Some of my thoughts on birth.

As I'm sure you know, I'm expecting our 4th child in late Sept - early Oct. I am planning to have my second unassisted homebirth or freebirth. During my last pregnancy I was forced to choose an unassisted homebirth or a mw assisted hospital birth. For a lot of reasons, one main reason was that God gave me peace about the decision...I chose to birth at home... it was faith-affirming, empowering and soo educational! I learned so much in the last few months of my pregnancy about birth and about mid-wives vs med-wives (thats another post!) I found out that UC is perfect for me!

I tend to be a ppl pleaser in life and during my first two labors and births I was always looking to my med-wife for instruction and approval. Because of the fear of birth that society had taught me I couldn`t trust that my body could give birth. I was afraid of every complication and especially afraid of the pain. I took a real grit my teeth and bear it approach to pain management and somehow birthed two beautiful children. Afterward I gave all the credit to my midwives, ``without them I couldn`t have done it`` With Wesley`s birth I was forced to seek my guidance from my body and my God. I was suddenly so much more confident and comfortable! Not afraid or tense, I was relaxed and calm through the process. I had researched enough to know that complications are rare and had prayed and sought God enough to know that He would be with me, no matter what outcome.

I now view birth as a private and intimate event and can't imagine sharing the moment with anyone other than my husband!

Christianity is often seen as the reason why women experience pain in childbirth. I beleive that the KJV of the bible is the true inspired Word of God and that all other interpretations are merely words of men. The KJV does not curse Eve with simply "pain" in child-bearing as other translations do. God said "... I will greatly multiply thy SORROW and they conception; in SORROW thou shalt bring forth children" which to me was encouraging to see that it was not simply "pain" read on and you'll see that God gave the same "curse" of SORROW to Adam. Immediately, I was relieved. Clearly, God did not bestow upon all men excruciating pain while they work and eat! The word SORROW translates to "worrisomeness, labor, pain, sorrow, toil" We've got a hard job to do, but I believe that just as men can find satisfying work in this weary world, so women can find satisfying births! I've even read about women who have been able to abolish all their fears and hangups about birth and actually found the event pleasurable!?! I would definitely say that the moment my babies were born I felt joy, love, relief, release and yes PLEASURE! The other thing that I loved about my God was that He gave the job of child-bearing directly to WOMEN! not men. I believe that its my job to deliver my baby, not a midwife or a doctor or even my husband.

Its my work, and I take full responsibility for it!