~ Quote Offerings ~ (Quotes/passages that I love & find inspirational for bringing new life into this world)
Preface: I find it helpful in all areas of my life to be aligned with the principle of "No Judgment." I hope you may find this principle helpful, as well -- especially with respect to your experience of labor/delivery. The birth of a child is a unique, precious, sacred experience and I invite you to honor and respect your needs at every moment. If that means, for example, that you choose or need medical intervention(s) that you previously intended against, I hope that you can be in a space of compassion for and No Judgment of yourself, your needs, your experience. These quotes, below, offer perspectives that you may or may not relate to in your birthing experience, yet I hope they do open your heart, your mind, and your spirit to more uplifting, inspiring views on, experiences of, and possibilities for labor than the characterizations you may have seen in the entertainment industry &/or expressed by those who never prepared for a natural, non-medicated birth.
On Timing in Labor*:
“A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.” ~Gandalf (character in JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings)
“All natural birth has a purpose and a plan; who would think of tearing open the chrysalis as the butterfly is emerging? Who would break the shell to pull the chick out?”~Marie Monacan
RE: The Resting Phase (after full dilation): "This is the period of great stillness and peace that occurs after transition... This is one of the most important parts of labor.For many years there was no acknowledgment of this stage of labor in our culture. Once a Mother achieves complete dilation she is usually encouraged to begin to push out her baby. But in the holistic paradigm, this stage, which usually lasts about 20 to 30 minutes (but can be as short as 5 minutes or can last hours), is Mother’s time to regroup and collect her energies for delivery. Labor seems to stop; contractions literally stop or slow down and the Mother may fall asleep or fall into a quiet, meditative trance. Everyone waits in the hush until contractions resume." ~Whapio, in Holistic Stages of Birth
..... on allowing the woman's body and the baby to direct the timing of labor & delivery, as long as it is safe to do so .....
On Natural, Woman/Baby-Directed Labor:
“Imagine what might happen if women emerged from their labor beds with a renewed sense of the strength and power of their bodies, and of their capacity for ecstasy through giving birth.”~Christiane Northrup, MD
“One is constantly having to balance the high expectations of modern health care with the need to respect the human soul. This is especially so with birth.” ~Benig Mauger
“If we are to heal the planet, we must begin by healing birthing.” ~Agnes Sallet Von Tannenberg
“When you change the way you view birth, the way you birth will change.”~Marie Mongan
“A pregnant woman is like a beautiful flowering tree, but take care when it comes time for the harvest that you do not shake or bruise the tree, for in doing so, you may harm both the tree and its fruit.”~Peter Jackson, RN
“Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers – strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength.”~Barbara Katz-Rothman
“Just as a woman’s heart knows how and when to pump, her lungs to inhale, and her hand to pull back from fire, so [her body] knows when and how to give birth.”~Virginia Di Orio
“Keeping active during labour and adopting natural, upright or crouching birth positions is the safest, most enjoyable, most economical and sensible way for the majority of women to give birth.”~Janet Balsas
“Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions.”~Hafiz
“You're giving birth, and your body is in the process of unfolding and opening. Powerful hormones are released in you that not only make your labor much more efficient, they can take it out of the pain category all together, and put you into that pleasure sphere.”~Ina May Gaskin, CPM
“When we make love, we literally make oxytocin, the hormone of love. The highest level of oxytocin that a woman will ever have is in the moments after she has given birth to her baby. When we make love, we also make the body's natural opiate, beta-endorphin, the hormone of pleasure. It's also produced deep in the laboring woman's middle-brain. The levels of beta-endorphin increase during labor and they put a woman into an altered state of consciousness.”~Sarah Buckley, MD
“Birth is part of a woman's sexual life... It's very important for the moms to know that labor and birth have a sensual aspect to them, especially given the fear and the negativity that they are fed all the time -- the fear that all that you are going to experience in labor is pain.”~Billee Wolff, RN
“It's got to be like when you make love with someone. It's got to be safe and secure and uninterrupted and THAT is how you'll have an orgasmic birth, because birth is sexual."~Marsden Wagner, MD
“What we're beginning to understand is how important the circumstances of childbirth are for the whole hormonal orchestration. Many of the interventions that are commonly used in maternity care today will reduce the relief of these hormones in a laboring woman's body and make the birth less ecstatic, and less pleasurable and actually less safe for herself and her baby."~Sarah Buckley, MD
On Pain:
“When the mind is free of stress and fear that cause the body to respond with pain, nature is free to process birth in the same well-designed manner that it does for all other normal physiological functions.”~Marie Mongan
“The pain of childbirth is very important to normal birth. It is absolutely an essential part of a cycle that goes on in the woman's body. The pain [of childbirth] gets sent up to the brain. The brain releases hormones, which go down to the uterus, and tell the uterus what to do or not to do and if you take away the pain, the whole normal physiology is gone. This is why there is so much more forceps, vacuum, and Cesarean if you get an epidural."~Marsden Wagner, MD
“What if we referred to the sensations of labor with a word other than “PAIN”? The word PAIN is so small and limited. When I stub my toe, I feel pain. When I eat something that gives me gas, I feel pain. I wish I had a better word to describe what it actually FELT like to birth my babies. There was definitely sensation. A LOT of sensation. I could feel it. But it was good. It was OK! I even enjoyed it. It was so primal and sensual... following every wave of labor was a wave of pleasure and relaxation and love. I felt so sexy. I felt so warm and soft and open and flushed with excitement. I guess you could say the pain of childbirth felt really…good. I wish I could invent a new word for it. The closest word I can think of is POWER, but mixed with surrender, sensuality, sexuality, vulnerability and strength.... The pain of labor is transcendent.” ~Lauralyn Curtis
“Remember that each labor contraction is caused by a wave of Oxytocin (the love hormone) coursing through your body. So, very literally, each birthing surge is a surge of love. Allow yourself to meet each surge with the same warmth, intimacy and acceptance that you would experience during a kiss or a loving embrace.” ~Lauralyn Curtis
“When I say painless, please understand, I don’t mean you will not feel anything. What you will feel is a lot of pressure; you will feel the might of creation move through you. Pain, however, is associated with something gone wrong. Childbirth is a lot of hard work, and the sensations that accompany it are very strong, but there is nothing wrong with labor.”~Giuditta Tornetta
“Muscles send messages to each other. Clenched fists, a tight mouth, a furrowed brow, all send signals to the birth-passage muscles, the very ones that need to be loosened. Opening up to relax these upper-body parts relaxes the lower ones.”~William and Martha Sears
“There is no way out of the experience except through it, because it is not really your experience at all but the baby’s. Your body is the child’s instrument of birth.”~Penelope Leach
“I discovered I always have choices and sometimes it’s only a choice of attitude.”~Judith M. Knowlton
“Through Love, all pain will turn to medicine.”~Rumi
“Be patient where you sit in the dark. The dawn is coming.”~Rumi
“Rain, after all is only rain; it is not bad weather. So also, pain is only pain; unless we resist it, then it becomes torment.”~I Ching
On Consideration of Who Is Present:
“Women in labor need privacy; they need darkened rooms, a minimum of interruption. The very act of observation interferes with the release of these good hormones. A woman can feel observed by the doctor or by the nurses.” ~Elizabeth Davis, CPM
“If you go to a hospital and you have any number of interruptions, and there you are spread-eagled, and the whole world can walk in and disturb you -- should we wonder that sometimes babies have trouble being born? Our sphincters are shy.” ~Ina May Gaskin, CPM
“Pregnant women and laboring women in particular are very emotionally porous, and they're very intuitive. They will pick up on everything in the room. We know that around animals, if you want an animal to birth properly, you don't surround them with bright lights and a million people -- you leave them alone.” ~Christiane Northrup, M.D.
“Birth is not a party, like a wedding, where you have to worry about offending those who were not invited … only invite people you trust, who approve of your birth plan, and who you don’t mind seeing you naked... Having the right people can make your labor go more smoothly and having the wrong people can stall your labor.”~Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein
"I'm going to make this really easy: if you weren't there for the conception, don't expect to be there for the birth of the baby."~Melissa Charles
“Having a highly trained obstetrical surgeon attend a normal birth is analogous to having a pediatric surgeon babysit a healthy 2-year-old.” ~Marsden Wagner, MD
Misc.:
“You know what? We're all human. If you tempt me enough with candy when I'm on a diet, I'm going to break down and take it."~Jacques Moritz, MD on how easy it is to succumb to an unwanted epidural when hospital staff keep bringing it up
"Childbirth is fundamentally a spiritual, as well as a physical, achievement. The birth of a child is the ultimate perfection of human love.”~Dr. Grantly Dick-Read
"I like ‘evidence-informed’ practice. This is about taking many forms of evidence – research, experience, cultural wisdom, etc. and using that to inform practice. However, ultimately practice is based on the woman, ie. woman-centered. She is the one who actually decides what is done or not done."~Dr. Rachel Reed, midwife (here)
*"researchers have found that it is in fact the fetal lungs themselves which provide the signal to initiate labor" "Disrupting this normal process (and initiating/inducing labor to start before a baby triggers labor on his/her own) frequently causes a cascade of complications - from difficulty in latch, poor breathing, increased infection, decreased immunity, under development, failure to thrive, and an increase in SIDS." from DrMomma.org article "Fetal Lungs Protein Release Triggers Labor to Begin."