Birthing in Balance

by Kara Maia Spencer, www.MaiaHealingArts.com 

Birth is an intrinsically natural rite in the cycle of life. Every living being has the wisdom of how to birth safely encoded into its genes. A baby in the womb is ecologically encased in its own ecosystem - the amniotic sac. At birth, the baby emerges from the ecosystem, becoming inoculated with the elements of the new ecosystem it enters. Ecological balance is vital for health as the baby transitions from womb to world.

Living beings strive for homeostasis - the balance between internal and external health. Living in harmony with nature creates health, well-being, and vitality. During the primal period of conception through the first year, the mother's ecology directly encompasses and affects the child's ecology. When the time of birth, method of birth, and postpartum transition is rushed or tampered with, it lessens the natural ability for homeostasis. Trust in the ecological intelligence of nature to procreate.

The ecology of childbirth consists of the dynamic relationships between the mother, baby, and the birth environment. Whether at home, a birth center, or hospital, the location of birth becomes the bioregion of birth, thus directly affecting the ecological balance of health of the mother and baby.

Pregnancy, birth, and parenting are  essential elements of human life. Every human being was born, and the fact that we not only exist, but thrive on this Earth, shows us that birth is fundamentally  safe. If it isn't safe, then how did we survive before the last 100 years of obstetrics? If technology can improve upon nature, then how come technological birth carries higher risks to mother and baby?

The biodynamic traditions of midwifery and natural childbirth are founded in wisdom and science. In situations where maternal and infant health needs improvement, usually education and public health programs in nutrition, midwifery, hygiene, family planning, and social services are what the community needs, not medicalized birthing or more surgical suites at the labor and delivery ward.

Health and balance can be unearthed during the childbearing year by working with the elements of nature and utilizing holistic healing arts to prepare your body, mind, heart, and soul for the task of birth and parenting. Healing arts have been used for millennia by wise women healers, herbalists, and midwives, to prepare women for the powerful rite of passage of birth. Healing remedies such as massage, acupressure, acupuncture, herbalism, yoga, dance, prayer, ritual, meditation, hydrotherapy, and energetic/spiritual healing, are all tools to ease the transitions of pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum. These natural healing modalities encourage the mother and baby to reach homeostasis.

Nature is infinitely wise and powerful. Nature loves to procreate. We call our planet "Mother Earth" and refer to the living force of creation on our planet as "Mother Nature". We are all co-creators of life. The less that the ecology of birth is interfered with then the safer it is.

Artwork by Ethereal 

Comments

[EtherealEpona]

Thank you for associating my art w/such a lovely and poignant article. I grieve for women who choose c-sections or sensation dulling drugs, and of course for those who are forced into them, either by true complications or western culture's inability to leave well enough alone.

The power and connection you feel to the earth and sisters in birth and even your partner are the likes of which you'll likely never encounter again until death, and those who have reached that milestone aren't able to tell us about it. And if you reach the crowning w/out having felt labor, how can you empathise w/the child who has just left the only home and only mother he's ever known? (paraphrased from Gentle Birth by Frederick LeBoyer)

It is imperitive that we feel our connections, lest we lose them all forever, for how can you fight for something which you have never known?

E