The Birthing Wisdom Approach
The aim of
Birthing Wisdom
is to bring out and complement the knowledge,
skills and qualities the women bring with them to
the course.
• On a physical/practical level this could mean
teaching relaxation skills or birthing positions.
• On an emotional level it could be deeply
listening and practicing being fully present for
someone else.
• On a mental level it could be having enough clear
and up-to-date information to be able to help the
pregnant woman/couple make informed choices or
exploring our unchallenged beliefs and their impact
on the birthing woman and environment.
• On a spiritual level this could mean helping the
mother/father connect and bond with their unborn
child during the pregnancy and Birth.
But what makes
Birthing Wisdom
a unique course is the emphasis on ‘embodying ‘ in
our lives as well as in our work what we feel is
the essence of Birth:
• being open, able to release control, moving with
and surrendering to the process
• being able to move from our thinking brain into
our knowing body and deeper intuitive consciousness
• trusting ourselves, our intuition and our deep
woman wisdom.
• keeping connected to our centre and source of
strength.
In the following birth story, threads of the
philosophy underpinning
Birthing Wisdom
are woven...read on.
The Birth
Dancer
I remember.... once, during a birth, sitting in the
corner of a darkened room in a simple bungalow.
There was hardly any furniture. A bed, a couple of
chairs, some cushions and a big pile of books. All
over the walls were inspiring pictures of beautiful
landscapes, mainly of wild seas and flowing rivers.
The woman was kneeling on the bed resting over some
bean bags, quiet and still. As the next
surge/contraction began, she raised herself and
started her birth dance, spiraling her hips to some
tune only she could hear, her breath flowing freely
like a meandering river. She seemed to know exactly
what to do at every moment. Her whole being
responding with exquisite beauty and power to the
waves of raw energy coursing through her body.
There was woman..in her power.. birthing Goddess..
needing no-one.. whole onto herself.
No
text book she read, no technique she practiced
could have taught her how to be this birth dancer.
The wisdom guiding her was from deep within
herself, from the same well that many other
birthing women had drunk before.
I remember this Birth dancer at another point in
her birth, confused, searching for re-assurance and
guidance from outside herself, having lost the
magic thread that had weaved such a powerful path
through the crashing contractions.
There was woman...in her vulnerability... her human
fragility, sometime needing a touch, a word but
above all yearning for the total loving acceptance
and 'presence' of another, to reach beyond her wall
of fear and resistance and re-member the powerful
goddess she
also
is, and the resources and wisdom deep within her.
A birthing woman is both vulnerable and powerful,
human and Goddess.
When lost in her human fragility she may sometimes
need the 'Presence' of another to help her
re-member all that she is, all that she can be.
She had prepared herself for this Birth, although
most of her preparation had been about undoing,
unlearning and re-membering.....in the end her
birth story was her life story.
We birth as we live.
In this time when so many of us live our daily
lives struggling to stay connected and aware, many
women seem to need to consciously prepare
themselves for birthing well.
This preparation may take many forms. There are as
many ways to birth as there are to live and just as
our birth impacts on our experience of life, our
life experience impacts on our Birth.
Some of this life experience forms part of the
birth tool kit or medecine birth bag. Other
experiences will need to be released, healed or
transformed as part of the birth and parenting
preparation.
Preparing for the Birth of our child is a personal
journey,
not a standard path.
We have gathered over the last 17 years the best
tools we have found from the many birth
preparations methods around and also created our
own out of our experiences as doulas, childbirth
educators, mothers and coach/ counsellors. Out of
all this exploration, our approach eventually
emerged and it is an on-going organic process, like
life itself.
Explore our site, and if you feel the calling, send
us an email, give us a ring or come and join us one
of our
"Introduction to
Birth"
days.
It will be a wonderful journey!
It is always such a gift to sit in circle with
women and deepen our connection to ourselves and
each other.