2011 - Talk Birth

[1]
At Montana De Oro in 2009 (waves remind me of both mystery and surrender)
I couldn’t fit this whole quote into my Facebook status today, so I’m sharing it here. I think it is a good
reminder for all of us and especially for me as I get ready to do this again sometime this very month!
Here is a [2]previous post I wrote about surrender, birth, and control and here is one about [3]distraction,
concentration, and surrender (which is a concept I love).
Every day I feel more ready to embark on my own new mystery!
Edited to add, in response to a comment about whether it might be possible to have a perfect birth:
I do think it is probably possible to have the ”perfect birth” for you, but I have yet to read/see/experience a
birth where the mother didn’t think of something that would have been nice to have different. Even with the
very blissful stories, there’s usually some kind of ”hiccup” or ”wish I would have done...” (even if it as simple
as, ”wish I would have had the placenta encapsulated). I feel like with each of my own births I ”improve”
upon whatever it was that was less than perfect last time, but then there is usually a new surprise for me
with the new birth—because each birth is its own journey and has its own lessons to impart! But, I feel like
I spend a lot of energy prior to subsequent births thinking of ways to ”fix” whatever the hiccup was with
the preceding birth (with my current pregnancy the needed ”fixes” for me are LIVE baby and minimizing
postpartum bleeding. I expect there will probably be some kind of new ”surprise” for me that will lead to
me thinking that IF I had done something different maybe THAT element could have been perfect too!).
What sounds perfect to me this time around is a very, very undisturbed (possibly unassisted) birth, but with
IMMEDIATE postpartum assistance and bloody-towel washing! ;-D
1. http://talkbirth.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/100_1980.jpg
2. http://talkbirth.wordpress.com/2010/07/12/birth-control/
3. http://talkbirth.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/distraction-concentration-surrender/
Birth Altar (2011-01-05 19:55)
Inspired by the birth altars by artist Amy Swagman of [1]The Mandala Journey, I decided I wanted to make
a special birth altar for this upcoming birth. My mom bought me a small, unfinished curio cabinet/shadow
box from Hobby Lobby to use for this purpose (thanks, Mom!). The first thing I did was to paint it ”placenta
red” using a blend of red and purple paints to get the shade I wanted. This is my favorite ”power” color:
13