Transitions

A transition is the point where one thing or state changes to another.

Birth & Death are transitions to and from the physical plane. If you accept that your essence of being is infinite with the ability to transition between the physical & the spiritual, then there is no place for fear.

Instead of resisting and fighting these profound transitions, you can embrace and welcome them with excitement and joy.

Imagine a world where death is celebrated like birth and birth is revered like death!

A transition is often a time of weakness and vulnerability. This is only temporary as your true power lies on the other side and all that is required is persistence and patience.

For the labouring woman, transition occurs between the cervix opening and the urge to push. Many women report feeling emotional, vulnerable and overwhelmed. They often feel like they can't do it and it is a time where encouraging support is required. The baby, too, must feel vulnerable and apprehensive as their journey to be born reaches it's climactic stage.

People who have observed death, particularly of the aged or ill, report that at the time the person transitions from life, a contented and peaceful expression passes over their face relieving their facial features of worries, age or pain.

Next time you experience a transition, albeit a minor one, remember to embrace it with excitement and joy and leave fear behind!

Birth - Nature's Way

If you have ever had a pet or observed animals in their natural habitat giving birth, you will have knowledge on the key components of successfully giving birth without external aid.

Typically animals birth their young at night under the cover of darkness as a form of security and the desire not to be observed.  They find isolated, protected places for the same reason.  The act of giving birth will take all their energy and focus so they will not be able to protect themselves or their newborns if they are attacked.  Our cat gave birth the other day to 6 kittens, it was her fourth litter and each time she has found a different "safe" place to give birth undisturbed!

Animals do not have obstetricians, midwives, birth manuals, birth preparation classes or partners to tell them what to do, they instinctually trust that their body's know how to birth and they relax into the process.  

Human beings are part of the animal world and we operate with many of the same instincts.  If left to go into labour spontaneously, most women, especially first time mums, will labour and birth during the night.  We too want to feel safe and unobserved during labour and birth.  Having a baby in hospital, in an unfamiliar environment, surrounded by strangers, under bright lights, being monitored and observed constantly must place most labouring women into "stress" mode.  This stress or fear activates her"fight & flight' system, releasing adrenaline into the system, which creates the opposite physiological effect to the one required to birth naturally.

Most women "choose" to go to hospital because they believe that it is the safest place to birth.  For many decades now we have been told that women need doctors, hospitals, pain killing drugs, monitoring machines and interventions to be able to successfully birth their babies safely.

The majority of women do not need any of those things to birth naturally and safely.  

What they need is:

• a secure, safe environment
• to be mostly unobserved
• trust in their own bodies
• support by significant others in their life
• to be uninhibited so they can access their primal self

In the forty years since birth has moved primarily from the home environment to the hospital environment, there has been no significant improvement in maternal and infant mortality rates, in fact in some countries the maternal mortality rate is on the rise.  What has increased is the number of surgical births, now 30-40% in most developed countries and even as high as 80% in Brazil.  It was only 5% of births in 1970.  The use of synthetic hormones has increased astronomically and many women experience traumatic, painful and deeply dissatisfying births.

Women all around the world are being denied their right to birth in Natures Way.  Many are convinced that they need unnecessary surgery and interventions.  The trend is getting much worse and the potential exists that surgical birth could completely replace Natural birth!

The time to act is NOW!

It is time to reclaim birth - Nature's Way

Freedom for Birth

Freedom For Birth is a 60 minute campaigning documentaryfeaturing a Who's Who of leading birth experts and international Human Rightslawyers all calling for radical change to the world's maternity systems.  

Made by Britishfilmmakers Toni Harman and Alex Wakeford, Freedom For Birth filmtells the story of an Hungarian midwife Agnes Gereb who has been jailed forsupporting women giving birth at home. One of the home birth mothers  supported by Ms Gereb decided to take astand.

Hermine Hayes-Klein, US lawyer and organiser ofthe recent Human Rights in Childbirth Conference at the Hague, the Netherlandssays, “the way that childbirth is being managed in many countries around theworld is deeply problematic. Millions of pregnant women are pushed intohospitals, pushed onto their back and cut open. They are subject to unnecessarypharmaceutical and surgical interventions that their care providers openlyadmit to imposing on them for reasons of finance and convenience. Women aroundthe world are waking up to the fact that childbirth doesn't have to be likethis and it shouldn't. Disrespect and abuse are not the necessary price ofsafety”.

When pregnant with hersecond child, Anna Ternovsky took her country to the European Court of HumanRights and won a landmark case that has major implications for childbirtharound the world.

There will be over 1000 screenings of this landmark film on Thursday September 20th 2012.  Log on to www.freedomforbirth.com to find out if there is a screening near you.

I will be screening this film on Thursday October 4th at my home in South West France. 

Inspiring Story

The other night I had the priviledge and the honour to meet Olympic Gold Medallist, Kristin Armstrong.  On the night that she successfully defended her Beijing Time Trial Title, she paid tribute to her coach and family for supporting her and believing in her.
Kristin shared that with only 22 months before the Olmpics, her coach convinced her to return to training only months after the birth of her first child.  It was a struggle to get her recently pregnant body to respond to the rigours of training, however both her and her coach persevered and were richly rewarded with an amazing success.

To win one Gold Medal is an awesome achievement in itself, however to defend your title to win Gold again only two years after having a baby is truly inspiring.

Kristin shared with me that actually the birth of her child was a wonderful experience and extremely easy with only one hour of full labour.  She consciously chose not to attend birth preparation classes as she felt they engendered too much anxiety in first time mothers.  The belief Kristin had in herself surely contributed to her easy and joyful birth.

WHAT AN INSPIRATION!

How has your BIRTH influenced you?

Birth is one of most important events in our lives.  It shapes our future and most of us are unaware of how and why.  It is the point that we transition from a water mammal to an air breathing mammal.  It is our first experience with physical and emotional change.  Although many of us don’t realise it, at birth, we were conscious and making decisions.

What happened at your birth?

How might the events of your birth have influenced the way you are today?

Birth - Our first experience of CHANGE

Birth is one of most important events in our lives.  It shapes our future and most of us are unaware of how and why.  It is the point that we transition from a water mammal to an air breathing mammal.  It is our first experience with physical and emotional change.  Although many of us don’t realise it, at birth, we were conscious and making decisions.

What happened at your birth?

How might the events of your birth have influenced the way you are today?

Birth Without Violence: Trailer

Frederic Leboyer has been talking about birth from the baby's perspective for over 30 years. He acknowledges both the innate wisdom and consciousness of the newborn baby. I am grateful that I was shown his film at school when I was 15 and it created in me a desire to have beautiful births. I didn't understand what that meant at the time and I always thought I would be in a hospital or birth centre, however it was something that I drew deeply on once I actually became pregnant over 20 years later.