Positive Birth Stories

A midwife told me this story and it always makes me smile: She was called out to the homebirth of a woman whose labour had stalled when she was nearly fully dilated. As the midwife headed out the door, she had a sudden intuition to bring a certain CD. When she arrived, the labouring mother was tired but determined and ready to try anything. The midwife put the CD on of the old disco hit “OH- Shake, Shake, Shake….Shake, Shake, Shake…Shake your Bootie…Shake your Bootie!!!” And they all danced and gyrated and shook their hips together…and the baby was born. Happy, healthy and naturally.

I went into labour at 29 weeks and heard the words , “You know of course that your baby will die.” I glared at the Doctor and muttered, “Over my dead body.”

Anguish, fear, powerlessness, isolation engulfed me. How could I help this vigorously kicking child to survive? Pranayama flashed into my mind. Yes, I would step back and breathe- the longer I could hold the breath in my body, the greater chance of the baby receiving the oxygen up to the point of birth. My goal- to create a calm oxygen-filled environment within myself where Life as we know it could triumph.

Strong movement indicated this being was “in it”- the fight for the opportunity to live this life. I felt the survival of my child also depended on the degree of control I could maintain over my emotions, mind and breath.

I struggled- now an anguished mother; now controlled and strong as steel. I kept exhorting “you can do this, together we can do this.”- I continued pranayama.

No humidicrib in the delivery room. They wouldn’t need one. Sad the child would die but the midwives would witness another premi birth. Then- “The baby isn’t cyanosed, quick! bring a humidicrib!”

Suddenly I was alone, shocked. A son? A daughter? Had I done enough? Had we prevailed?

We did win. Kachina turned thirty last January, is beautiful and remembers her birth.

Yes, even thirty years ago someone successfully used yoga to facilitate a safe birth against the odds.

This story was published in Australian Yoga Life and submitted by Gayle at specialtybooks@iprimus.com.au

I was very quiet during my first labour and I realized I had been too tense, too self-contained and too controlling. I needed ways to let go and really loosen up during my next labour. I had heard about the benefits of chanting so I bought myself an “OM” CD and tried chanting to it during my pregnancy.

On the day I went into labour, it was early morning and I was home alone with my 18 month old. I put on the CD and the two of us walked up and down the hallway, holding hands and chanting OM! He thought it was hilarious and he would giggle and giggle.

The chanting and the giggling really helped me.

I could feel my body relaxing- deep layers within me that I hardly knew existed were letting go. It really was like the tight bud of a flower blossoming.

This labour was posterior just as my first one had been and I had been dreading the low back pain.

But through chanting, giggling and visualising myself blossoming like a flower, I found all the pain went away! I thought it was a miracle! I was ecstatic!

Then I got scared because I was home alone and didn’t know how much longer my husband would be. And as soon as I lost focus and felt that fear, all the pain came back.

So I put all my energy into holding my visualisations, chanting and relaxing my body deeply. And it worked.

I know we truly have powers we never knew we had!

Danette Watson (my second birth)

During my third labour, I felt very relaxed so I decided to play with a few “techniques” to see how they affected my contractions.

First, I tried chanting OM (which had been very effective for me during my second birth) but it didn’t feel right. So I tried OO and EE and OH and a few other sounds and then I tried AHHHH with a smile on my face as if I was letting out a big sigh of relief. And that felt SOOOO good so I kept doing it. I had found that right sound for me. I could even feel the different places in my body where the sounds vibrated and AHHH must have vibrated in just the right spot!

Then, I thought about how so many women fear having a really big baby. My last baby was 10 lbs. so I visualized a 10 pound baby while also visualising how big I thought my vagina was. The next contraction, I couldn’t help but tense my whole body and I nearly crossed my legs!!! It was a very painful contraction!

So with the next contraction, I visualised a tiny little bunny this size of a walnut (I had read that bunny babies are smaller than a mother bunny’s birth passage) and I pictured my vagina as big and open as a toilet seat. The contraction that followed was painless but it was overpowering as I felt my whole birth passage open up and it felt that my whole pelvic floor dropped away. It scared me because I knew the baby had just about come out with that one contraction!!!

What a powerful visualisation for me and my body!

My beautiful Tessa was born 2 contractions later into the loving arms of her father.

Danette Watson

I had four children at home, all under 5, when I found out I was pregnant again. It took some getting used to but I finally settled happily into the pregnancy and looked forward to our last baby being born. I spent the pregnancy looking after myself and really getting the house and our family routine organised so we could all enjoy each other. My pregnancy was happy and our house was peaceful and content. I went into labour and everything was progressing normally until I started to feel the urge to push. Then everything suddenly stopped. My labour just petered out. No one was sure why. I started to worry as the nurses and doctor began suggesting interventions. My instincts told me I needed to be alone with my husband. Once we were alone, I realized I was scared to have the baby because it felt like the wheels would fall off the cart! I had our life organised and running smoothly but I doubted my ability to do this with this new baby. We talked for about 10 minutes about how we could manage together. Then my contractions started again and I had a beautiful baby girl. It was a powerful lesson to me in the power of our minds and our fears to block birth but also to trust your instincts and what is “coming up for you.” I needed to Embrace Change and I did!

This is a link to a beautiful video/story about a woman coming into her strength and eventually having the natural birth she had been striving for:

http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=2a4e81fbf0f66accb8afce

A wonderful woman shared this story with me:

She was the last woman from her antenatal class to give birth and every woman before her had ended up with a caesarean.

She was quite anxious.

Her labour went well for a while, though it was quite long. Then everything went pear-shaped and the doctor was starting to talk about a caesarean.

She was determined.

She remembered an exercise she did in acting class where the students were asked to act like they were experts in a certain professional field that they knew nothing about.

So she decided to act like she was an expert birther.

She began making the noises and doing the actions she thought a woman would do if she was a really good natural birther.

And it worked. In a short time, her labour was back on track and she birthed her baby naturally.

She now knows she IS an expert at birthing her own babies.

Sometimes you have to “Fake it til you make it.”

And sometimes you just have to believe in yourself.

When I was pregnant with my first baby, a client of mine told me this story. She changed my whole perspective on the possibilities of birth and probably changed my life:
When I went into labour, every contraction was like an orgasm. It was absolutely amazing and wonderful. The worst part of the whole thing was when the doctor held up my baby and I realized it was all over.

AFter hearing this story, I did my own research and found that birth hormones are lover hormones. Oxytocin is the same hormone in labour or in orgasm.

I attended the beautiful second birth of a friend that I will never forget. I arrived just after midnight and Elle was outside walking in the garden with her husband. She seemed to be just holding it together and it turned out she was in transition.

She decided to come inside and get into the birthing pool. She was on all fours and very vocal during contractions when she would grab my hands as well and hold tight.

Suddenly, she grew very still and quiet. We could barely hear her breathing. Everything seemed to have stopped.

After a few minutes, she raised her head with the biggest smile and look of ecstasy on her face. She said, “I think I’m with God!”

Then she birthed her baby girl.

I felt so privileged to be there. The spiritual energy in the room that night was awe-inspiring!

Pregnancy and the Miracle of Receiving a Baby’s Soul

by Jennifer Rodriguez-Allen

One of the most magical moments in my life occurred over seven years ago while I was pregnant with my daughter, Soka.
Prior to the conception of our baby, my husband and I prayed for her to come into existence. Because I had lost my previous child to miscarriage, I also spent my entire pregnancy praying to keep the spark of life inside my body. I also prayed for answers to problems concerning the conditions of our era such as how my daughter was going to survive and be happy on this polluted, divided planet.

“Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find”
Sometime during the eighth month of my pregnancy, I had the sensation of an incredible energy coming into the top of my head, through my body and into the womb. The sensation began in a small sac located on the crown of the head known as the pineal gland. To this day, the experience is best described as a golden shower of energy radiating through my body. The golden feeling lasted for two to three minutes. During this time, I asked for and received a name for my child. I also received an answer to relieve my fears, a dream told me that my child’s survival lies in a positive relationship with the natural world.
Receiving the soul of my daughter allowed for all my spiritual energy wheels, commonly known as chakras, to open. My pregnancy began at the red-colored base chakra of a purely physical existence and it finished with the opening of the violet-colored crown chakra of spiritual existence after I received a new soul. Remembering this experience has allowed me to keep myself spiritually clean and has given me a spiritual foundation to re-orient myself in times of crisis and confusion.

You do not need to be a spiritual person to experience this sensation – even spiritually neutral scientific thought recognizes that the existence of all living things is of both matter and energy.
I hope that fellow women will benefit from this openness about my experience by increasing their expectations on the positive aspects of becoming a mother. I believe that:
• We women should ask to experience the sensation of receiving a soul while pregnant in a somewhat conscious state.
• We women should ask to remember receiving our child’s soul if we did not have words to describe what happened at the time
• We women should ask for guidance on how to ensure the survival of our children and expect answers.
• We women should view conscious soul reception as a spiritually liberating process for us.
•The experience of receiving a soul can serve as a long term reference point to aid us in times of crisis.
• There is an ancient African expression that women are mothers of all things – good and bad. On the positive side, we need to use our experiences such as that of receiving the soul to re-affirm our good intentions towards this planet and towards others. On the negative side, we need to recognize that when we do not believe in ourselves or in our capacity to create and love, we contribute to the unjust treatment of others and to the further destruction of this planet.
• Finally, I would like to add that the development of our sense of our spiritual liberation has an enormous benefit for men because it truly allows them to increase their own spiritual capacity to do and make good things. Men, too, have suffered psychological damage by being forced to curse, damn and oppress women in the name of orthodox patriarchy. This includes the pressure to renounce their mothers and to betray their wives and daughters. To work to set yourself spiritually free and to allow space for the demonstration of inner peace contributes to the process of liberating man from a system that does not give him space to heal his wounds and be true to his heart. (Note Ladies, this might be our brothers, friends, lovers, husbands, sons or great-great grandsons. True freedom takes time and requires a sense of support. Please, don’t be discouraged and keep the love in your hearts!).
If you would like to share your own personal experiences of receiving a soul or would like to contribute to our community of exchange of information, visit our new community support website agooagii.suddenlaunch3.com to participate in our forum.

It was 15 years ago when I had been in labour with my daughter for 14 hours. I had refused any medical intervention and at that point was exhausted and frustrated. She wasn’t lying right so the doctor suggested a caesarean section- which I did not want. My little one was fast asleep and would not move. I tried lying in different positions, as well as massaging my belly. Nothing seemed to work. And then I remembered that during my prenatal yoga sessions whenever I did this one particular pose, my baby in utero would always start moving. So while the doctor and nurses were outside my room planning my caesarean, I laid down on my back, pulled my knees up alongside my belly, and began rolling gently from one side to the other. And sure enough I felt my baby girl to begin to move. I felt a very strong twist- she was turning herself around into the right position for birth. With the onset of intense contractions, my midwife came in at just the right time. “I can see her black hair already,” she cried out. The doctor came running in, looking incredulous. It took 15 minutes more, but then all of a sudden there she was- the most beautiful child I could have ever imagined, my daughter Mira. Today Mira and I practice yoga together. Namaste, Mira.