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A collection of my favorite quotes, though not always
pertaining to birth, they can certainly be applicable. 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
Peace... it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.
Unfortunately, the role of obstetrics has never been to help women give birth. There is a big difference between the medical discipline we call "obstetrics' and something completely different, the art of midwifery. If we want to find safe alternatives to obstetrics, we must rediscover midwifery. To rediscover midwifery is the same as giving back childbirth to women. And imagine the future if surgical teams were at the service of the midwives and the women instead of controlling them. Michel Odent, MD
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you too, can become great. Mark Twain
This whole situation [hospitals denying women the right to VBAC] is the result of the American College of OBGYN’s in 1999 changing their guidelines for VBAC in response to medical/legal concerns to require that a physician be immediately available during an entire VBAC labour. This has been interpreted by hospitals, especially those in the more rural areas, to require around the clock emergency cesarean capabilities. Now there are complications that can arise in any labour, even if there is no VBAC issue. So if a hospital isn’t safe enough for a mother to have a VBAC in, it’s not safe for her to have her baby in period. I understand that it is a risk/benefit analysis for the physicians in the hospitals and it’s all coming back to the bottom line, and that’s unconscionable. Tonya Jamois, president of the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) Inc., during an interview on Today, November 30, 2004
Many Western doctors hold the belief that we can improve everything, even natural childbirth in a healthy woman. This philosophy is the philosophy of people who think it deplorable that they were not consulted at the creation of Eve, because they would have done a better job.
Kloosterman 1994 We've put birth in the same category with illness and disease and it's never belonged there. Birth is naturally safe, but we've allowed it to be taken over by the medical community. Carla Hartley, founder of Trust Birth and the Ancient Art Midwifery Institute Unfortunately, the role of obstetrics has never been to help women give birth. There is a big difference between the medical discipline we call "obstetrics" and something completely different, the art of midwifery. If we want to find safe alternatives to obstetrics, we must rediscover midwifery. To rediscover midwifery is the same as giving back childbirth to women. And imagine the future if surgical teams were at the service of the midwives and the women instead of controlling them.
Michel Odent, MD
How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these. George Washington Carver
Anytime anyone has anything done to them by a physician, there is risk. Even a blood draw. Dr. Tim Johnson, U of Michigan
Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are. Augustine
We can do no great things; only small things with great love.
Mother
Teresa You must be the change you wish to see in the world. Mahatma
Gandhi
The perception that there is greater medical need for cesarean in women today ignores the reality that vast numbers of cesareans are the result of iatrogenic complications. Simply put, the obstetric community has been overly zealous in ‘treating’ a normal physiological process and has been triggering many of the medical crises that lead to cesarean surgery. Greater adherence to evidence-based medicine would drop the national cesarean rate dramatically. Obstetricians and hospitals have found that high-intervention birth, warranted or not, is very profitable. So there is a tremendous financial incentive to bypass the clinically optimal approach, and opt for convenience and profit. For example, many hospitals across the country have eliminated facility-based midwifery practices simply because the low-intervention approach, while clinically sound, does not bring in as many dollars. Tonya Jamois, president of ICAN You are constructing your own reality with the choices you make...or don't make. If you really want a healthy pregnancy and joyful birth, and you truly understand that you are the one in control, then you must examine what you have or haven't done so far to create the outcome you want. Kim Wildner-Mother's Intention: How Belief Shapes Birth
$13 to $20 billion a year could be saved in health care costs
by demedicalizing childbirth, developing midwifery, and
encouraging breastfeeding. Frank
Oski, MD, Professor and Director, Department of Pediatrics, Johns
Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
The experience profoundly changed my perspective. In the
hospital, I hadn't
perceived the anxiety and foreboding that permeated birth until I experienced the impact
of its absence among the midwives. The
peace, wonder, and intimacy were infinitely greater. What a compelling difference! Heidi
Rinehart, MD (as quoted in Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin)
If I had my life to live over, instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished ever moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle. Irma Bombeck
If we are to heal the planet, we must begin by healing
birthing. Agnes
Sallet Von Tannenberg
To know the way ahead, ask those coming back. Chinese
proverb People
never sing...except in the bathroom. Birthing women also make their natural
sounds next to running bath water. There is something about the power of water.
People are drawn to water, spas, and sacred streams. Women in labor are drawn to
water, too. Michel
Odent, MD We are made to do this work and its not easy...I would say that pain is part of the glory, or the tremendous mystery of life. And that if anything, it's a kind of privilege to stand so close to such an incredible miracle. Simone in Klasson 2001
Well
behaved women rarely make history. Laurel
Thatcher Ulrich Anything
I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile…initially scared me to death. Betty
Bender Great
spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. Albert
Einstein I knew how to deliver breech babies vaginally.... I knew how
to keep my hands
off the breech.... how to let the baby's legs and body drop and hang, suspending its weight; I
knew to allow the baby's head to notch out, nape hair by nape hair, from
under the mother's pubic bone.... I knew how to concentrate on
watching...to observe while physics and mechanics, uninterrupted, synchronized the birth.... If it became surgically
necessary to intervene, there was time, but there was time for the breech delivery,
too...." from
*A Midwife's Story* by Penny Armstrong ...experiences have clearly shown that an approach which
"de-medicalizes" birth, restores dignity and humanity to the process
of childbirth, and returns control to the mother is also the safest approach. Michel
Odent, MD Treating normal labors as though they were complicated can
become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Rooks Midwifery is rooted in the natural approach. Pregnancy and
birth are considered fundamentally healthy processes which have many normal
variations; it is normal part of life, not a medical condition…Only when
complications occur which are beyond the midwife’s expertise, is the woman
transferred to obstetric care. Steiger The woman’s choice itself may influence her level of
anxiety and apprehension, and in obstetrics levels of anxiety have been shown to
predict obstetric complications. Wiegers
study
Courage allows the successful woman to fail -
and to learn powerful lessons from the failure - so that in the end, she
didn't fail at all. Maya
Angelou If a doula were a drug, it would be unethical not to use it. John
H. Kennell, MD It has always been easier to utilize the pain relieving
discoveries of science than to investigate the complicated causes of pain. Since
1850 a hundred ways and means have been discovered to rid women of the pain that
has invariable attacked them, even when they most deserved the natural joy of
their supreme accomplishment. Dr.
Grantly Dick-Read, MD (1890-1959) It seems that many health professionals involved in antenatal
care have not realized that one of their role should be to protect the emotional
state of pregnant women. Michel
Odent, MD Attending births is like growing roses. You have to marvel at
the ones that just open up and bloom at the fir st kiss of the
sun but you wouldn't dream of pulling open the petals of the tightly closed buds
and forcing them to blossom to your time line. Gloria
Lemay The truth for women living in a modern world is that they
must take increasing responsibility for the skills they bring into birth if they
want their birth to be natural. Making choices of where and with whom to birth
is not the same as bringing knowledge and skills into your birth regardless of
where and with whom you birth. Common
Knowledge Trust Normal birth is indeed possible. Bruce
Flamm, MD Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. W. B. Yeats
The best way to avoid a cesarean is to stay out of the
hospital. Brooke
Sanders Purves I think one of the best things we could do would be to help
women/parents/families discover their own birth power, from within themselves.
And to let them know it's always been there, they just needed to tap into it. What's done to children, they will do to society. Karl
Menninger There is no scientific evidence that doing over 10 percent of
births with a cesarean improves the outcome for the woman or improves the
outcome for the baby. Dr.
Marsden Wagner In every country where I have seen real progress in maternity
care, it was women's groups working together with midwives that made the
difference. Marsden
Wagner, MD, MSPH We have a secret in our culture, and it's not that birth is
painful. It's that women are strong. Laura
Stavoe Harm Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen. Unknown The whole point of woman-centered birth is the knowledge that
a woman is the birth power source. She may need, and deserve, help, but in
essence, she always had, currently has, and will have the power. Heather
McCue We cannot prepare for the future without embracing the
meaning and the relevance of the baby's perspective on life. Michel
Odent, MD Lo, children are a heritage of the LORD: and a reward from
Him. Psalms
127:3 Life only demands from you the strength you possess. David
Hammarskjold Fear and faith cannot coexist and they both demand different
conclusions and actions. Christy
Faber Epidurals rip women off of an opportunity to experience
themselves as competent adults. Margaret
Egeland, CNM 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 she knows when and how to
give birth. Virginia
Di Orio Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face,
in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of our greeting. Always have a
cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well. Mother
Teresa Ask me for strength and I will lend not only my hand, but
also my heart. Unknown Babies are such nice ways to start people. Don
Herold Motherhood: It's not just a job - It's an adventure! Unknown You will emerge from uncertainty into great peace and
freedom. Unknown We need to get the information out there, babies are dying,
women are crying and doctors are lying. Penny
Groner Mothers need to know that their care and their choices won't
be compromised by birth politics. Jennifer
Rosenberg Patience is a virtue, Unknown In
response to "The morbidity risk in cesarean birth is nominal with little
risks." Sure
there is: blood loss is 100%. Pain is 100%. Prolonged (compared to vaginal
birth) disability must approach 100%. Scarring is 100%.Do you dispute that these
are morbidities? Bob Woolley The extent and magnificence of the medical discoveries made
during the lat hundred years is beyond both praise and gratitude. But now that
many of the troubles and dangers have been overcome, we must move on - not only
to save more lives, but actually to bring happiness to replace the agony of
fear. For although the consciousness of a woman's discomfort can now be
dispelled, it is only at a price, for with it goes the awareness of birth and
the joyful sensations and emotions that should accompany it. Now we must bring a
fuller life, truer to natural law, to women. Dr. Grantly Dick-Read, M.D . We
try to give a birthing woman freedom to find the right position for her own
needs and comfort. Unfortunately, in our society we think of birthing as
something done while lying down. Michel
Odent, MD Only with trust, faith, and support can the woman allow the
birth experience to enlighten and empower her. Claudia
Lowe Only about 15% of medical interventions are supported by
solid scientific evidence...This is partly because only 1% of the studies in
medical journals are scientifically sound and partly because many treatments
have not been assessed at all. Richard
Smith, editor of the British Medical Journal I'm an advocate of truly having your eyes opened and honestly
appraising how much power you really have, not pretending that you will have as
much power as you desire, just because you really want it. I think that's the
essence of informed consent. Gretchen
Humphries The knowledge of how to give birth without outside
intervention lies deep within each woman. Successful childbirth depends on an
acceptance of the process. Suzanne
Arms The future is not something we enter. The future is something
we create. L.
I. Sweet The knowledge of how to give birth without outside
interventions lies deep within each woman. Successful childbirth depends on an
acceptance of the process. Unknown To be ourselves causes us to be exiled by many others,
and yet to comply with what others want causes us to be exiled from ourselves. Unknown We
have a secret in our culture, Laura
Stavoe Harm You are a midwife, assisting at someone else's birth. Do good
without show or fuss. Facilitate what is happening rather than what you
think ought to be happening. If you must take the lead, lead so that the mother
is helped, yet still free and in charge. When the baby is born, the mother will
rightly say: "We did it ourselves!" from
The Tao Te Ching
Treating
normal labors as though they were complicated can become a self-fulfilling
prophecy. Rooks
Whenever a woman gives birth to a child,
she remembers the hard work no more, for the joy that
a child has been born into the world. John
16:21
Reluctant doctors like to believe that they haven't much
influence over their patients, but that is clearly not the case. Several studies
have found that when doctors genuinely encouraged women to have VBACs, most of
them did, and when they said nothing or acted neutral, most women didn't.
Finally, when obstetricians discouraged VBAC in women who wanted to try it, none
of them did. Henci
Goer, Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth
The effort to separate the physical experience of childbirth
from the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of this event has served to
disempower and violate women. Mary
Rucklos Hampton Women's strongest feelings [in terms of their birthings],
positive and negative, focus on the way they were treated by their caregivers. Annie
Kennedy & Penny Simkin All over the world there exists in every society a small
group of women who feel themselves strongly attracted to giving care to other
women during pregnancy and childbirth. Failure to make use of this group of
highly motivated people is regrettable and a sin against the principle of
subsidiary. Dr.
Kloosterman, Chief of OB/GYN, Univ. of Amsterdam, Holland
A study of interactions between women and obstetricians
offers an explanation. It described three levels of increasing power imbalance:
In the first, you fight and lose; in the second you don't fight because you know
you can't win. However, in the highest level of power differential, your
preferences are so manipulated that you act against your own interests, but you
are content. Elective repeat cesarean exemplifies that highest level.
Henci
Goer, Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth
The wisdom and compassion a woman can intuitively experience
in childbirth can make her a source of healing and understanding for other
women. Stephen
Gaskin
It is no small thing that they, who are so fresh from God,
love us. Charles
Dickens Technology has turned the fetus into a patient, reducing the
mother to being the 'maternal environment' and preventing attachment until after
the ultrasound has shown the fetus to be 'normal.' Jennifer
Hall Perhaps we share stories in much the same spirit that
explorers share maps, hoping to speed each others journey, but knowing the
journey we make will be our own. Gloria
Steinem on motherhood Whenever I held my newborn baby in my arms, I used to think
that what I said and did to him could have an influence not only on him but on
all whom he met, not only for a day or a month or a year, but for all
eternity--a very challenging and exciting thought for a mother. Rose
Kennedy Perhaps too many of us see pain as a badge of courage --
proof that we are just as strong as men. Laura
Kaplan Shanley Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
He rises to show you compassion. For
the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! Isaiah
30:18 Women today not only possess genetic memory of birth from a
thousand generations of women, but they are also assailed from every direction
by information and misinformation about birth. Valerie
El Halta Focus on what you can do, then do it with all your heart. Lois
Wilson 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, from Reclaiming the Spirituality of Birth To help mothers achieve pain-free childbirth, we must free
ourselves from the mechanistic view of life and embrace a new holistic
philosophy that does not presume to put arbitrary limits upon women, the
experience of giving birth or life itself. Laura
Kaplan Shanley Birth is an experience that demonstrates that life is not
merely function and utility, but form and beauty. Christopher
Largen
I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the
society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough
to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it
from them, but to inform their discretion by education.
Thomas
Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820
Babies are bits of star-dust blown from the hand of God.
Lucky the woman who knows the pangs of birth for she has held a star.
Larry
Barretto
I think of midwifery as a seed full of potential - a seed
that will grow into a lush, blossoming tree with green branches and plenty of
ripe fruit for nurturing women, babies, and families.
Marina
Alzugaray
Today, it seems that a tradition of womanhood that properly
belonged to women themselves has been replaced by a tradition of technology.
Nicole
Lundrigan Aqua Baby: Birth at Home in a Tub, Mothering Magazine 2000
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be
seen, nor touched...but are felt in the heart.
Helen
Keller
The woman about to become a mother, or with her newborn
infant upon her bosom, should be the object of trembling care and sympathy
wherever she bears her tender burden or stretches her aching limbs…. God
forbid that any member of the profession to which she trusts her life, doubly
precious at that eventful period, should hazard it negligently, unadvisedly or
selfishly. Oliver
Wendell Holmes
The greatest danger arises from ruthless application of
partial knowledge on a vast scale. E.
F. Schumacher
The power and intensity of your contractions cannot be
stronger than you, because it is you. Unknown
Natural childbirth has evolved to suit the species, and if
mankind chooses to ignore her advice and interfere with her workings we must not
complain about the consequences. We have only ourselves to blame. Margaret
Jowitt In the sheltered simplicity of the first days after a baby is
born, one sees again the magical closed circle, the miraculous sense of two
people existing only for each other, the tranquil sky reflected on the face of
the mother nursing her child. Anne
Morrow Lindbergh
Throughout the world, there exists a group of women who feel
mightily drawn to giving care to women in childbirth. At the same time maternal
and independent, responsive to a mother's needs, yet accepting full
responsibility as her attendant; such women are natural midwives. Without the
presence and acceptance of the midwife, obstetrics becomes aggressive, technical Professor
G.J. Kloosterman, Chief of OB/GYN, Univ. of Amsterdam
You can clear the path, but you can't make them walk down it.
Unknown
Research has shone bright lights on what women have always
known: Dynamic systems are sensitive to start-up conditions. Thus, a gentle
birth is life enhancing for the human organism. Robin
Lim
How DARE Mother Nature question SCIENCE!
Mike
Tymeson You're six times more likely to have a doctor who is an
impostor than you are to suffer a uterine rupture. Two percent of docs are
phonies (1 in 50), according to several sources I found. So instead of worrying
about rupture, why not take a few minutes to check up on your doctor's
credentials? It'd be a more profitable use of your time and a substantially more
likely cause for alarm.
Remember, no bones this time. Unknown
The parallels between making love and giving birth are clear,
not only in terms of passion and love, but also because we need essentially the
same conditions for both experiences: privacy and safety. Sarah
Buckley
I know you have a little life in you yet, I know you have a
little strength left. From
Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work"
The impossible is often the untried.
Jim
Goodwin Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never
been hurt. And dance like nobody is watching. Unknown
There was a star danced, and under that I was born.
William
Shakespeare (Illustrates the "dance" of labor, and the mother of
course is the "star" of the labor and well, baby is born under the
mother....)
Only nature cures. The task of the physician should be to
help nature's efforts, not combat them. Hippocrates
The beauty of my body is not measured by the size of the
clothes it can fit into, but by the stories that it tells. I have a belly and
hips that say, "We grew a child in here," and breasts that say,
"We nourished life." My hands, with bitten nails and a writer's
callus, say, "We create amazing things." Sarah,
from I Am Beautiful: A Celebration of Women in Their Own Words Where would all the specialists and producers of medical
technology and drugs be if it were suddenly 'discovered' that when women eat
well in pregnancy, eliminate drugs and stop substance abuse, almost all
complications disappear? Anne
Frye
Meconium happens
Unknown
The traditional midwife believes that birth proceeds in a
spiral fashion: labor starts, stops and starts, while the baby goes down, up and
down, and the cervix opens, closes and opens. Nature has no design for failure;
she holds her own meaning for success. Sher
Willis You're braver than you believe. Stronger than you seem. And
smarter than you think. Christopher
Robin in Pooh's Grand Adventure
When
you have come to the edge of
all the light you know And
are about to step off Into
the darkness of the unknown, Faith
is knowing that One
of two things will happen: There
will be something solid to stand on Or
you will be taught how to fly. Patrick
Overter We must give women the opportunity to challenge their fears,
work with them, and birth through them. Not only will this change each woman, it
will change the political and medical climate in which they make these choices. Connee
L. Pike-Urlacher
If you lay down, the baby will never come out!
Native
American saying Birthing is the most profound initiation to spirituality a
woman can have. Robin
Lim
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience
in which you really stop to look fear in the face. Eleanor
Roosevelt
Women's
bodies have their own wisdom, and a system of birth refined over 100,000
generations is not so easily overpowered.
Sarah Buckley
Through
pain find strength Through
birth find healing It
is never easy to keep reaching for dreams Strength
and courage can sometimes be lonely friends -- But
those who reach, walk in stardust. Flavia
The true sense of community lies in understanding our
interconnectedness and acting from a sense of relatedness. It is a challenge.
Let's begin at the beginning. That is where we can start to reweave the sacred
web of life so that it once again becomes whole. Suzanne
Arms
Man cannot feed the baby within the uterus. What justifies
his presumption that he is able to improve upon the physiological provision
because the child has recently left the uterus? We can fortify and reinforce
with certain substances the adequacy of both the placental and the breast
nutrition, but the basic natural nourishment supplies something no concoction
can contain. Dr.
Grantly Dick-Reed, M.D.
For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of POWER, of
LOVE, and of SELF-DISCIPLINE. 2Timothy
1:7
No other natural bodily function is painful and childbirth
should not be an exception. Grantley
Dick-Read Waterbirth is one of many lovely ways to enter the world. Judy
Edmunds, CPM
300,000 women will be giving birth with you today.
Relax
and breathe and do nothing else. Labor
is hard work, it hurts and you can do it. Unknown
The
way I teach women to breathe in awareness and slowly is: breathe in through your
nose and out through your toes. Unknown
The
same movements that get the baby in, get the baby out
From Birthing From Within
Pregnancy is the only time in a woman's life she can help God
work a miracle. Erma
Bombeck
Pregnancy is 40 weeks at term - Your baby will NEVER be
easier to take care of than it is right there inside of you. Don't rush it! Unknown
A healthy woman who delivers spontaneously performs a job
that cannot be improved upon. Aidan
MacFarlane author of The Psychology of Childbirth (1977)
If it hurts, get off it, move it around, rub it better.
Barbara
Kott (president of the NCT)
If in doubt, breathe out
Cathy
Doberska - Reading, UK NCT teacher
Everything in nature bespeaks the Mother
Unknown
Man is wise only while he searches for wisdom. If he thinks
he has found it, he is a fool. Rabbi
Ibn Gevirol
Children are a heritage of the Lord; the fruit of the womb is
his reward. Psalm
127:3~ KJV
Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good
of its victims may
be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent
moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his
cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own
good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of
their own conscience. C.S.
Lewis, from God in the Dock
Offer hugs, not drugs
Adina
Lebowitz
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment
before starting to improve the world. Anne
Frank
Putting women in the position of coping with conflict when
they should be concentrating on having their babies counted as an intervention
in itself! Unknown
-
a plant in an inappropriate location is a weed -
a plant in an appropriate location is a flower -
an obstetric technique at an inappropriate time is an intervention -
an obstetric technique at an appropriate time is a godsend! Unknown
It's the little things that matter most.
Gail
Karlovsky
Faith, Acceptance, Surrender
Unknown
Fear can be overcome only by Faith.
Dr.
Grantly Dick-Read
Birth is as safe as life gets.
Harriette
Hartigan
My body knows just what to do. My baby grows just as it
should be. Penny
Simkin
It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature
Dr.
Bradley
There is power that comes to women when they give birth. They
don't ask for it, it simply invades them. Accumulates like clouds on the horizon
and passes through, carrying the child with it. Sheryl
Feldman
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
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
If I don't know my options, I don't have any.
Diana
Korte
...the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave
birth...She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in the manger...
Luke
2: 6-7
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me
lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my
soul...Even thought I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You
prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with
oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of
my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalm
23 Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people
can change the world: indeed it's the only thing that ever has! Margaret
Meade When I am afraid, I will trust in you. Psalm
56:3
Having a highly trained obstetrical surgeon attend a normal birth is analogous to having a pediatric surgeon babysit a healthy 2-year-old. M. Wagner
A truth's initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed. When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker, a raving lunatic. Dresden James
A woman She goes prepared Maya
Angelou She
feels it approaching, her belly once again tight All
is in ready the time’s finally come She’s
hoping her baby will be here by the rising of the sun. The
song begins gently, moving slowly at first The
courage, the fear, the love, the hope and the mirth Some
sing quite softly and some loud and strong Their
babies emerge as they sing the Birthsong Time
becomes frozen as woman by woman, birth by birth They’re
all connected through their bodies & songs It
knows no boundaries, no color, no races It
fills all their bodies, their hearts, souls and faces. The
sounds of each woman as she sings the Birthsong Her
breathing grows faster as each new wave moves within She
remembers to let go, to surrender again She
opens her eyes and sees her partner, her lover, her friend Remembering
with tenderness their choice to begin The
song begins gently, moving slowly at first The
courage, the fear, the love and the hope Some
sing quite softly and some loud and strong Their
babies emerge as they sing the Birthsong Time
becomes frozen as woman by woman, birth by birth They’re
all connected through their bodies & songs It
knows no boundaries, no color, no races It
fills all their bodies, their hearts, souls and faces. The
sounds of each woman as she sings the Birthsong The
songs been completed the babe’s in her arms Both
teary eyed parents are moved by it’s charms The
song appears ended at least in this room But
I’ll hear it eternal with other bright moons. The
song begins gently, moving slowly at first The
courage, the fear, the love, the hope and the mirth Some
sing quite softly and some loud and strong Their
babies emerge as they sing the Birthsong Time
becomes frozen as woman by woman, birth by birth They’re
all connected through their bodies & songs It
knows no boundaries, no color, no races It
fills all their bodies, their hearts, souls and faces. The
sounds of each woman as she sings the Birthsong a
bird poised mid-air in flight as
delicate and smooth. Of
your mouth a
foxglove in its taking without
edges or hurt. This
of your ear a
tiny sea-horse, immortal sporting
in white waves and
of your eye a
place where no one could hide nothing
lurk. Of
your cupped flesh smooth
in my palm an
agate on the sea-shore. Of
your back and belly that
they command kisses. And
of your feet I would say they
are inquisitive and gay as
squirrels or birds and
so return to your hand and
begin my voyage around
your loveliness again
and yet again as
in my arms you lie sleeping. Jeni
Couzyn, South Africa As
my contractions come, the flame burns brighter. My
body is the wax of the candle, warming and yielding to the flame. The
more I breathe, the brighter the candle burns. The
wax melts and drips with each contraction. My
body becomes looser and opens to the flame. I
see my pelvis becoming soft and warm and pliable. I
breathe. With each contraction, the candle becomes softer. I
melt with the candle. My
breath helps the candle burn brighter, melting quicker. I
remain soft, warm, and yielding. Barbara Harper "Gentle Birth Choices"
Ready
to Open I
am nurtured by those around me as the rose is nurtured by the soil The
rosebud gradually, ever so softly, opens and blossoms. I
open and blossom. My
cervix is soft and ripe like a rosebud. I
see the outer petals of te rose falling away I
see my cervix yielding like the outer petals of the rose. Every
contraction opens another petal of my rosebud cervix. I
welcome each contraction, which helps me open my rosebud cervix. I
welcome and receive all the nurturing around me, which helps me open. Just
like the warm sun opens the rose, the warmth I receive opens my cervix. I
yield and open. The
rose does not resist. I
open and blossom. Barbara Harper "Gentle Birth Choices"
We've
all been waiting for you. For
you. Your
arrival has been marked, has been recorded on
earth, in
the universe, in
the galaxies, in
all of space, in
all of time. You
come with a birthright, written in love and sung through
all Creation in words which promise that
no matter where you're at, you're
home that
no matter who you're with, you're
welcome that
no matter who you are, you're
loved. Welcome. Rita Ramsey
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Copyright © 1997-2007 Mother Care. All photos © Mother Care & Terri McKinney Photography. All rights reserved. |