Blissful Birth

After reading this birth story, I was brought to tears. Tears of happiness. Having experienced two blissful births with my husband (click here and here), it always makes me happy to hear from others who also properly prepared (both mentally and physically) to successfully gave birth naturally. 


I've been asked by many just how I did it, and my response is always that we did it. Just as Lauren shared, I too believe in the power of positive thinking and therefore credit much to my incredibly encouraging husband/birth coach/amazing masseuse. We also prepared with HypnoBirthing (which unfortunately is no longer offered at the Logan hospital) and recently, I came across this Utah site which made me really happy. Click here for details on their classes, or here for their recommended books and videos, as well as here for a past book I've read and really liked about the mind & body connection during pregnancy. Like I've stated before, I believe every woman is courageous in her own way regardless of how they birth, but aren't we fortunate to have so many helpful resources available! If you are at all interested in birthing naturally yourself, I highly recommend HypnoBirthing. Hopefully the above website (also found in my Kid Picks column to the left) helps you gain knowledge and confidence about it. You could also try googling HypnoBirthing for any local support classes in your area (click here for one in Cache Valley). Here's also some impressive stats and inspiring quotes from their site... 

Percentage of HypnoBirthing Utah couples reporting:

• NO pain medications or epidural: 85%
• NO episiotomy: 96%
• NO elective medical labor induction (for convenience): 96%
• NO labor augmentation with pitocin: 92%
• NO c-section: 94%
• Out-of-hospital births (Birth center or Home birth): 42%
• Midwife attended births: 80%

Quotes on Hypnobirthing, Pregnancy & Childbirth

 “When you change the way you view birth, the way you birth will change” — Marie Mongan

“To those who say it is just not possible to birth naturally without pain, I say, “But what if we’re right? Wouldn’t it be wonderful?” – Lorne R. Campbell, M.D.

“When a woman gave birth, everyone gathered around her in the temple for the celebration of life. Birthing was a religious rite, and not at all the painful ordeal it came to be years later” — Marie Mongan

“Imagine what might happen if women emerged from their labor beds with a renewed sense of the strength and power of their bodies, and of their capacity for ecstasy through giving birth” — Dr. Christiane Northrup

“My dream is that every woman, everywhere, will know the joy of a truly safe, comfortable, and satisfying birthing for herself and her baby.” -M.M.

“It is no only that we want to bring about an easy labor, without risking injury to the mother or the child; we must go further. We must understand that childbirth is fundamentally a spiritual, as well as a physical, achievement. . . The birth of a child is the ultimate perfection of human love.” – Dr. Grantly Dick-Read, 1953

“According to physiological law, all natural, normal functions of the body are achieved without peril or pain. Birth is a natural, normal physiological function for normal, healthy women and their healthy babies. It can, therefore, be inferred that healthy women, carrying healthy babies, can safely birth without peril or pain.” – Dr. Jonathan Dye, 1891

“The HypnoBirthing view of birth is that it is a natural extension of the sexuality of a man and a woman, and, therefore, we believe that birth is about them. It is about family fulfillment.” – M.M.

“All natural birth has a purpose and a plan; who would think of tearing open the chrysalis as the butterfly is emerging? Who would break the shell to pull the chick out?” – M.M.

“Muscles send messages to each other. Clenched fists, a tight mouth, a furrowed brow, all send signals to the birth-passage muscles, the very ones that need to be loosened. Opening up to relax these upper-body parts relaxes the lower ones.” – William and Martha Sears

“A pregnant woman is like a beautiful flowering tree, but take care when it comes time for the harvest that you do not shake or bruise the tree, for in doing so, you may harm both the tree and its fruit.” – Peter Jackson, R.N.