Eyes Wide Open

I am freshly home from a fabulous birth. The scent of new baby still in my subconscious. I managed to sleep for about three hours and wa la, eyes wide open. I am enjoying an amazing summer after a mind-bending year of school. Why does my brain still want to work in over drive?

So back to my spectacular evening, I have now attended One Hundred One Births, each and every one of them as special as the divine one before. My baby this evening is number 101, I attended the birth of my newborns’ big brother and am so very privileged to receive him this evening. We started our evening with the usual suspects, Mom, Dad, well meaning friends and family and our ever so special labor nurses. After all of the logistics were worked into place we began our walk around the hospital and outside compass. My laboring mommy and I are kindred spirits in the “I need to be outside, and give me space kind of way”. Let my toes be free in the grass, to feel the warmth of the Earth beneath me, and my contractions are manageable. This event sparked the interest of the hospital security, who promptly called L&D and report that there was a women “squatting outside, and in labor” hmmmmmm. Should I be concerned? Legalities? Who really holds shares in my woman’s womb, or mind? I will continue to advocate for the right to choose on the part and for those in labor. In our post-industrialized society we live in we have lost so much freedom. Pregnancy is not an illness, and birth is not a disease to be medicated or controlled by others decisions. Education and freedom are power. I am however grateful for the awareness.

As the breeze became a bit chili and the contractions stronger and more powerful we moved inside and into the birthing tub. Water, Air, Earth, Hips, Bosom, Power; The form not to be diffused by the distractions around us, as the place is held unwavering. The flow of energy, the swelling and aching contractions, the weightlessness of the body in the water, as labor should be, the bath of birth all kept in rhythm, in sync, in the elements we held steadfast to within our grasp.

As the pressure and burn became without dismissal we gently moved to the birth bed. Twenty-seven minutes later a new life emerged before my eyes. Eyes wide open, and filled with tears of joy and honor, to be a part of this miracle, is beyond my realm of vocabulary.

As Mr. Walt Whitman has said, “Be not ashamed women, your privilege encloses the rest, and is the exit of the rest, You are the gates of the body, and you are the gates of the soul”.

To encapsulate what is truly divine, to seal the pearl in the shell and let it be released, to know, it is woman. It is a secret society that grows and changes with each birth, a fledgling is transported into the sisterhood.