While camping at Big Basin this Winter in one of their awesome cabins, I had an "ah-ha" moment. I was reading their small paper brochure about the park's history and in it was a story about a pioneer family who were the parks first inhabitants. The woman had to give birth to her
children alone because her husband was always off working somewhere
far away and no one lived remotely close to them. The more that I digested her story the more that I realized how simple and perfect birth really is.
Birth is made to happen alone if need be. Clearly this woman was brave to be totally alone, but all women who give birth are brave. But it is reassuring that it can happen and our bodies know how to do it. It is a clean seamless process. Nothing needs to be "done" to you. The process needs to be allowed to happen freely. The umbilical cord doesn't even need to be cut at the end. It will detach itself when it dries up after a
couple of weeks like the stub does that we are all use to falling off our babies.
Processing and thinking about that pioneer woman in the woods giving birth alone to her children was one of the moments that contributed to the success of my home birth after cesarean. I remember thinking. "It's sort of crazy how long it has taken me to filter out all of what I've learned about birth so that I can finally see how simple, natural, and beautiful it is and how terribly complicated and frightening our culture has made it."
children alone because her husband was always off working somewhere
far away and no one lived remotely close to them. The more that I digested her story the more that I realized how simple and perfect birth really is.
Birth is made to happen alone if need be. Clearly this woman was brave to be totally alone, but all women who give birth are brave. But it is reassuring that it can happen and our bodies know how to do it. It is a clean seamless process. Nothing needs to be "done" to you. The process needs to be allowed to happen freely. The umbilical cord doesn't even need to be cut at the end. It will detach itself when it dries up after a
couple of weeks like the stub does that we are all use to falling off our babies.
Processing and thinking about that pioneer woman in the woods giving birth alone to her children was one of the moments that contributed to the success of my home birth after cesarean. I remember thinking. "It's sort of crazy how long it has taken me to filter out all of what I've learned about birth so that I can finally see how simple, natural, and beautiful it is and how terribly complicated and frightening our culture has made it."