Childbirth—A Labor of Love: Prelude to Labor

During those months in which your baby has been developing within your womb, she’s been comforted by the closeness and warmth of the wall of the membrane that softly caresses, soothes and nestles her. Your baby has felt the gentle stimulation of the swirling waters, and she’s been lulled by the subtle movement of your body. She has heard and felt the love that you offered as you talked and played together.

Birth is going to bring an abrupt ending to that safe, secure period of life within the womb. At the moment of birth, your baby will emerge from her unencumbered world into a whole new series of ­experiences.

What your baby feels as she makes her way into the world can be a profusion of sensory encounters that can help make the baby’s transition easy or cause her to tremble, jerk and cringe in fear. The experience can leave your baby with a birth memory that will affect her entire life, her personality and her spirit.

The baby startles as she takes that first breath on her own, feels air brushing across her skin, and bristles to the roughness of fabric used to rub the protective vernix from her body.

The manner in which you labor and birth, and the atmosphere into which your baby is born, should offer the same love and care that you provided as you carried him. You can assure that your baby’s initial adjustment into his new surroundings is made as gentle as possible by planning and directing the course and manner of the birthing so that the welcome your baby receives is, indeed, a labor of love.

The environment during your birthing should be filled with the same relaxed confidence that presently surrounds your pregnancy, as well as the calm and peace that will be prevalent during the first stage of your labor. The birthing atmosphere should be free of profuse rushing, cumbersome “setting up,” unnecessary medical staff, bright lights and careless, sometimes even violent, procedures that deny your baby’s essence as a human being. There should be no loud, hurried voices telling you in cheerleader style to “Push, push, push,” and “Keep it comin’; You can do it!”

Today’s movies and television shows portray birth as comedic or traumatic; it doesn’t have to be either. The birthing environment should have the same respect and calm as a place of worship. Great or humble, the decorum and protocol surrounding the birth of each and every baby should be conducted in a manner of reverence.

Together you bond. Each one defined as three; All three connected as one . . . A Celebration of Life.

Marie F. Mongan, Birth Rehearsal