Zev Nathanial entered the world on Saturday, March 1st at 3:45pm. Lori had the pleasure of serving these first time parents in their journey to parenthood. Mom was facing induction as she approached 42 weeks, however she felt the need to wait until the baby was ready, rather than having a medical induction. A few days before 42 weeks, mom decided to see an acupuncturist to try to help get labor going, and within 12 hours, mom was in labor. Lori came to their house and supported them until about 3am, when mom's water broke and meconium concerned them - mom and dad decided to transfer to the hospital a little earlier than was planned to make sure that all was well with their little one.
Mom continued to labor at the hospital, mostly on the ball and in the shower, vocalizing through her contractions, and enjoying a massage in between. We continued to provide her with emotional support and encouragement throughout this early active labor. By 8am, mom was 6 centimeters dilated, and after laboring for over 12 hours, she was ready for an epidural. So, an epidural was place, and pitocin was started, and mom and dad got some much needed rest.
By 1pm, mom was found to be completely dilated, but labored the baby down for a while before starting pushing. At 3:45pm, mom birthed her healthy little baby boy, who weighed in at 8 pounds, 2 ounces. Mom and dad showed their "love at first sight" as they welcomed their son with big smiles!
It was a great experience for mom and dad, even though their journey to parenthood was a bit different than imagined.
Welcome to the world, baby Zev!
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Only with trust, faith, and support can the woman allow the birth experience to enlighten and empower her.
The power and intensity of your contractions cannot be stronger than you, because it is you.
There is power that comes to women when they give birth. They don't ask for it, it simply invades them. Accumulates like clouds on the horizon and passes through, carrying the child with it.
We have a secret in our culture...it's not that birth is painful, it's that women are strong.
If you don't know your options, you don't have any.
As you live, so you will birth.
Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers - strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength.
Childbirth is an experience in a woman's life that holds the power to transform her forever passing through these powerful gates remembering all the generations of women who walk with her. She is never alone.
Just as a womanÕs heart knows how and when to pump, her lungs to inhale, and her hand to pull back from fire, so she knows when and how to give birth.
Being pregnant and giving birth are like crossing a narrow bridge. People can accompany you to the bridge. They can greet you on the other side. But you walk that bridge alone.
Birth is like the sea: One can swim in it, be swept away by it, float, but Heaven help the fool who thinks she can control it.
Treating normal labors as though they were complicated can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If a doula were a drug, it would be unethical not to use it.
Normal birth is indeed possible.
I think one of the best things we could do would be to help women/parents/families discover their own birth power, from within themselves. And to let them know it's always been there, they just needed to tap into it.
The whole point of woman-centered birth is the knowledge that a woman is the birth power source. She may need, and deserve, help, but in essence, she always had, currently has, and will have the power.
Life only demands from you the strength you possess.
The knowledge of how to give birth without outside intervention lies deep within each woman. Successful childbirth depends on an acceptance of the process.
Perhaps we share stories in much the same spirit that explorers share maps, hoping to speed each others journey, but knowing the journey we make will be our own.
Women today not only possess genetic memory of birth from a thousand generations of women, but they are also assailed from every direction by information and misinformation about birth.
Birth is an experience that demonstrates that life is not merely function and utility, but form and beauty.
Today, it seems that a tradition of womanhood that properly belonged to women themselves has been replaced by a tradition of technology.
Natural childbirth has evolved to suit the species, and if mankind chooses to ignore her advice and interfere with her workings we must not complain about the consequences. We have only ourselves to blame.
Birthing is the most profound initiation to spirituality a woman can have.
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
Women's bodies have their own wisdom, and a system of birth refined over 100,000 generations is not so easily overpowered.
300,000 women will be giving birth with you today.
Relax and breathe and do nothing else.
Labor is hard work, it hurts and you can do it.
A healthy woman who delivers spontaneously performs a job that cannot be improved upon.
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