Heavenly, congratulations on reaching a decision that is right for you. I wish you a smooth and peaceful birth.
On the topic of the significance of birth and how we are birthed, this is something I've struggled with a lot in my own personal decision of how I'm giving birth. I believe that birth is a significant event in one's life. I believe that a smooth arrival is a good thing. However, life is life, and things happen that we cannot plan for, cannot fathom and how do we make the best of it? I will do my very best to ensure a smooth, peaceful arrival of my child, but I take great comfort in knowing that birth is ONE part of a his/her life not THE part. I strongly reject that birth is THE defining moment of a person's life. What about conception? What about the months in utero, what about post partum, childhood, adolescence, etc? I think we get too stuck on wanting to find the one thing that we can do to ensure a happy and healthy life for a child. It doesn't exist. We do the best we can, and wouldn't it be nice if we could rest in that knowledge?
Am I a better person because I was home birth born and arrived gently? Who knows - I'm glad of that arrival, but does that mean I have any less baggage or challenges than the next person? More than some and less than others I'm sure, as with all things in life.
I would hope that we would all remember to trust life, to trust that things, however messy, painful and regretful, are a part of the greater weaving of life. Who am I to say that a child's birth wasn't just the perfect experience for them, that it was a part of their life journey that helped to guide them and form them and propel them on their way just like all the rest of their life experiences?
There is a book called Different Doorways: Adventures of a Caesarean Born by Jane Butterfield English. She writes about her experiences in the world as a person born via c/s and her internal processing. I haven't read it fully, but I like what I've read thus far. I appreciate the aknowledgement that c/s birth is another way of arriving in the world that presents the child with certain gifts and certain challenges as a result of that birth - as with ANY method of birth, not better gifts or worse challenges but unique to that experience.
Yes I wish there were fewer c/s, yes I wish that women were more respected during the birth process, no I do not think the decision to have a c/s should be made lightly, but perhaps we could shift from such right/wrong/good/bad perspectives and see births for what they are - an event, an opportunity for growth, to be grieved if necessary, to be celebrated, a rite of passage no matter how it unfolds.
Lisa
On the topic of the significance of birth and how we are birthed, this is something I've struggled with a lot in my own personal decision of how I'm giving birth. I believe that birth is a significant event in one's life. I believe that a smooth arrival is a good thing. However, life is life, and things happen that we cannot plan for, cannot fathom and how do we make the best of it? I will do my very best to ensure a smooth, peaceful arrival of my child, but I take great comfort in knowing that birth is ONE part of a his/her life not THE part. I strongly reject that birth is THE defining moment of a person's life. What about conception? What about the months in utero, what about post partum, childhood, adolescence, etc? I think we get too stuck on wanting to find the one thing that we can do to ensure a happy and healthy life for a child. It doesn't exist. We do the best we can, and wouldn't it be nice if we could rest in that knowledge?
Am I a better person because I was home birth born and arrived gently? Who knows - I'm glad of that arrival, but does that mean I have any less baggage or challenges than the next person? More than some and less than others I'm sure, as with all things in life.
I would hope that we would all remember to trust life, to trust that things, however messy, painful and regretful, are a part of the greater weaving of life. Who am I to say that a child's birth wasn't just the perfect experience for them, that it was a part of their life journey that helped to guide them and form them and propel them on their way just like all the rest of their life experiences?
There is a book called Different Doorways: Adventures of a Caesarean Born by Jane Butterfield English. She writes about her experiences in the world as a person born via c/s and her internal processing. I haven't read it fully, but I like what I've read thus far. I appreciate the aknowledgement that c/s birth is another way of arriving in the world that presents the child with certain gifts and certain challenges as a result of that birth - as with ANY method of birth, not better gifts or worse challenges but unique to that experience.
Yes I wish there were fewer c/s, yes I wish that women were more respected during the birth process, no I do not think the decision to have a c/s should be made lightly, but perhaps we could shift from such right/wrong/good/bad perspectives and see births for what they are - an event, an opportunity for growth, to be grieved if necessary, to be celebrated, a rite of passage no matter how it unfolds.
Lisa
:
