>>>>>Burst. Triumph. Joy<<<<<
I'm 35 weeks pregnant with my THIRD pregnancy and I'm just now realizing how much STRENGTH a woman gains through growing a little life inside of her and delivery that precious baby naturally. Do I always need to disclose this is NOT to judge mamas who need C-sections? That's never my intention, but here I am weeks away from delivering my third and I'm freshening up on some of Ina May's encouragement from her book "Birth Matters" (go read it if you haven't already!!) and it feels like God has given me a burst of strength today. It makes me want to fully embrace this journey ahead, as hard as it may be.
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I'm 35 weeks pregnant with my THIRD pregnancy and I'm just now realizing how much STRENGTH a woman gains through growing a little life inside of her and delivery that precious baby naturally. Do I always need to disclose this is NOT to judge mamas who need C-sections? That's never my intention, but here I am weeks away from delivering my third and I'm freshening up on some of Ina May's encouragement from her book "Birth Matters" (go read it if you haven't already!!) and it feels like God has given me a burst of strength today. It makes me want to fully embrace this journey ahead, as hard as it may be.
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Paul in the Bible persistently walks through some crazy difficult trials and it's not just one, it's a season of struggles one thing after the other. You would think that when we decide to put our trust in God and obey His commands that being a Christian would be easy >Wrong< He says, "We are hard pressed on every side, but. . . not crushed; perplexed. . . but not in despair, persecuted. . . . but not abandoned; struck down. . . . but not destroyed."
2 Corinthians 4:8-9
We may be really struggling through a difficult season or maybe we're oblivious to the hard realities or we really are on a mountaintop. But if we dare to believe, stand firm, and refuse to be overcome then we can come out the other side triumphant and even stronger.
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Ina May, I wish I could meet this strong, beautiful woman, she talks about how our excessively comfortable society has grown to believe pain is a bad thing and it should be avoided at all cost. She says PAIN is in the history of all wisdom. My question is why are we so scared of pain? Women throughout history have been giving birth naturally and embracing every twist in life, and look how many strong women we can look to. Ina May wholeheartedly believes women are fear mongered into delivering their babies at hospitals in the hands of controlling doctors and their sense of strength and power is slowly being taken away.
When I was in tears by page 3 of the foreword, I knew I was in trouble, she was taking the words right out of my mouth. I feel alone sometimes when I tell moms I'm delivering naturally with no pain meds or that I wouldn't take an epidural again. I get wide eyed looks when I say I was induced, given pitocin and delivered with no pain interventions or that I'm delivering at a birth center this time. Women who I KNOW are strong, confident, beautiful women who could embrace birth and face the experience full on, but are fear mongered into believing hospital is best and doctor knows best. I am no stronger, no better than any other woman and yet I'm in the minority as the c-section rates continue to increase to 1 in 3 births. My heart just breaks in a million pieces at the rising reality that women's strength is being taken away and they don't even realize it, all because they're choosing the route they believe is the safest.
"Pregnancy and childbirth are meant to be a time in women's lives when they bond with other women and all of womanhood, and come into a new sense of themselves and their capabilities." She goes on later to say "..or (Birth) can be disempowering, by removing from new mothers any sense of inner strength or capacity and leaving them convinced their bodies were made by a malevolent nature to punish them in labor and birth."
Can you imagine how much JOY and strength a woman can gain by embracing this incredible experience of birth? Or imagine the tragedy when a woman just powerlessly surrenders to enduring it?
I keep getting this mental picture of bursting, like a runner bursting at the finish line or the sun bursting so bright. It makes me want to press on through every trial, every pain, every discomfort and embrace all of it, and imagine my life after when Cora is born, we're moved into our new house and I can feel a sense of strength bigger than myself, a strength only God can give.
<><><><><><><><><><>
My heart is for moms to get informed and discover the true journey in birth they're meant to walk, not the path they're told to take and find their strength they didn't even know they had.
Dare to imagine the burst of joy and strength God can give you through embracing the experience the way He designed birth to be.
<><><><><><>
2 Corinthians 4:8-9
We may be really struggling through a difficult season or maybe we're oblivious to the hard realities or we really are on a mountaintop. But if we dare to believe, stand firm, and refuse to be overcome then we can come out the other side triumphant and even stronger.
<><><><><><><>
Ina May, I wish I could meet this strong, beautiful woman, she talks about how our excessively comfortable society has grown to believe pain is a bad thing and it should be avoided at all cost. She says PAIN is in the history of all wisdom. My question is why are we so scared of pain? Women throughout history have been giving birth naturally and embracing every twist in life, and look how many strong women we can look to. Ina May wholeheartedly believes women are fear mongered into delivering their babies at hospitals in the hands of controlling doctors and their sense of strength and power is slowly being taken away.
When I was in tears by page 3 of the foreword, I knew I was in trouble, she was taking the words right out of my mouth. I feel alone sometimes when I tell moms I'm delivering naturally with no pain meds or that I wouldn't take an epidural again. I get wide eyed looks when I say I was induced, given pitocin and delivered with no pain interventions or that I'm delivering at a birth center this time. Women who I KNOW are strong, confident, beautiful women who could embrace birth and face the experience full on, but are fear mongered into believing hospital is best and doctor knows best. I am no stronger, no better than any other woman and yet I'm in the minority as the c-section rates continue to increase to 1 in 3 births. My heart just breaks in a million pieces at the rising reality that women's strength is being taken away and they don't even realize it, all because they're choosing the route they believe is the safest.
"Pregnancy and childbirth are meant to be a time in women's lives when they bond with other women and all of womanhood, and come into a new sense of themselves and their capabilities." She goes on later to say "..or (Birth) can be disempowering, by removing from new mothers any sense of inner strength or capacity and leaving them convinced their bodies were made by a malevolent nature to punish them in labor and birth."
Can you imagine how much JOY and strength a woman can gain by embracing this incredible experience of birth? Or imagine the tragedy when a woman just powerlessly surrenders to enduring it?
I keep getting this mental picture of bursting, like a runner bursting at the finish line or the sun bursting so bright. It makes me want to press on through every trial, every pain, every discomfort and embrace all of it, and imagine my life after when Cora is born, we're moved into our new house and I can feel a sense of strength bigger than myself, a strength only God can give.
<><><><><><><><><><>
My heart is for moms to get informed and discover the true journey in birth they're meant to walk, not the path they're told to take and find their strength they didn't even know they had.
Dare to imagine the burst of joy and strength God can give you through embracing the experience the way He designed birth to be.
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