Last night, I met with the families who are taking my Beautiful Childbirth Education Class (BCEC) at the Stork's Cradle in downtown Wheaton: moms, dads, and soon-to-be-born babies. As part of our first class, we drew pictures of our ideal childbirth experiences. I loved seeing the creativity that came out on paper!
One mom imagined her childbirth in nature, in the woods, leaning on a tree while she labored and a bird hatched her eggs in nearby branches. As an avid bird-watcher, I loved this so much! After this mom explained the meaning of her picture, I shared that I had recently watched a documentary about birds that shows how they birth their eggs into their nests (and using computer animation, the film showed how birds surround their unborn chicks with lime so they are born out of their mothers' bodies in a protective shell in which they can keep developing--such wonderful provision in nature!).
One dad imagined holding up his baby to God as God rained down a shower of golden blessing on the newborn. Another drew his wife relaxing in a hammock after childbirth, palm trees on either side of them, as he held their new baby.
Still another mom drew herself after birth, holding her baby in bed, her eyes on her husband and her husband's eyes on the new baby. The interplay of gazes she imagined is very much what happens after childbirth as the whole family looks into one another's eyes and falls in love with each other in a deeper way than ever before. It is truly miraculous, amazing, and beautiful.
As for me, I've been thinking of the advantages of giving birth in squatting positions, which open the pelvis 25-30% wider than otherwise. So I drew a woman in a squat, right after birth, holding her baby skin-to-skin at her breast to feed him with his cord still attaching him to her body before birthing the placenta. I used blue and gold because childbirth is to me a fluid, watery experience (blue) suffused with the Presence of the miraculous, life-giving God (gold).
I truly enjoy creating birth art with families. Pam England, the founder of Birthing from Within in New Mexico, uses it often in her childbirth classes, and I adopted the technique largely because of her. Birth art enables us to access our feelings--fears, fantasies, hopes and desires--about childbirth by bypassing our logical selves and going to the heart of our emotional selves. Since we bring our whole selves to childbirth (body, mind, heart, and soul), it is important to prepare our whole selves. Head knowledge is not enough for a process that so intimately involves the heart, the body, and the soul, too.
If you want to, try it out: draw your own ideal childbirth experience. You might be surprised as the picture of new life you see emerge on the paper in front of you!
Love, joy, peace,
Jane
Jane Beal, PhD
Childbirth Doula, Counselor & Educator
