Getting Down and Dirty

GETTING DOWN AND DIRTY from Birthing From Within, by Pam England

Soldiers are trained to give everything in battle. They expect to return from war grimy, sweaty, disheveled, and sometimes bloods; it's their badge of honor. Likewise, a gutsy football or baseball player who ends the game wearing a uniform caked mud is perceived as having given his all. Some cultures (not ours) honor women in the same way when they return from battling in the trenches of labor.

Wouldn't it be great if childbirth teachers and health profession's instilled that same tough mindset in mothers and fathers? Rather than promoting the reassuring, but unlikely, illusion being comfortable and relaxed comfortable and relaxed in labor, teachers should help mothers and fathers muster the courage and determination to get through it. That's why Birthing From Within works at helping couples prepare to face the rigors of "battling with nature," fleeing the battle field when the going gets tough. Here's how we help do it:
First, we help mothers experience themselves as part a larger whole, a link in the chain of mothers throughout time. we do this using exercises described in Chapter 4.
Second, we explain that to give birth with power, without drugs, means having to to the edge, and beyond. and beyond.

Third, we point out that the hospital "battle field," in
striving to be sterile and clean, inadvertently sends a confusing message to women giving birth. Birth-warriors don't stay clean, together made-up, and poised (see sidebar pg 128).
Finally, mothers must make a heart-felt commitment: birth normally, but to give it their all, moment-by-moment. Once they've done that, to then to be okay with whatever happens.

Get all the Down and Dirty (also fun and practical) info you'll need to give birth in awareness with a Birthing From Within Class:

www.blossombirth.org
www.harmonybirth.com
www.californiamidwifery.com