Thread: Interesting and beautiful birth story from a doula

As a NCB-passionate mom to be in such a generally unsupportive society, I thought this perspective was really unusual and beautiful.

http://mothering.com/pregnancy-birth...-a-birth-story

That is a fascinating story. I am very strong-willed and feel the need for "control" over everything. Passivity is so often deemed a negative quality, and often a typical female "weakness."

I am still struggling with the whole "painless" concept.

That was beautiful!! Brought tears to my eyes TFS!

That was a great birth story. Very positive. TFS!

that was a beautiful story, tfs

Originally Posted by kvo

I am still struggling with the whole "painless" concept.

I think some people use the term "painfree" a little losely and it gets kind of misunderstood. Painfree natural childbirth is totally different from painfree birth with an epidural. The sensations of childbirth are very powerful sensations for most people, but not everyone considers them necessarily "painful" in the way that injury is painful. Something I was reading recently (and I can't find it now, unfortunately) suggested that we don't really have a word for what childbirth feels like, so we call it "pain." In my understanding (and partly my experience), painfree childbirth is a result of a combination of factors, including 1) being able to be relaxed enough that there are high levels of endorphins in your system and you are not fighting birth, because fighting against what your body is doing makes things worse and 2) being able to mentally accept what you are feeling as not painful. Birth happens in the body, but the sensations are interpreted in the brain--and it is possible to transform something you might generally interpret painful into something else. If you remember that birth is a good thing, it makes it easier to think of it as just pressure/tightening/whatever and not pain.