so very beautiful. I knew my little babe was coming soon. This was at the rst day going into what we thought was 43 weeks (we came to nd out it was actually 42 we had the dates off!). !That day my hubby and I went on a date, and then we napped. !We both knew. ! That night I started labor at 9 pm and danced around the house like a giddy child because my little man was nally coming! ! The contractions were like the practice contractions I was feeling but with more of a recognizable rhythm to them. ! It was a little scattered but denitely different than before. ! I told my

hubby it was starting and that we were in the early stages, which indeed we were. !I stayed up with him for a bit and tried to go to bed which I just couldnt because I was so excited! !(In retrospect I would have tried to nap more had I know, but I did what I did!). !My hubs went to bed and I walked around the house in the moonlight. ! I left the house dark and enjoyed the quiet to myself and the night. ! I felt my son settling into the journey we were about to embark upon together. I felt my body preparing. ! I danced around the house feeling like I was dancing with Spirit, dancing with the light I was receiving into my body. ! There was a presence in the air, like the moon was my companion, the night, and all the forces that guide birth. ! This stage was receptive, gentle, a place of preparation for the journey. ! I watched pieces of my mucus plug pass through the night. ! Come around 4:30 I felt something shifted as I passed the rest of my mucus plug and the energy shifted. !I remember distinctly feeling my body go from the place of preparation to a place of more action. ! The contractions got stronger and took more concentration. ! I remember sending my mom an email around 6:00 am telling her things were getting ready. ! I would lean on the countertops, the couch, the walls, even the shower rod to help ease and circle my body through the contractions. ! Come 7:30 am I woke up my hubby and told him I was hungry and that it was getting closer. ! He made me eggs and timed my contractions. ! They had a consistent rhythm, one of which I dont remember, but I remember them picking up the pace rather quickly. ! We called the midwife and told her we were in the early stages. !I could tell she thought that we werent as close as we were, and knew wed be calling her again soon! ! Come noon time my contractions reached a place of such intensity and bearing down I knew I had to focus. !I went into the shower and had the warm water pour on my back. !I felt all these energies circulating

around me, fears, and doubts, all tempting me to feed them. !It was like I was in an altered state with access to all dimensions. ! I thought this was what the transition state was that I had read about because everything got really intense and overwhelmed me for a moment. ! Something was shifting, I felt it. ! I drew upon all my reserves and found my center. ! I prayed and I remembered the force that guides al things was guiding me RIGHT NOW. !I breathed into it. !Came back up into the living room and instructed for hubs to call the midwife. ! She got on the phone with me and my contractions stopped. ! I knew that I can handle intense experiences without showing it much and that she couldnt tell how far I was. ! She asked if she should come, I told her I didnt know, she decided to and Im glad she did. !She arrived 30 minutes later and I was leaning over the couch with an intense bearing down pushing on me. ! I told her it was time to ll up the pool upon which she reminded me that the pool can slow things down. ! I told her I was further along than she thought and that I felt like I had to poop and she said oh! and we lled up that pool! !I knew that she didnt think I was that far along and that I was proceeding quicker than she expected perhaps, and I also knew that she trusted me as I trusted myself. !This was huge. ! I got into the pool at 1:00 and the contractions continued to reach new heights. !I remember hanging from my hubs neck, then getting back into the pool, and then hanging from his neck. ! Snatam Kaur was playing in the background for what seemed like hours and her music soothed me. !Midway through all this my midwife left the room and my contractions stopped. ! My head ew back and I felt the presence of angels surround me. ! I had a vision that lled the room that has informed my life ever since. !I was shown who my son is and how to best support him. I cried tears of joy at the love that lled the room. ! I did not feel worthy of such love and the presence that guided this

vision reminded me that I AM this love. ! It was the most powerful vision I have ever experienced. ! I knew this was my vision quest; this was my vision from Creator for me and my son. ! I hold tightly onto it and allow it to guide me as I hold space for my son. ! After the vision passed my midwife returned and the next 2 hours were intense as the contractions became rumbling thunder. !I surrendered to them the best I could and kept praying. !I remember looking up at a picture of one of my teachers and realizing that he could not help me no one could, other than the voice within, the real faith within. I felt in that moment where my faith was weak, but more importantly I felt where it was STRONG. !! I was so divinely guided and trusting in the process. When I look back on it now, now that Im not in that moment, Im still in awe at the trust and instinct that guided the process. Oh to live in that space always! I yearn for that. !I remember having my eyes closed most of the time and talking with my son as he moved down the birth canal. I remember him telling me what to do and me knowing how to move with his rhythm. ! Id feel a desire to push and then be told its not time.! My body would then naturally do it.! It was so amazing, so powerful, and powerfully intimidating, but I surrendered the best I could. ! As the bearing down got to a point where I felt I couldnt take it anymore, I kept getting stuck thinking I have to poop, upon which my midwife said honey thats your baby. She then gently encouraged me to go to the bathroom to poop if I thought I had to, upon which I stood up from the toilet (after not going the bathroom, ha) to my son crowning over the toilet. ! She asked me what I wanted to do next and I asked my body and heard, get in the water, upon which I waddled, oh yes waddled, back into the birth pool. Within three contractions my son was out into the water and into my arms.! My husband caught him with my midwife and placed him on my chest.

I remember holding him for a moment and saying I need a minute to return, as I felt myself returning from a faraway place.! I held him while I returned, and my husband did a blessing on his crown while I held him. I then turned him to my body and looked into his eyes, and what I saw was bafing. I saw an old, old man, one who I had known before.!Know that you are always loved, was the rst thing I said.! The second thing I said was, It is so good to see you again!! I was just in awe to be in the presence of someone whom Ive known for a very long, long, time. ! My pregnancy into birth was the most powerful spiritual journey I have ever been on.! It showed me how strong my instincts are, and how divinely guided I truly can be. The instinct that guided my birth was more powerful than anything Ive ever seen or even tried to feel. It guided me from a deep reservoir of strength, and I call upon it each and every day. ! I truly believe pregnancy is a vision quest and birth is the Sundance. !Its an opportunity to experience or true wisdom and inherent knowing, and to be showing what we are capable of.! I also believe the challenges that present during pregnancy are to help us access this voice, and our children, are our teachers.!I am forever grateful to my son for helping me access the deepest depths of my voice within.

A Conscious Family Freebirth by Kara Maria Ananda

Our baby boy Jeva was born at home in the middle of the night, on the 15th of September. He emerged spiraling! into the warm water of the birthing pool with eyes open into the hands of his father. After a 43+ week pregnancy, we were grateful for an awesome and empowering birth experience that was gentle and honoring of Jeva's timing and instincts. My husband Jahsah and I were the only ones present to guide and welcome Jeva into the world, and our intimate family birth at home was an incredible experience.

The Journey To Freebirth

Through careful consideration and planning, we choose to birth our baby unassisted, without any other people attending, as we felt strongly that this baby needed to be born in an undisturbed and sacred eld of energy. We felt instinctively that this baby was wanting a purely undisturbed birth experience and that we needed to be prepared to honor his sensitivity by creating a sanctuary for him to be born with no interference or fear from us or radiating from the bio-elds of other attending people.! Checking in with the baby daily throughout the pregnancy through meditation conrmed our desires to have a freebirth - the term Jeannine Parvati Baker coined for unassisted family-centered birth. I prefer

calling it a freebirth as well, for I was not unassisted, I had AMAZING support from my husband Jahsah every step of the way. Throughout the pregnancy we listened regularly to his fetal heart tones, measured my belly, and took full responsibility for self-empowered prenatal care through nutrition, meditation, rest, exercise, and positive energy. We also felt great freedom in allowing our child to be born in the way we felt was best for our family. !

Patience Makes Perfect

After being pregnant for over 43 weeks, I wondered when I would ever go into labor. Baby was strong and healthy, moving regularly with a steady heartbeat, so I trusted my intuition and waited. We did not nd out the gender of our baby in pregnancy, so we discussed names for a girl or a boy. We had decided upon a girl's name early on in the pregnancy, yet kept changing our minds for a boy's name. The night before I went into labor, I was not really feeling convinced that we had the right boy's name, so late at night, I said, "What if we have a boy and we don't have the right name? Maybe he's waiting to be born until we know his real name." We discussed for two hours potential boy names, until Jahsah said "Jeva" and I said "That's it." Agreed upon our boy's name, we fell asleep at 2 am, to awaken at 7 am with regular contractions. I would awake from sleeping to feel a tightening around my whole belly, groan a little, and then breath deeply with the belly hugs. After about an hour of waking up regularly to this tightening I said to Jahsah that I thought I was in labor. He said that he had noticed and was timing my groans, and they were coming

every 5 to 10 minutes apart. I thought it must be a boy then for sure - because I started labor after we nally came up with the right name!

Spiraling Into Labor

It was exciting to be in awakening into labor, to know that at long last our baby was really coming SOON! I got up and made sure to nourish myself while I was feeling hungry and before the intensity of labor became amplied. I tracked my contractions for a hour and saw that yes - they were coming regularly - every 4-5 minutes apart and lasting for 45 seconds to 1.5 minutes. During contractions I needed to stand up, move my hips, and breath deeply. I was so happy to have signs of true labor.! Through the rest of the morning, I enjoyed the sensations in my womb while spiraling my hips through the contractions. I breathed deeply and focused on opening my cervix, while circling my pelvis while standing, dancing, or sitting on the birth ball (an inated physical therapy/yoga ball). Jahsah and I chatted in between contractions, as I noticed my need to focus growing stronger during each wave of energy owing through my belly. Jahsah prepared then for our waterbirth by inating and lling up the birth pool with warm water.! The contractions felt best when I was moving my body so I continued to spiral and dance. I even tried hoopdancing in labor!and it actually made the contractions feel less intense as well as being fun. Stationary positions made contractions signicantly more intense, thus I moved, spiraled, and circled my pelvis throughout the whole labor.

Birth Tones
I got into the birth pool because I was excited to try it out and get familiar with the watery circular environment, though I knew it was still a bit early for being in the water. The pool was relaxing and I tried out different positions in the water. Jahsah placed a speaker against the pool, and mixed a fabulous soundtrack of my favorite music, which really helped me to relax as I could feel the acoustical vibrations throughout the waters of the pool.! As labor progressed, sound vibrations became increasingly essential for me through each surge. I would tone low sounds through each wave of energy and let the sensations pass through me. Toning was so vital for my ease and comfort in labor that I toned throughout each contraction the whole rest of the labor. While I was in the pool, Jahsah oated crystal singing bowls in the water and played them, which created amazing sound vibrations which reverberated through the water and within the circular walls of the pool.! I wanted to move and be upright as much as possible in labor, so I left the pool to walk and sway around the house. I sat on the birth ball, spiraling, toning, and breathing while Jahsah played the didgeridoo, an instrument that makes deep tonal vibrational acoustics. It felt amazing to have the didg played around my belly and the contractions were very relaxing and easy during that time. The vibrations from the didg were so strong that I did not need to personally tone through them.!

As I toned and spiraled through the contractions, they grew closer together to three minutes apart, and over a minute long each. I got back into the pool and welcomed the warmth and buoyancy of the water as the contractions became more intense, and I focused deeper on surrendering to the waves. Jahsah played music on the speakers, and used the projector to show lms of nature and sacred geometry on the wall in front of me. I spiraled to the music, toned through the contractions, and meditated on the moving images in front of me as I reclined oating in the pool, or leaned forward over the side on my knees.! Each surge through my uterus became stronger, until suddenly I felt a deeper energy to each contraction. I toned with contractions and Jahsah would tone with me. I wondered if I was in transition or if it was an urge to push I was feeling? This new deep sensation was powerful and intense. Jahsah went away from me for a contraction, and I had a really hard time handling the intensity on my own. When he came back I looked at him very seriously and stated - "You MUST tone with me through EVERY contraction FROM NOW ON!" - and he did! As long as I toned and spiraled through each contraction, and Jahsah toned with me, then I could handle each one. Labor was painful at this point, the deep energy pushing down within me was overwhelming during the beginning and peak of the contraction. I didn't feel ready to push yet, so I got out of the pool to use the bathroom and then rested on in the bedroom on my hands and knees on the bed.!

The Birth Trance

In between contractions I would rest completely leaning forward on a pile of pillows. During the intense contractions I would rise to my hands and knees, move my hips, and tone. The sensations were all encompassing and powerful, and the rest in between was equally deep and restorative. I completely relaxed, and fell into a deep sleep, in the space of a few minutes at a time. I recall having dreams, but don't remember them consciously as each time I awoke my complete focus was on moving and moaning through the pain of my baby pushing against my cervix and moving through my pelvis.! Jahsah would tone with me, also trancing out in between contractions. In this mutual undisturbed trance we spent hours, sleeping deeply in between contractions, and sounding through them. Jahsah listened to the baby's heart-rate at one point and it was sounding good so we knew the baby was all right. At some point, I ended up lying over Jahsah in between contractions, just collapsing over him and us both falling into a deep resting state in the minutes of respite. During this time, this contractions became more intense as I started to really bear down and groan with the second half of each surge.! I remember feeling really grateful no one else was there to disturb us, watch us, or monitor me, because there was no way I wanted anyone checking my dilation or disturbing our precious moments of rest. We needed those moments to synchronize deeply with each other and the baby and to gather our strength and energy for our baby's emergence and to be alert those rst few hours after the birth.! I checked myself at this one time in labor, and I could feel the baby's head very close and it felt very strange and pointy because the crown had molded signicantly during these bearing down contractions. I knew it was time to gather my energy, get really focused, and let this baby be born.!

Water Born
The pushing urge became much stronger and I found myself grunting and bearing down with more power during contractions. I got up from the bed to pee and get back into the tub. Jahsah warmed up the water scooping buckets of cool water out and replacing it with hot water, while feeding me coconut water and popsicles, and still toning with me through each contraction.! He also continued playing me wonderful music, which I would tone and sing along with, and projecting sacred geometry and nature videos and art on the wall that I was facing, for me to focus on. The water was soothing with it's warmth and bouyancy, and the art and music greatly beneted my ability to simultaneously deeply relax and be alert by attuning my consciousness to relaxing vibrations.! The pushing stage was almost overwhelming. Each contraction would beginning with an allencompassing sensation coursing through my pelvis of the baby bearing down through the cervix. I would allow my hips to be relaxed as much as possible, and move them as much as I could, while toning ("OHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!") deeply, and once I got a handle on the new contraction it would change to a deep guttural pushing and the baby's head started to push against my pelvic oor.! The pressure of the baby's head stretching my pelvic oor muscles focused me on the imminent birth but I was nervous about the crowning moment. I would push with the natural powerful downward surge in my contractions, and the head was visible. Jahsah excitedly shared that he saw hair, so we knew that the

amniotic sac must have broken in the pool because we never noticed my water breaking earlier in labor. In between contractions I could feel the baby's head retreating back up inside of me, and that feeling of the head rising back felt unbearable to me. I was determined to birth this baby soon!! On the next contraction, the baby's head came down and I could feel the stretching sensation. I reached down and felt the head and realized just how close it was to crowning completely, so I said "Oh...", and just pushed a little more and the whole head slid out. The shoulders turned and the whole body spiraled into the water immediately following. While pushing was intense, the crowning and actual emergence of the baby felt very relieving. Jahsah caught the baby in the water and turned him so his face was up. We saw that his eyes were open, he was looking around, and waving his arms.! I reached down and lifted his head out of the water and held him in my arms. We were so thrilled! Here was our healthy baby in our arms nally! I nally looked down at saw that it was a boy - he had waited to be born until we got his name right. We were so excited and grateful for such an amazing birth experience. Our baby was welcomed by just us, we got to be the ones to touch our baby for the rst time, and the rst voices our baby heard spoken. I labored for 20 hours, from the morning to the middle of the night.! The water was beginning to cool down and I felt ready to get out of the bed, so we all moved to the bed. Cuddling with Jeva in my arms, I felt two more intense contractions and birthed the placenta about 20 minutes after Jeva was born.! I was so grateful to have completed the birth and be holding this beautiful baby.! Jeva was 9 lbs. exactly, and I didn't tear at all. He started breastfeeding right away after crawling up my chest to latch on by himself. He could hold his head up and look around from the beginning and he smiled showing us a dimple on his left cheek (just like his big brother).!

We did not cut the cord, we left the cord intact to the placenta and did a lotus birth, in which we cleaned the placenta and covered it with dried cedar and lavender powders and waited for the cord to dry and release from the navel naturally. During the days postpartum of the lotus birth, Jeva did not leave our bed, and I only left to use the bathroom. We were in a snugly postpartum love bubble recuperating, resting, and integrating. This was a wonderful experience that is a whole other story in itself! In an undisturbed natural labor, our bodies will give us only what we can handle, and I feel that my labors have showed me just how much intensity I really can handle. I'm not an exceptional person, I have a pretty low pain tolerance, so my ability to move, tone, meditate, and focus through contractions through two natural births (my rst was 44 hours and my second 20 hours) has shown me how strong I really am. I was able to synergize my body, mind, and heart to welcome Jeva gentle in our home with peace and privacy. ! He is an amazingly sweet being of pure light and we love him deeply!! We are excited to have done it completely ourselves, and the experience brought us all profoundly closer together and even more in love.! We are grateful for this being of light who has graced us with his presence!!

Part III Resources

Books
Immaculate Deception II: Myth, Magic, and Birth Suzanne Arms Celestial Arts, 2005 Birth Matters: A Midwifes Manifesta Ina May Gaskin Seven Stories Press, 2011 A Midwifes Story Penny Armstrong Pinter and Martin, 2006 Conscious Conception: Elemental Journey Through the Labyrinth of Sexuality Jeannine Parvati Baker, Frederick Baker, and Tamara Slayton North Atlantic Books, 1986 Hygieia: A Womans Herbal Jeannine Parvati Baker Freestone Publishing Company, 1978

Prenatal Yoga and Natural Childbirth Jeannine Parvati Baker North Atlantic Books, 2001 Natures Children Juliette de Bairacle-Levy Ash Tree Publishing, 1996 Choosing Waterbirth: Reclaiming the Sacred Power of Birth Lakshmi Betram Hampton Roads Publishing Company, 2000. Babywearing: The Benets and Beauty of This Ancient Tradition Maria Blois Pharmasoft Publishing, 2005 Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering: A Doctors Guide to Natural Childbirth and Gentle Parenting Choices Sarah J. Buckley Celestial Arts, 2008 The Divine Matrix: Bridging Time, Space, Miracles, and Belief Gregg Braden Hay House, 2007

The Ceremonial Circle: Practice, Ritual, and Renewal for Personal and Community Healing Cahill, Sedonia and Joshua Halpern HarperCollins Publishers, 1992 Creating a Joyful Birth Experience Lucia Capacchione and Sandra Bardsley Fireside, 1994 Babies Remember Birth David Chamberlain Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1988. What Every Pregnant Woman Needs to Know About Cesarean Section Childbirth Connection, December 2006 The HeartMath Solution: The Institute of HeartMaths Revolutionary Program for Engaging the Power of the Hearts Intelligence Doc Childre HarperOne, 2000 CALMS: A Guide to Soothing Your Baby Carrie Contey and Debby Takikawa Hana Peace Works, 2007.

Mother Rising: The BlessingWay Journey Into Motherhood Yana Cortlund, Barb Lucke, and Donna Miller Watelet Seeing Stone Press, 2004 Heart & Hands: A Midwifes Guide to Pregnancy & Birth, Third Edition Elizabeth Davis Celestial Arts, 2004 Birth as an American Rite of Passage Robbie Davis-Floyd University of California Press, 2004 Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Perspectives Robbie Davis-Floyd and Carolyn F. Sargent University of California Press, 1997 Listening to Mothers II: Report of the Second National US Survey of Womens Childbearing Experiences Eugene R. Declerq, et al Childbirth Connection, 2006 Mamatoto: A Celebration of Birth Carroll Dunham Penguin, 1991

The Power of Intention: Learning to Co-Create Your World Your Way Wayne Dyer Hay House, 2004 True Power of Water: Healing and Discovering Ourselves Masaru Emoto Beyond Words Publishing, 2005 Birthing From Within: An Extra-Ordinary Guide to Childbirth Preparation Pam England and Rob Horowitz Partera Press, 1998 Touch Therapy Tiffany Field Elsevier, 2000 Holistic Midwifery, Vol. 1, Revised: Care During Pregnancy Anne Frye Labrys Press, 1995 Holistic Midwifery: A Comprehensive Textbook for Midwives in a Homebirth Practice, Vol. 2, Revised: Care From Onset of Labor Through the First Hours After Birth Anne Frye Labrys Press, 2004

Ina Mays Guide to Childbirth Ina May Gaskin Bantam, 2003 Spiritual Midwifery, Fourth Edition Ina May Gaskin Book Publishing Company, 2002 Obstetrical Myths vs. Research Realities Henci Goer Bergin and Garvey, 1995 The Thinking Womans Guide to a Better Birth Henci Goer Berkeley Publishing Group. 1999 Questioning Circumcision: A Jewish Perspective Ronald Goldman Vanguard Publications, 1997 The Doula Advantage Rachel Gurevich Three Rivers Press, 2003

Gentle Birth Choices Barbara Harper Healing Arts Press, 2005 Hey, Whos Having This Baby Anyway? Breck Hawk Metropolis Ink, 2005 The Natural Child: Parenting From the Heart Jan Hunt New Society Publishers, 2001 Birth in Four Cultures: A Crosscultural Investigation of Childbirth in Yucatan, Holland, Sweden, and the United States, Fourth Edition Brigitte Jordan and Robbie Davis-Floyd Waveland Press, 1993 Sacred Birthing: Birthing A New Humanity Sunni Karll Trafford, 2003 The Complete Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth, Fourth Edition Sheila Kitzinger Alfred A. Knopf, 2004

Rediscovering Birth Sheila Kitzinger Atria, 2000 The Doula Book: How a Trained Labor Companion Can Help You Have a Shorter, Easier, and Healthier Birth Marshall H. Klaus, John H. Kennel, and Phyllis H. Klaus Perseus Publishing, 2002 Core Awareness: Enhancing Yoga, Pilates, Exercise, and Dance Liz Koch Guinea Pig Publications, 2001 The Psoas Book, Second Edition Liz Koch Guinea Pig Publications, 1997 Artemis Speaks: VBAC Stories and Natural Childbirth Information Nan Koehler Jerald R. Brown, Inc, 1985 Loving Hands: The Traditional Art of Baby Massage Frederick Leboyer Newmarket Press, 1976

The Continuum Concept: In Search of Happiness Lost Judith Liedloff Cambridge: De Capo Press, 1986 After the Babys Birth Robin Lim Celestial Arts, 2004 We Are All in Shock: How Overwhelming Experiences Shatter You...And What You Can Do About It Stephanie Mines New Page Books, 2003 Touching: The Human Signicance of the Skin Ashley Montagu Harper Collins, 1978 Homeopathic Medicines for Pregnancy and Childbirth Richard Moscowitz North Atlantic Books, 1992 Calm Birth: New Method for Conscious Childbirth Robert Newman North Atlantic Books, 2005

The Cesarean Michel Odent Free Association Books, 2004 Entering the World: The De-Medicalization of Childbirth Michel Odent Marion Boyars, 1984 The Farmer and the Obstetrician Michel Odent Free Association Books, 2002 The Scientication of Love Michel Odent Free Association Books, 1999 The Vegetarian Mothers Cookbook: Whole Foods to Nourish Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women - and Their Families Cathy Olsen Goco Publishing, 2005 Natural Family Living: The Mothering Magazine Guide to Parenting Peggy OMara Atria Books, 2000

Pre- and Perinatal Massage Therapy: A Comprehensive Practitioners Guide to Pregnancy, Labor, and Postpartum Carole Osborne-Sheets Body Therapy Associates, 1998 The Biology of Transcendence Joseph Chilton Pearce Park Street Press, 2002 Evolutions End Joseph Chilton Pearce HarperSanFrancisco, 1991 Magical Child Joseph Chilton Pearce E. P. Dutton, 1977 Hands of Love: Seven Steps to the Miracle of Birth Carol J. Phillips New Dawn Publishing, 2001 Unwinding the Belly: Healing With Gentle Touch Allison Post and Stephen Cavaliere North Atlantic Books, 2003

When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm. Layne Redmond Three Rivers Press, 1997 Reclaiming Our Health: Exploding the Medical Myth and Embracing the Source of True Healing. John Robbins HJ Kramer, 1998 Natural Health After Birth: The Complete Guide To Postpartum Wellness. Aviva Jill Romm Healing Arts Press, 2002 Naturally Healthy Babies and Children: A Commonsense Guide to Herbal Remedies, Nutrition, and Health Aviva Jill Romm Celestial Arts, 2003 The Natural Pregnancy Book: Herbs, Nutrition, and Other Holistic Choices Aviva Jill Romm Celestial Arts, 2003 Vaccinations: A Thoughtful Parents Guide: How to Make Safe, Sensible Decisions about the Risks, Benets, and Alternatives. Aviva Jill Romm Healing Arts Press, 2001

The Birth Partner, Third Edition: The Complete Guide for Dads, Doulas, and All Other Labor Companions Penny Simkin Harvard Common Press, 2007 The Labor Progress Handbook, Second Edition Penny Simkin and Ruth Ancheta Blackwell Publishing, 2005 The Spirit of Intimacy: Ancient Teachings in the Ways of Relationships Sobonfu Some William Morrow, 1999 Welcoming Spirit Home: Ancient African Teachings to Celebrate Children and Community Sobonfu Some New World Library, 1999 Having Faith: An Ecologists Journey to Motherhood Sandra Steingraber Perseus, 2001 Mother Massage: A Handbook for Relieving the Discomforts of Pregnancy Elaine Stillerman Delta, 2006

The Woman in the Shamans Body Barbara Tedlock Bantam Books, 2005 Prolonged Labor Handbook Jan Tritten, Editor Midwifery Today, 2003 The Second Stage Handbook Jan Tritten, Editor Midwifery Today, 2003 The Secret Life of the Unborn Child. Thomas R. Verny Simon and Schuster, 1981 Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity Care System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First Marsden Wagner University of California Press Creating Your Birth Plan: The Denitive Guide to a Safe and Empowering Birth Marsden Wagner and Stephanie Gunning Perigee, 2006

Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year Susun Weed Ash Tree Publishing, 1986 Wise Woman Herbal: Healing Wise Susun Weed Ash Tree Publishing, 1989 Sacred Cycles: The Spiral of Womens WellBeing Sarah Wickham Free Association Books, 2004 Prenatal Parenting Frederick Wirth Regan Books, 2005 Shiatsu for Midwives Suzanne Yates and Tricia Anderson Books for Midwives, 2003 Water Babies: A Book About Igor Tjarkovsky and His Method for Delivering and Training Children in Water Erik Sidenbladh St. Martins Press, 1982

Woman as Healer Jeanne Achtenburg Shambhala, 1991

Videos
Birth As We Know It Dir. Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova Birth Into Being, 2006 Birth Into Being: The Russian Waterbirth Experience Dir. Tatyana Sargunas and Alexi Sargunas Waterbirth International, 1999 Born in the USA Dir. Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider PatchWorks Productions, 2004 The Business of Being Born Dir. Abby Epstein New Line Home Entertainment, 2008 Cellular Echoes: Environmental Inuences in the Journey From the Womb to the World Dir. DeAnna Elliot Foundation of Global Unity, 2002

Hands of Love: Witnessing the Miracle of Birth Dir. Carol J. Phillips & Angel Phillips New Dawn Publishing, 2002 Homebirth: The Spirit, the Science, and the Mother Dir. Diana Paul Sage Femme, 2006 I Watched My Baby Brother Being Born: Including Children at Birth Kovacs Video Productions, 2005 MotherTouch: Nurturing Touch for Birth Dir. Leslie Piper and Leslie Stager MotherTouch Films, 2008 Orgasmic Birth: The Best Kept Secret Dir. Debra Pascali-Bonaro Sunken Treasure, 2008 Pregnant in America: A Nations Miscarriage Dir. Steve Buonaugurio Intention Media, 2008 Reducing Infant Mortality Dir. Debby Takiwawa

Hana Peace Works, 2009 www.reducinginfantmortality.com What Babies Want: An Exploration of the Consciousness of Infants Dir. Debby Takiwawa Hana Peace Works, 2004

About the Author

Kara Maria Ananda is a Womens Health Visionary and the founder of the Awesome Birth Teacher Training . She has over 15 years professional experience as a birth doula, postpartum doula, childbirth educator, doula trainer, and perinatal and infant craniosacral therapist. She has worked professionally in the birthing and healing arts since 1998. Kara has presented at conferences including Midwifery Today Conferences, the Association for Pre- and Perinatal Health and Psychology Congress, and the HipMama Gathering and has had articles published in Midwifery Today Magazine, Massage Australia, Conscious Dancer and other journals.

Find out more about Karas offerings online at: www.karamariaananda.com

Would you love to support parents to have Awesome Births?

The Awesome Birth Teacher Training is an online global 12 week intensive to empower you to be the best educator, mentor, and advocate for mothers, fathers, and babies today. Learn more and sign up today at: www.karamariaananda.com/awesomebirthteacher