Birth is POWERFUL

Here is a wonderful quoted, posted by Citizens for Midwifery on Facebook.

Citizens for Midwifery

‎"One thing you can depend upon is that your birthing will be *powerful!* Powerful pressure, powerful stretching, powerful pushing sensations and intense joy. Expect these powerful sensations and emotions, appreciate them for what they are; they bring your baby to you.” –Hypnobabies (Official)

So very, very true! As my mother-in-law told me early in my prodromal labor, you just have to let go and give in to the power for those almost consuming contractions to do their job. Sounds simple enough in theory, but the application of such a surrender in such an intense situation is a life and mind-altering experience. Many of us don't even surrender as completely as is needed for the powers of birth to take over while making love.  Relinquishing all self-control and letting all the walls come crumbling down is the biggest challenge we face when staring the power of birth in the eye. So many women either decide not to let that guard down or are unable to for whatever deep, personal reason and go straight for the medications. These are not without their own consequences, let us not forget!

Here's another quote I love:

There is a secret in our culture, it's not that birth is painful, it's that women are strong." - Laura Stavoe Harm

YOU can do it. Only YOU can tap into the primal part of YOUR brain that knows how to birth. All the childbirth classes and books in the world cannot MAKE you look birth in the eye, close  your eyes, and release...

Here are some other quotes I focused on during labor (although I didn't know I was really in labor):

"I can do all things, through Jesus Christ, who strengthens me."- Philippians 4:13

"Fear and faith cannot coexist and they both demand different conclusions and actions."- Christy Faber

"Don't fight the pain!"

"R.I.S.E.-P.E.A.K.-F.A.L.L."

"Just as a woman's heart knows how and when to pump, her lungs to exhale, and her hand to pill back from fire, so she knows when and how to give birth."- Virginia Di Orio

"One contraction at a time"

"Labor is simply a series of contractions that open the mouth of your womb and push out your baby." -Birthing from Within 

"LET GO"

"OPEN"

"Anything that I've ever done that was ultimately worthwhile... Initially scared me to death."- Betty Bender

"A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come, but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world."- John 16:21

Does it hurt? Yes, but it is a pain completely different from any other that you have experienced or will ever again experience. With the added plus of it ending with the highest "high" you will ever experience, IF you let it happen.