Mothers bring forth life

"Mothers bring forth life; medical corporations do not. Birth can be simple, powerful and loving."

I recently took care of a mom that had not been able to get pregnant for 9 years. For her, this process of pregnancy and birth had been very medical, and there was a great deal of fear involved. I understood that her fear was coming from the fact that this had been a much desired child that had taken medical care to conceive. But through her fears, I saw the face of a great love for this child come through. It was amazing, to say the least.

This birth was also very medical, due to how the physician preferred to practice. The baby was also experiencing some difficulties and needed to be born quickly. It was a birth that could have been traumatic.

I encouraged mom, to focus on what she could do. Staying focused on her baby and staying calm to allow her placenta to be able to perfuse her baby more(stress can cause the blood flow to deviate away from the uterus to support other vital organs). Her husband was so fabulous at helping her to stay calm and focus on what she was doing. After baby was born, she was taken away to make sure things were OK, but all other procedures were delayed and she was back with mom within a few min. tucked in skin-to-skin. This was something the mom requested and I loved the delight she had in her eyes as she did this. It was neat too to see how the baby really did do better sitting right next to her mom.

The reason I mention this instance with this quote is because this was absolutely the moms birth. I felt her strength and abilities take over when they needed to, and her desire for her baby to be with her was neat to watch. This was a birth that was very medicalized, but I still felt the truth of these words from this quote. We did not bring forth this life, the mom did. I hope she realized this.