Birth as a Sacred Event

Why is it that in our modern world birth has been made into a medical event, where women expect woes and pain? The prevailing mentality about birth has somehow shifted from a divine and celebratory event, from a sacred rite of passage for a woman, into an event that we look on with fear, misunderstanding, and anticipation of great suffering. How many of us realize that we don't have to buy into this cultural conditioning? Why have we let capitalism, via insurance companies and hospitals tread upon and take over this celebratory and transformative life event?

Of course, the importance of this issue didn't occur to me until I became pregnant. I suppose it just wasn't within my scope. Now that I am pregnant, and expectantly awaiting the birth of my first child, the chasm between the way that birth is treated by our culture, and the way I think it should be treated is so apparent that I cannot ignore it. Thus, I feel compelled to say something.

I want to create new rituals and traditions around birth. I want to discover a way to divest myself of the prevailing ideas and attitudes our culture has about birth. I want to reclaim for myself, women everywhere, and my soon to be born daughter, what we have somehow forgotten. Therefore, I set out on a quest of discovery, renewal, reclamation, and eventually... birth.

1. I believe that birth is a sacred event.
2. Giving birth is profoundly transformative for a woman.
3. Birth is a universally pivotal experience.
4. Pain and suffering are not the same thing.
5. Birth is a part of life, not a medical event.

So, in keeping with the above, I seek to make my own birth adventure/experience one of sacred and divine significance, a natural one, a time when I put to use any and all spiritual and meditative training I have, and I am searching for ways to celebrate it with my husband, and forthcoming daughter, to make it the melding of a new family. My main goal is a simple one: To enjoy the experience of giving birth.