Sneaky Peek : Spiritual Midwifery

During my nesting phase of cleaning out our cupboards on Monday I came across this classic “Spiritual Midwifery” that my friend Lil gave me when I was pregnant with Poppy.

I had an insatiable appetite for reading anything to do with pregnancy and birth.  You name it I read – Kaz Cooke’s ‘Up the Duff“;  ‘What to Expect When You are Expecting‘ and this one ‘Spiritual Midwifery’.  The funny thing was I read so much about the various stages of pregnancy, I always knew what size fruit the baby was in utero (it is so funny that your baby is compared to the size of a peach)!

However when Poppy was born I felt out of my depth!  I personally feel there is so much emphasis on pregnancy, labour and birth but little on the emotional impact that a baby has on your life.

I distinctly remember when Poppy was two days old, Nick was out celebrating with his friends and my sister Cath and her daughters came in to meet Poppy.  They left my hospital room around 6:30 pm and on the click of the door I felt very alone and scared.  But I wasn’t alone – next to me sleeping soundly in her little crib was Poppy – and I had no idea what to do.

I kept thinking to myself how did Miranda Kerr feel in this instance, or Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark or Posh?  Did they have any panic attacks about what to do?  They probably had 24 hour nannies and wet nurses!

I remember thinking my life will never be the same again and of course it hasn’t, but for all the right reasons.

I haven’t read any pregnancy/birthing books this time around but I will revisit the words of author Ina May Gaskin who is:

founder and director of the Farm Midwifery Center, located near Summertown, Tennessee. Founded in 1971, by 2011, the Farm Midwifery Center had handled approximately 3000 births, with remarkably good outcomes. Ms. Gaskin herself has attended more than 1200 births. She is the author of Spiritual Midwifery, now in its fourth edition…

The classic book on home birth that introduced a whole generation of women to the concept of natural childbirth. Back again are even more amazing birthing tales, including those from women who were babies in earlier editions and stories about Old Order Amish women attended by the Farm midwives.

Poppy was born in a hospital in a very conventional way, but I still enjoyed reading this book which gave me the strategies to tap into the ‘rushes’ (contractions) and to keep your hands, shoulders and mouth very relaxed during labour.  Let’s hope I can hone in on those skills again for this birth??

 It’s not just the making of babies, but the making of mothers that midwives see as the miracle of birth.