Bornfree!- Laura Shanley's THE Unassisted Childbirth Page!

Waterbirth!

by Cat Majors

My birth was a "Dream Birth," better than I could have ever imagined. I am indeed, after two years, still reeling from the exuberant empowerment of it. I caught Max myself in a bathtub of lovely relaxing warm water - and he was born in a "laugh," as I was vocalizing a HO - HO - HO sound ( a very open sound which came instinctually). My husband was in the kitchen at the time, nervously making and re-making coffee, because he thought that we were going to have to go to the hospital soon! And the midwife was late, too. In fact, she missed the actual 'birth' part. (Nature's way of granting a mother the highest feeling of her life!!)

I'll try to express what I was feeling.

My Birth in Water Was for Me:

A complete, deep and utter relaxation,
Cleanliness, refreshment, relief, comfort, Communion with Venus
(the Goddess of love and beauty),
Playfulness (like a mermaid),
Tremendous excitement
(to know that the moment of my baby's birth was very near - ANTICIPATION)
Wonder - would it be a boy or a girl and what would he or she look like?
Initiation into the ranks of Motherhood
Crossing a threshold onto a new plateau.
Primal feelings which seemed to reach back into the roots of time
The sheer simplicity of the healing ritual of the bath/birth itself....
My power
My choice
Being in Control!!
Happiness, freedom, exhilaration, spontaneity, wisdom, luck, destiny.
A Sense of Calmness
Good Fortune
Perfection
Completion
The sense of time coming full circle
Coming of Age
Baptism, purification, splendor, rapture, sensuousness, abandon
Surrender to a power greater than myself -
and yet a feeling of merging appropriately with the Creative POWER -
a feeling of being a part of this power -
An ultimate WHOLEness.
Mother Nature cradling me in her water arms as my pelvic cradle is about to release its Creation
CREATIVITY
Rhythm
Sound as wave ripples
Buoyancy, lightness
Ecstasy, Awe, Gratefulness -
A Great FULL-ness
Crystal Clear - the water like brilliant diamonds
A sense of floating -
an "other worldly experience"
none other than
BLISS itself!!

* * * * * * * *

Reprint permission for this story is granted through the Water Birth International Research Project of the Global Maternal/Child Health Association.

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