March, 2009

Opening for Birth

The December 2001 edition of the IJCE contains an article titled "The Pelvis Revisited" by Elizabeth Noble. An interesting article overall, I particularly enjoyed the language of the section titled Opening for Birth:

"Birth is what women do. Women are privileged to stand in such power! Birth stretches a woman's limits in every sense. To allow such stretching of one's limits is the challenge of pregnancy, birth, and parenting. The challenge is to be fully present and to allow the process because of inner trust. How can women find their power, claim it, and stand firm in it throughout? The vertical position comes again into prominence. Women must 'stand up' for what they want and 'on their own two feet' by refusing to take their birth 'lying down'! Being upright is essential for pelvic power--psychological strength, pelvic mobility, gravity's assistance, pelvic pump efficiency, and the hygienic downflow of bodily fluids."

In the September 1999 issue, the article Belly-Dancing Through Pregnancy: A Way to Give Birth and Not Be Delivered by Gaby Mardshana Oeftering caught my eye. In it, she also addresses the needs to build inner trust and to open to birth through physical movement and an active approach to birthing: