The Blessings Of Giving Birth

“Remember this, for it is as true as true gets: Your body is not a lemon. You are not a machine. The Creator is not a careless mechanic. Human female bodies have the same potential to give birth well as aardvarks, lions, rhinoceri, elephants, moose, and water buffalo. Even if it has not been your habit throughout your life so far, I recommend that you learn to think positively about your body.” 
― Ina May Gaskin, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

I had three children before I learned this truth. In a flash of light I learned that there was a better way to give birth besides lying in a hospital bed, bright lights streaming on the process, a doctor coming in at the last possible moment to catch the baby and be the hero.

 Before I could understand the nuances of how to give birth I had to grow up and take responsibility for my body.

I had to do my own research and think about what I wanted to happen at my births. Did I want a doctor or a midwife? Did I want a hospital birth, a birthing center, or a home birth? Did I want medical intervention or did I want to do it naturally? My flash of understanding was not a list of what I should do. It was an understanding that I had choice. But, choice required that I take responsibility and assert my right to make those choices.

This moment of understanding would serve me well when I faced other health challenges in the future. My fourth and fifth births were with a midwife, in a birthing facility. They were empowering and satisfying. 

In later years I would attend the birth of five of my grandchildren and learn again the magnificent miracle of the entrance into mortality.

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