There is a woman laboring in a quiet room. In the corner of the room there is one experienced, silent midwife sitting in the corner, knitting.
That's it, so simple, he said, and then he went on to explain how it was really so complex.
If there are too many people in the room with a laboring woman, she feels observed, her neural cortex is stimulated, she is unable to relax and allow her labor to progress.
Because the midwife is experienced, the woman feels safe, and knows that the midwife will know if something is not going the way that is should. And therefore all she has to do is let her body guide her through her labor.
Knitting is a repetitive task, and repetitive tasks have been scientifically proven to lower the levels of adrenaline. Adrenaline is contagious, and can therefore be transferred to the laboring woman. Adrenaline blocks the release of the Endorphin's. Endorphin's are happy hormones, love hormones, hormones that cause a person to relax. For a laboring woman, Endorphin's are the essential hormone that she produces that allows her body to relax into the labor process and enable her cervix to open easily and quickly.
We can all imagine how it would be if we were truly able to focus inward in our labor's. Imagine no interruption, nobody expecting anything from you or doing anything to you. All that there is left to do is to feel what is happening within. Imagine reaching into your place of power and feeling the energy flowing through your body, you are so in awe of how powerful and capable your body is. Feel the rise of a surge, how your uterus draws your cervix open. You feel so safe, knowing with every ounce of your being that your body was created to do this. Once you are there, you feel how your labor progresses, you can actually feel the sensation of your cervix opening. And then you feel your baby descending through the birth path, slowly, yet without resistance, and all you need to do is allow all of this to happen, to observe the miracle of birth taking place within you.
It is our chance to reclaim the feminine power of motherhood.
Yet is all stems from something so simple; Feeling safe, unobserved, and just allowing our bodies to do what they were created to do.
