By Sophie Fletcher

Yesterday my friend Katie rang to say her cat, Sox, had finally given birth to the kittens we knew she was expecting. Last week we were watching her intently over coffee, her belly swaying in time with her step, noticing that as she lay down in various places in the sun trying to get comfortable she couldn’t lie for long.   We had a feel of her belly and you could feel at least 3 kittens in there moving around.   We hedged bets on when she would give birth, neither thinking it would be within the next few days.

Suddenly, Sox’s behaviour changed and she was restless, clawing at boxes in the study near where Katie has been making a box for her to nest in.  Birth was sure to be imminent! Katie put the box down for Sox and left the study. Tom her youngest had been unwell and having a few sleepless nights, so there had been lots of noise and movement through the night, but in the afternoon just after Katie popped the box down and joined Tom for an afternoon nap, Sox snuggled up in the afternoon quiet in her box in the darkness underneath the desk and gave birth to four kittens. Coming down an hour or so after putting the box out and having a nap Katie found her licking the sac off the kittens.

The study has become a no go area after the birth, so Sox can feed and nurture her kittens in quiet, undisturbed by the three rowdy children in the house.   My children are allowed to go and peek into the box, but not make their presence known and certainly not to touch the kittens at this stage.

We have more in common with Sox in how we birth than we think. One of the prerequisites for a good birth is that the mother is undisturbed, that she feels safe and that her environment supports this.  During her birth Sox was in the darkness under a desk away from prying eyes and free from people and interruption. She felt comfortable in her nest. Us humans make a joke of our ‘nesting instinct’ but it’s a wonderful reminder of the instinctive birthing mammal within us.

If you compare the expectations of Sox’s birth to your own, you realize that we didn’t know when Sox’s kittens were to be born, we just knew that she’d been getting bigger and slower! There was no due date at all.  We simply guessed when she’d give birth, we even had no idea when labour started.

When Sox gave birth, she instinctively knew when it was quiet and she wouldn’t be interrupted – when the house was sleeping.  This reminds me of a story that someone told me of how she labored really well while her birth attendant was sleeping, and that the gentle reassuring snoring helped her. She knew someone was there, and would be there if she needed them, but at the same time was utterly confident that she wasn’t been watched and would not be interrupted.

Then after the birth, Sox had time to bond with her kittens, us knowing that she may reject them, if the children or we touched them.   Her space will be kept quiet and protected for a few weeks at least.

If you compare this gentle, quiet experience to the bright lights of hospital, people chatting away, noise and interruption everywhere then you can begin to understand where we are going wrong. At the end of the day we are animals, with big brains that get in the way of birth.  Animals don’t have birth manuals, they just know what to do.  Let your brain go to sleep, let your animal instinct wake up and tune into what you want for your birth.   It’s probably not so different from what Sox wanted.

Babies need to be water with love and patience.

 Why the fuss about birth and not the baby? 

By Sophie Fletcher

“Whatever the present moment contains, accept is as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life.” 

Eckhart Tolle

Recently I was reminded by a friend about the bigger picture.  She said birth is just a small part of the journey we experience as pregnant women. The much bigger part of the experience is what comes after – motherhood. She wondered why women are so focused on the actual birth rather than their baby and suggested that this preoccupation with birth prevents a woman from wholly preparing to be a mother, connecting with her baby on their journey.

There is no doubt that the focus has shifted from having a baby, and the baby themselves, to how the women are going to manage the birth, get the right pushchair, finish the nursery, perhaps moving house (surprisingly common!) or how long their maternity leave is going to be.   In our Mindful Mamma classes at the beginning we ask everyone to spontaneously write on a note the first word that springs to mind when you think of birth, very often baby isn’t in the mix, instead words like pain, control, blood, long and hard work float to the surface from fears harbored in the unconscious.

But the truth of it is that from conception to birth to motherhood is a life creating, life changing, daunting, challenging and absobloodylutely incredible journey. Birth is just a moment, an intense moment, of a period in your life that will bring you highs and lows, tears and laughter, fear and joy.   There is nothing more frightening than a baby making their first wobbly steps near your mother-in-law’s granite fireplace and nothing more wonderful than your baby’s chubby arms loosely clasped around your neck as they fall asleep rhythmically breathing into your ear.   But we don’t dwell on any of these before they happen, we experience those moments as they happen and enjoy them or manage them skillfully in the moment.

Imagine conception as the planting of a seed, the seed growing beneath the surface nurtured by the soil, out of sight but watched expectantly until it breaks through the surface.  The plant continues to grow but from this moment is reliant on the water and sunlight to grow and blossom.   Just as this plant needs water and sunlight your baby needs your love, care and gentle compassion to nourish their emotional well-being and growth.

Motherhood can be a wonderful thing and it can also be a mirror of birth in terms of the emotions.  There is fear, there is sometimes that sense of losing control, and there is joy, happiness, the worry of not knowing what is the right way and wrong way to do it.

Birth is just the beginning, and just like motherhood you can choose to get on and do it and do it your way, intuitively with love, strength and patience.   Your baby’s journey into this world begins at birth, just as your journey into motherhood begins and your partner’s journey into fatherhood begins.

So allow yourself to become aware in this moment of your baby, the core of your being, your connection with each other and how you are moving forward together hand in hand on a new, exciting and eventful journey that will last long after the birth.

Prior to the birth, allow yourself the time to reflect on what type of teacher you want to be, how you want your baby to learn. Being mindful of that responsibility, reflecting and welcoming that role will in turn strengthen and prepare you the birth – the moment that your journey begin and the moment that your flower nudges through the soil and begins to grow into a beautiful blossom cared for and loved by you.

Seven months pregnant and counting 

By Sophie Fletcher

Seven. This seems to be a significant number when it comes to birth and the feelings that arise at seven months pregnant.

Phone calls from mums enquiring about our Mindful Mamma antenatal classes often come when they are seven months pregnant, a frantic “I’ve only got 12 weeks to go, is it too late?”“The fact that I’ve got to give birth in 8 weeks has only just dawned on me”.Why is it that mums to be suddenly make a psychological shift to thinking about the birth at this stage in their pregnancy?

The pragmatists amongst us would say, well of course the closer we get to something the more we think about it, so it stands to reason that the closer we get to birth, the more prominent that event becomes in our thinking until at one point, at about seven months pregnant, it begins to dominate our thoughts.

Putting pragmatism aside, I still believe that it is uncannily consistent and this interests me; why always when women are seven months pregnant? Then I read some research by Cyna et al, one of the better meta analyses of hypnosis for birth, and their findings showed that the best time to start preparing for birth using hypnosis was when women were around seven months pregnant.

I’m sure that it’s because there is shift in the mother towards the birth. For me this is similar to a microcosmic maternal individuation process, an unconscious shift, that begins to integrate the parts of the mother, the baby and the father as well as the surrounding community, in preparation for their new relationship as father and mother and their unit as a family.

Carl Jung, the famous psychoanalyst, talked about individuation as being a process that we undertake largely in the second part of our lives, but I strongly believe that a similar process of individuation takes place, on a smaller scale, in a mother during pregnancy and the birth itself and that this process begins in earnest at around seven months pregnant.

“Jung understood individuation to be something that began in the second half of life, when individuals reach the zenith of their lives and suddenly find themselves facing an unknown vista or some unforeseen upheaval. Sometimes this turning point takes the form of a crisis: such as a financial failure, a health problem, a broken relationship, or a change of residence or profession – something which upsets the status quo. Sometimes this experience assumes the form of a profound self-doubt, a loss of meaning or religious conviction, a questioning of everything previously held so dear. Sometimes it presents itself as a deep yearning or a call to change direction. And many times, it can manifest itself in powerful dreams and fantasies.”

We all know that women have pregnant women have powerful dreams, often difficult to understand.These dreams surface from a maelstrom of feelings and emotions during a time of profound change in true Jungian style.

At this stage all sorts of doubts and worries may begin to come up to the surface, doubts in their ability to birth, doubts as to whether they will be a good mother, feelings about their own childhood or their own relationship to their mother might arise.I’ve even heard some women say that they were faced with their own fear of death, during labour, something described by Leboyer in his landmark video “Birth without Violence”.But how empowering. Imagine being able to face your deepest fears, knowing you are loved and supported by all those around you, and to be able to conquer those fears and to come out on the other side, richer for the experience.

Just as with the formal process of Jungian individuation, with birth we become stronger, different, more aware of our own abilities to reach deep within our own resources and to come out understanding the extent of our own personal power. It is transformational, a gift and it upsets me that this is taken away, damped down and denied by unnecessary interventions or drugs during birth. When people ask me “why not take the drugs”, “what’s the point in experiencing a normal birth when you don’t have to feel anything”, I want to tell them that it is important to feel something, to be aware, to be in command, to be immersed in your true capabilities, but it’s quite an abstract concept to describe to someone who is set on an epidural.

It’s my belief that for some reason 7 months pregnant marks the start of this process.In the wonderful book ‘Birth Traditions’ by Jacqueline Vincent Priya different traditions across the world are explored, and they are remarkably consistent, the same themes emerge, but in different ways.One of those that is the ‘7 month ceremony”.

Priya writes that “Seven is a number with magical and spiritual significance…in many places this is the time for a special ceremony. Often this is carried out in the first pregnancy so that as well as protecting the couple and their unborn baby, preparing them for birth, it also established the couple socially in the status of potential family”.

Nowadays I see more of my clients undertaking what’s known as Bessingways to begin this journey when they are seven months pregnant and see it as a more meaningful alternative to a baby shower. It’s an opportunity to invite just a few close friends and have a celebration of the baby’s life and your journey into motherhood.

Here are some suggestions for a few things to do if you wanted to created your own blessingway when you are seven months pregnant, to begin your journey towards birth.

Poems – Each friend can bring a poem that represents something they want to share with you as part of your birth journey.

Beads – Some women like to create a bead bracelet for the birth, each friend gives you a bead with a few words to take into the birth with you. So that each time you twist or touch each bead, you are reminded of that friend and their support for you.

Belly Casting– Another popular activity for a blessingway.

Welcoming Wish – Each person writes a small wish for your baby onto a card and ties it to a tree, the mother can then take these down to read during labour and to save for the baby.

Welcome Gifts – Each friend makes a promise to do something to help you after baby is born, eg. your ironing, meals for a few days, to take your baby for a walk while you get some sleep…use your imagination!

These little steps which begin the gentle transformation from mum-to be, from when they are around seven months pregnant, to mother in a way that unconsciously strengthens you and prepares you for the incredible experience of birth.

Believe in yourself, believe in birth.

I read a message by someone else this morning on believing in yourself. She wrote that as children we believe with absolute ease and certainty, but then over time our belief is drowned out by voices of fear.These voices of fear then replace loving belief with the louder voice of doubt.

So over breakfast I spoke to my 5 year old about it, I wanted to hear his response, which was more profound than I had expected.He finds is difficult to communicate sometimes but clear as a bell he said “ I believe in myself, and I believe in you”.That small affirmation sent a warm glow through my body, a little burst of endorphins. Does he really know what he believes in?Does it matter? He takes each moment as it comes and lives, mostly happily, to the next without fear, or doubt of something which may never happen, clouding his happiness and self-belief.

As women birthing we lose our belief in what we are capable of, often doubting the birth, and doubting in the amazing ability of our body to deliver our babies to us.We often teach trust in nature’s way, but what about trusting in our way? Your body knows how to birth your baby better than anyone else. Yes nature is amazing, yes we should trust nature and believe in its power to shape and create life, but we should also believe in ourselves. We should recognize and trust our own role in nature and our contribution to life in this beautiful world that we share with other animals and plants, all recreating as we do.

The television documentaries we watch, the books we read, the stories we are told, those voices of doubt, all take us one step further away from that belief and understanding, they are the dissenting voices in nature and in our belief about birth.

Once we lose our self-belief, our focus shifts from what we are capable of, to what we are not capable of.Couples very often focus on what may go wrong, instead of what will go right. When this happens, we begin to live in fear and our actions become fear based.

For just one day turn off those dissenting voices.How would it feel for a day if you just focused on what can go right, let thoughts come into your mind about how amazing your body is in creating new life, how each kick is a part of a playful game between you and your baby, how each time you listen to your baby’s heartbeat it’s an affirmation of your amazing ability to grow life within you.

Focus on how capable you are, how strong you are, how you are designed to give birth.Read some positive stories and articles about birth (have a look at our Facebook page) there are lots of them out there.

Then over the next few weeks see how sowing a seed of self-belief may start you off on a different path and create a more gentle, kind, loving and compassionate journey towards birth for you and your baby

I can’t write this New Year blog without mentioning the intense media coverage over Christmas and New Year, not just on the state of maternity care in the UK but also the reporting on homebirth options. I love that fact that the canny press team at The Royal College of Midwives use this typically quiet news time to raise the profile of the plight of maternity services in the UK.

It started with Cathy Warwick the giving this interview on the BBC and followed with headline coverage in the papers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12070665

Cathy Warwick quite rightly advocates the importance of women being able to make choices about where and how they wish to birth based on unbiased information.However, according to Cathy this isn’t happening and women are being frightened into having hospital births without fully understanding their options.

She says that increasing numbers of midwives are being drawn into the hospital system, not into the communities where they are needed and where they can support normal homebirths. So by default midwives are being herded into the medicalisation of their profession not just the the medicalisation of the women they care for.

Midwives are being trained, but are not finding jobs easily, so although the Government appears to be honoring its pledge to train more midwives there seems to be a discrepancy between the number of midwives being trained and the number of jobs available.I personally know of very good midwives struggling to find work.

This was followed up by an article in the BBC and in the Guardian that examined, in more depth, the reality of the state of maternity services in the UK which reiterates the point I often try to make – that women are unaware of just how safe it is to homebirth if they are low risk.Do women properly weigh up the risks of a homebirth, if they are low risk, with the risks associated with intervention if they go into a hospital?

We know statistically that if you stay at home, you are at a lower risk of intervention.One thing we always say to women in classes is, even if you are going into hospital, stay at home until the last minute.Do not be tempted to go in to early.Trust your instincts.

Homebirth is not the right option for everyone, but when you look psychologically at the impact of the environment on a birthing mother it is without doubt the most appropriate place to birth for the majority of women. Thankfully money is being invested in some hospitals to create a more homely environment and I was recently told excitedly of the new birth rooms, complete with mood lighting, at Epsom and St Helier Hospital in Surrey. However, compare that to the new plans for a “planned caesarean theatre” at another large county hospital, not so far from where I live, and you have to question the consistency of policy supporting investments in maternity services.

In classes I ask mums to become more aware of things in their environment that pose a threat and which can have a negative physical impact on a mother during her birth.Simple things can be unconsciously processed as a threat by a birthing mother, who is more acutely aware and alert to her surroundings.Her threat system is very easily aroused and labour can stall or slow down with the slightest ‘threat’- just seeing the incubator in the room triggers an unconscious train of thought that is related to the baby not being healthy.If you are pregnant just close your eyes for a moment, be aware of walking into a labour room and seeing the incubator in the room.Be very aware of what happens in your body as you see the incubator.In classes women describe feeling a flicker of tension, a physical tightening, which is triggered by that stimulus.

This is one of the reasons why a homebirth is so much more conducive to birth, hospital doesn’t just increase the possibility of a physical intervention it is a psychological intervention.

The debates about maternity care in the media were then usefully followed by a fantastic special on the Today Programme by the artist Sam Taylor-Wood who had two complicated hospital births and then a homebirth. She interviews Sheila Kitzinger amongst others and looks at the history of birth and shift towards more medical birth – nudged into medicalisation by the Peel Report published in 1970 which, although not evidence based, called for women to birth in hospitals.

Sam also looked at a project in Bridgend in Wales where the homebirth rate has risen to 4%.But they had to retrain midwives to support homebirth!It reminded me once of a midwife who said she thought hypnobirthing deskilled her and another community midwife that only had one birth a month but was desperate for more – is there a very real possibility that midwives are actually in danger of being deskilled not by hypnobirthing, doulas, or normal birth advocates, but by the fact that hospital births and intervention are increasing?

Sam talks about her decision with James Naughtie to make it here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9325000/9325793.stm

There is no doubt that birth is becoming more medicalised, at detriment to mothers and their babies.If you are low risk, examine the evidence, to your research (do you book a holiday without researching destinations and hotels in detail?) read other women’s stories, become aware of what birth really is and what it can be.Become aware of what you want for your baby, how you want your baby to enter the world.

Do not offer up your maternal intuition or your instincts in exchange for what someone else thinks.The first rule of motherhood is not to abdicate that responsibility.

I hope that this year, collectively women in communities everywhere begin to regroup, to begin, as mothers did in Bridgend, to talk about the experience of birth, the magic of birth, how manageable birth actually is and how capable we are of birthing our babies.Perhaps if women started speaking up more, encouraging and supporting other women the tide may begin to turn.

Happy 2011.

OMG OMG OMG.

How excited can I get about ducklings? Two have hatched today in my garden. I saw their dark brown fluffy bodies and beautiful shiny eyes, and heard their cute cheep cheep. Seeing them peer out from their nest was almost as lovely as seeing a new baby born, looking up from her mother’s breast. (Actually, newly hatched ducklings are fluffier and less gooey – but not nearly so emotionally heartwarming).

We’ve had ducks for a while. I wanted to hatch some, and I wanted it to be as natural as possible. I knew that newly hatched ducklings imprint onto that which they see move, so they need their mummy around when they hatch, in order to follow mummy duck around the garden. I didn’t want ducklings in a box. I wanted them stumbling over stones and rocks, following mummy frantically and freely.

So we waited. And waited. No signs. These ducks have been bred for eggs, not breeding, so I guessed that their natural instincts had been bred out. And I wondered, while putting the washing out, how quickly instinctive birth can be lost after generations of caesarean sections?

Anyhow, we tried all sorts of other things. Getting chicken hens to sit on the eggs, using a home made incubator, using a posh incubator. To no avail.

Then, suddenly, mummy had made her very own nest, and was sitting on nine eggs! It wasn’t where we wanted her to be – but she was so well hidden that we realised she wasn’t in danger from foxes. We were delighted. But not as delighted as we are now that they have also hatched!

Clever mummy. And to think that we lost faith in mother nature and her ability to create fabulous new life just like that! Our classes help us to put that faith back, and as a doula, I have to work at keeping the faith. I can’t believe I let it waiver with my mummy duck. She has taught me to keep the trust no matter what the situation!

We have talked a lot about the law of attraction and the importance of a women trusting in her instincts about how and where she wants to birth. In one of their sessions, this mum to be mentioned that she had been fending off comments from colleagues at work who questioned her choices about the homebirth she wished to have by telling her “you need to be where it’s safe”, “in a hospital surrounded by professionals.” She turned to them and said” But I am a professional”!

Brilliant. And of course she’s right. Women are 100% qualified for the job of giving birth! A woman giving birth, can tune into her body, is able to instinctively move to help her baby’s journey and will often know what she or the baby needs. Just listening to that inner voice, the subconscious, allows the mother to let go consciously and for instinct to take over.

Control is often an issue that come up in classes when we talk about letting go, but it’s not about losing control. There is no doubt that people come to our classes because they want to feel in control, it’s obvious to us that there is a real issue around losing control, whether it’s the birthing mother thinking that she will lose control of herself or either the mother or her partner’s fear of losing control to medical teams over the course of the birth.

This is interesting to us, because it demonstrates the sense of threat that is triggered by the instinctive need to be in control, to be alert, armed and aware. This threat is actually the one thing that really can inhibit the process of birth as it keeps the conscious mind, engaged and alert when really it should be slumbering. It’s also a response that is triggered by the need to protect the baby and suggests “If I am not in control of the situation how can I protect my baby”.

What our classes teach you is how to become more consciously aware of what those threats are prior to the birth and to build the confidence of you and your birthing partner. They also teach that control is paradoxically about allowing yourself to let go. Every woman in the birthing room chooses whether she can give herself over the birthing body, but when she does give herself over to the birthing body, who is in control? Yes, she is of course!

Trusting that the subconscious contains everything you need to birth gently, and that the conscious mind, the logical mind, has been allowed to just drift off for a while is about feeling secure in your knowledge of the birth process and the belief that you know how to birth.

Remember, every woman births differently and you are the absolute professional when it comes to your birth!

If they really believed I was a hypnotherapist and did hypnotize people for a living I’m sure not quite sure what it would do for their toddler psyches!

But where did they pick up the suggestion that hypnosis is evil, controlling and downright villainous? You’ve guessed it – the television. They don’t watch a lot, but it’s been a long holiday and and my eldest has recently graduated from Cebeebies to CITV and CBBC. Which means instead of Noddy, he gets Scooby Doo, Pokemon and Storm Hawks.

Watching a few of them with him I realized that the myth of hypnosis as a controlling force to be reckoned with was omnipresent in these cartoons. In Pokemon there is actually a move called Hypnosis with rules attached. Far too complicated for me to make any sense of but enough to know that there is actually a Pokemon called hypnos.

Evil hypnotists abound in Scooby Doo, here is a clip in which Daphne been hypnotized by an evil clown with a medallion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0pKFLLzMDY

I wonder if the script writer had challenged himself to shoe in as many references to evil stereotypes as possible in one sketch – and of course the fact he chose the poor vulnerable Daphne deepens the impact.

Sarah Jane Adventures, the Junior version of Dr Who, recently had an episode where an entire school of children were hypnotized by looking at a band.

All of them without fail have the villain controlling the heroic characters. Ultimately the heroes always manage to break out of their trance, usually using distraction (a hypnotherapy technique for things such as pain management) to defeat the evil forces that threaten civilization as we know it.

So I have spent the rest of the time trying to subtly teach my children that hypnosis is actually a good thing, that it can’t control you and that in fact mummy goes to work and hypnotizes people every week. But sadly I’m no match for the hypnotic charms of Scooby Doo and the television.

And that’s the rub of it, watching television is a hypnotic act, so when, as children, we have watched programmes which incorporate evil hypnotists, we are at our most vulnerable at receiving messages. Children are still building up their belief systems and so anything they learn, especially one that has a consistent message, has even greater impact. Those messages which seem so benign and humorous are actually compounded and are being carrying forward as myths into adulthood.

Nearly every client I see that has come along because a friend has recommended it, knows that their friend talks sense and perhaps has seen the positive effect of hypnosis first hand, but still harbours the underlying apprehension that comes from watching or hearing these myths about hypnosis.

I see crossed arms and legs, people turning away from me in the chair – unable to look me in the eye. Comments such as “this is the last resort”, or “are you going to make me cluck like a chicken” are all things that I hear regularly. If I jest and say “it’s fine, I don’t have a medallion or anything like that”, I can see them instantly begin to relax in their chair.

Most clients are total converts after they experience it, comforted by the fact that they could open their eyes at any stage and the deep sense of relaxation following a session. Nearly all say they could stay there and just go to sleep.

But there is always someone who seems vaguely disappointed that I can’t make them cluck like a chicken, or make love to a broom….

If so ask yourself why. Is is media induced fear or based on real stories?

In fact the couchsurfing motto is “creating a better world, one couch at a time”. Similar to a hypnobirther I know who states “creating peace in the world, one birth at a time” !

I’m married with two kids, so it’s not the sort of thing I do much any more – I am a little averse to risk with two toddlers in tow. But given the opportunity to enter into a bit of an adventure and get in touch with my inner teenager – I’m there.

So a few weeks ago Cherry, my sister, and I turned up at a family flat on the University Campus in Goettingen where our hosts Aline and Raubert had laid out coffee and biscuits for our arrival. This was a sign of things to come from this family who were such great hosts.

Aline and Raubert are from Brazil, a very different culture to me, so we got chatting, talking about all sorts of things, during which she asked me what I did. It turned out that her close friend Giovanna was leading a natural birth project in Brazil, but was living nearby on campus. For me that was a remarkable coincidence – this couchsurfing that I’d seen as a bit risky was turning out to be a wonderful and almost fateful experience.

Giovanna came over to visit on Saturday. She was a doula in Brazil where the caesarean rate is about 80% – women book their sections in to coincide with their manicures, facials and waxing. In certain part of Brazil, natural birth is disappearing altogether. Which is tragic.

Giovanna told me that her culture was rich with birth traditions which not only resided within the indigenous tribes but which came over with African communities. She was working to resurrect these traditions looking at the holistic approach to birth rather than a purely physical one. She viewed birth as a wonderful, spiritual, experience that people were missing out on. She understood that the switch to medical birth put babies at greater risk, and also jeopardised that bond between mother, child and the communities they live.

Giovanna was familiar with breathing and visualisation work – but unaware of the use of hypnosis which showed me how hypnosis and altered states are two things with just different labels when it comes birth. She even knew the opening blossom visualisation – though hypnobirthing is unheard of in the permaculture communities she works in.

The stories she told reminded me of something I’d heard about recently in Ecuador of a newly set up natural birthing centre in a hospital which was using a method called Gravity Birth. By reverting to natural birth and reintroducing their indigenous birth traditions they have managed to reduce the rate of caesarean sections from 18 to 8 percent, as well as the neonatal death rate from a national average of 19 per 1,000 to 7.8 per 1,000 births.

Finally, Giovanna showed me a closing ceremony which midwives perform, while chanting hypnotic songs, on the mother after the baby has been. By wrapping the mother up with a Rebozo and pulling it tight across spiritual centres, or Chakras as we know them, they are able to close the mothers body up spiritually following birth. Whilst Giovanna didn’t know the songs she showed me the technique, which was incredibly calming, centering and relaxing. She told me that having had it demonstrated on her by local midwives she had felt wonderful and as if an inner balance had been restored.

Sadly we didn’t have much more time together, but this trip did show me that by taking what we perceive to be risks within our existing belief systems, we can actually get in touch with memorable experiences that would have otherwise completely passed us by.

The story of Brazil, and their birthing culture, makes me realise how fortunate we are to have a culture where we still birth naturally but I’m also aware of just how vulnerable our birthing culture is to the process of medicalisation.

The future of birth is in our hands ladies. Trust in your body, trust in humanity, trust birth.