Birth preparation

I have finally decided, after all my blogging, what I feel birth preparation should entail.  There are three aspects that I feel really need to be included..the spirtual, the emotional, and the physical.  The physical part is so important to understand, but I feel like so often that is it is the only thing we learn.  We think so much about what happens to us physically (i.e. the pain, the dilation, how that baby actually gets here, safety of both mom and baby), that we forget about the other two equally important factors.  And I feel it's sad that so often these other elements are missing from our modern births.  I really think this has more to do with how we view birth rather than what kind of birth we actually have.

I also feel like it is important to recoginize this time as a time of transition and transformation.  Not only of a mother, but of a family unit.  I remember after I had my third child, they handed him to me while the cord was still attatched.  I was a little awed at that, thinking that that was what was connecting me to him.  Then it was cut, and I felt myself having to acknowledge that seperation.  I think this was a time when I felt that transformation more keenly than at any other time.  It serves as a reminder to me of our connections to our children and the constantly changing nature that they are.