Valuing Your Body and Instincts During Birth

Valuing Your Body and Instincts During Birth

Pregnancy can be an overwhelming time for you and your body. So many changes occur to your body as it swells to unrecognizable shape and proportion.

Then comes the uncertainty of birth.

How is this baby supposed to get out?

Really?

You can read all the books, watch all the videos, and attend all the childbirth classes you want to prepare yourself for the anticipated day of your baby’s arrival.  Yet nothing can really prepare you for what you are going to experience.  Because no one really knows what your experience is going to be or how your baby chooses to come out.

This may sound kind of gloomy, but let me reassure you of one thing.

That baby will find it’s way out one way or another.

The more prepared you are for your birth, the more you CAN expect will help you relax into the process of what needs to occur. Read all the books, watch all the videos, and take all those classes.  Know what needs to happen in your body for birth and what you truly desire to happen for you and your baby.  Then let it all go!

Letting Go In Labor

That’s right, let it go.  Because birth is really about letting go.  Allowing the process to happen.  Your body is designed to get your baby out.  When you can really connect into that sacred space deep within, you will know exactly what you need to do to help get your baby out.  Many women would benefit from really finding this space of knowingness within so they can listen to it during labor.  Yet most modern-day hospitals and OBs aren’t designed/trained to help women find this inner wisdom.

Giving Up Your Power During Birth

We give our power over to our doctor/birth providers and disconnect from our inner knowingness.  So many women in my practice have shared how they had a cervical check and were only 6-7 cm dilated and shortly after needed to push but was told not to push because they couldn’t be at 10 already.  When we listen to the people around us and not to our body’s signal, more of that disconnect occurs.  When you try to stop from pushing when your uterus is pushing your baby out, it can create energetic blocks in your pelvis.  Your baby gets the confusing message, come out, no don’t come out.  There is a holding energy that anchors in your pelvis.  You lose that trust of your body that you once had or maybe never really had.

It’s challenging for a first time mom to understand what is going on in her body during labor to really trust herself to know.  Yet the more you can connect into your inner knowingness the more you can question other peoples judgements of your situation.  Your body knows how to do this so if you feel like pushing listen to your body.  Value the wisdom that your body knows how to get this baby out.

A Story of Intuition

I saw one mom who came in for a postpartum session and I kept feeling the energetic pattern of the babies head going into her right hip while there was a twisting of her upper body to the left.  When I asked about this she reported her husband was holding her right hand up by her shoulder while she was pushing.  Instinctively, she let go of his hand and reached over to the left side bedrail and pushed.  Then her baby shifted into the center of her pelvis to come out.

Yet there was fear when this happened and this pattern was stuck in her body.  Identifying and releasing the fear allowed the pattern in her body to let go.  Twisting her upper body to the left put some torque into her pelvis to shift the baby over into the outlet to get the baby out.  When I explained to her why she did what she did, she was able to value her body’s instinctual knowingness better.  YOUR BODY KNOWS!

So how do you connect to your inner knowingness?

It starts with a practice of quieting yourself and really connecting into your body.  Connect into your pelvis.  Feel the baby down in your pelvis.  Feel any sensations you feel in your body.  Become still and quiet and just feel what you feel inside of you.  Where do you get drawn?  Bring your breathe down to your pelvis or wherever you get drawn in your body.  The more you can practice this now the easier you will do so during your birth. During labor clear all the distractions around you and connect inside of your body.  See and sense what your body wants to do and get into that position.

A colleague of mine was in labor with her second child and she was feeling like she was losing her hold on the contractions and not getting anywhere as her labor wasn’t progressing.  She kicked everyone out of her room and quieted herself and went down and connected into her pelvis.  She got up and knelt on her knees with her butt up in the air and head down and stayed there until she felt something change inside.  Then she was able to continue on with her labor and push her baby out.  She did not know of inversion before this but this is a great technique to rotate a baby whose head is coming into your pelvis in a more challenging way, (OP or occiput posterior).  She got this information from her body and knew what to do.

So whenever you are feeling stuck with anything in life, whether it be birth or anything else, connecting into your pelvis and womb space can offer you a creative answer or direction.  If you need any support in feeling this connection I’d love to help you out.  I am amazed at the significant changes in my life since I’ve really embraced and reconnected to my pelvis.  It’s a powerful area and worthy of our attention.

 

 

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