#wildbirth

[kaigorodov]

welcome to this world, kiddo #wildbirth #miracle (at Costiera Amalfitana) https://www.instagram.com/p/B36ve0mIMsQ/?igshid=kxvtd4c03phd

[motherincarnate-blog1]

From pre-history on, birth, coming into life, like death, going out of it, has been a spiritual matter. It has been shaped my myth and magic, patterned by ritual, infused with hope and longing and expressed through sacred acts. Birt was the domain of the Great Mother Goddess, the giver of all life. As medicine took over birth, and saved lives, the mother goddess faded. Ritual practices were fragmented and became 'old wives tales'. They are the almost forgotten shred of a previously strong belief system about women women, blood, birth and breastmilk.

Sheila Kitzinger - Rediscovering Birth

[motherincarnate-blog1]

At 26 weeks, my body has gone through huge changes but on the outside it seems less obvious. I decide to see the beauty in my body pregnant with life, manifested union, miracle seed hitcher.

 What a soft devestation it is that women spend pregnancies in fear of the physical changes, that I too have been roped into feeling apprehensive about what will come. I take more from the fact it is my bodies expansion which nourishes my babe, and I feel an inner uprise of womanhood and power that exists in the pregnant woman. This should be nothing to be ashamed of. ever. It is the opposite if we choose it to be.The female body not only nurtures and births but continues to be incarnate mother life sources, nourishing babes for half a year, to grow and thrive on milk alone.

That women tell other women that’s it, you’re over the hill, your vagina is ruined, sex will never be the same again, you’ll never be desired in the same way again. I have seen delight in these conversations and I hate it. The female body is amazing and any person worth their salt will realise that and not fear monger, not to mention superficial fears that are just irrelevant compared to the magnitude of what motherhood is, of what having a child with somebody is. Women choose not to breastfeed because they think it will ‘ruin’ their boobs. Total madness this society, we have so much healing to do as women. 

Soft tummies, the most lovely, alive occurrence of birth. One this form was embraced, looked at with awe, personified as strength, for her life sustaining abilities. Our bodies do this, when healthy, when nourished and connected.

The heavy goddess of stone. Mountain woman, giantess with the roundest, fullest belly. Earth bowl and rose petal silk. hanging. besides the birth robe and the blanket.

[motherincarnate-blog1]

“On occasion, such objects have been used to compel the sacred (or divine) realm to act or react in a way that is favourable to the participants of the ceremonies or to the persons or activities with which such rituals are concerned, or to prevent the transcendent realm from harming or endangering them.” 

I think of objects I held close over the years because I connected them with a time. I remember painting my nails as a child and thinking I’d be on holiday with all my family and we’d be happy, and when i came back from holiday i kept that nail varnish on until it wore of naturally. there is something about holding. when i think of objects i’ll make for this birth i have the same feeling i can’t pin down. that this object will accompany me into this new realm, this new place and there is a kind of comfort. but then comfort doesn’t tend to exist where initiation is taking place. comfort is something kind of secondary to when reality is rearranging itself. 

so many ritual objects are forms representing gods and goddesses. during this pregnancy, at times i have felt this connection to all that is woman, that i am walking the same path as my ancestors. It is this that has helped me to see pregnancy and birth as the initiation. It’s not hard to see how the magic of birth has been lost when you think that most women give birth in hospitals, are treated as patients, and considering the number of c-sections performed. 

I have heard women say this during labour, that the innate nature of birth powers up and the body dances the same dance performed by our mothers and grandmothers and great grandmothers, all the way back. a connection to all that is female. i definetely have to create some goddess that evokes and symbolises this. something i can concentrate on that will remind me of this dance and remind me of the innate power rising within.

I defintely feel called to create some kind of shrine to the birthing woman, to the power that will rise within me when the time is right. I want her embodied and in the room with me. The oldest pieces of art found seem to be ritualistic and sacred and of some force, so often the life giving/sustaining source of the mother. 

[motherincarnate-blog1]

 I am at present in love and union with source. source of things. start of life. the platform which we forget but which our mothers do not. Being pregnant makes you see your own mother differently. I thought I already looked at my mother with awe, for her resillience, purity, soul, sunniness. I could cry with how much I love her. 

[motherincarnate-blog1]

“You were born, just like the other trillions of humans who have been born before you. Likewise, your child will be born. This is a fact. You will go through the process of pregnancy, and at the end of it become a mother to this child. The universe has a way of unfolding regardless of human plans, and part of the allure for those of us who work with this elemental stage of the human experience is the wonder and mystery that still exist in the transition from womb to the outer world. Every birth is an initiation for both the mother and the child; there is a transmutation from one state to another that can never be undone.

If you are to be the initiate in the white cotton gown, this is a critical point: You must prepare physically, mentally and emotionally in order to be fully present in the process. Can you get yourself into that room without preparation? Of course you can. But I’ll argue your experience of the rite is going to be vastly different. To paraphrase from the film Her, the truth of where a satisfying birth experience lies is somewhere in between the words on the page. Chris taught me there’s a difference between expecting or visualizing a desired outcome, like I was doing, and this centered state of being. What I’ve also come to realize is there’s a subtle distinction between “going with the flow,” allowing whatever outcome to unfold during birth, and this level of conscious preparation and presence. Most pregnant mothers operate from either a place of conscious thought or subconscious emotion. We encourage you to go to a state of mindfulness, a connection with the broader consciousness that you get to through rehearsal and by acting on clear, unmuddled messages from your intuition.”

-John Edwards -  in Pathways to Family Wellness

[motherincarnate-blog1]

A woman’s psych opens up once she gets pregnant. There is an altered state of consciousness that is gradually becoming part of the everyday life of the expectant mother. This mental state results in being more sensitive, emotional but also receptive for stimulation from the in- and outside, which altogether are strengths that are typical for the female gender. Unfortunately, we live in a paradox world. Women tend to push these features aside in order to function well in our society”.

julia karadi 

[motherincarnate-blog1]

The perinatal period (pregnancy, birth and postnatal) in a psychological understanding is a ’normative crisis’ in the female life cycle. Similarly to puberty and midlife crisis, it is also a transitional phase when crisis forms an inherent, natural part of personal development.2 In Western society these states of psychological crises have a negative connotation as something undesirable, something to avoid. Native and premodern societies, however, have different rituals to help transitional periods in life, viewing them as a natural, inherent part of personal development and growth whereby society supports the individual. The lack of community rites in modern societies imposes several difficulties on the person entering an age of transition. Adolescent boys unconsciously search their own individual ways to restore the lost pieces of collective rites in attempt of establishing a solid identity (by means of e.g. altered states of consciousness, tattooing, piercing, deviance, etc). With women, however, even rituals have never been so strictly regulated, as in their case, transitional periods are marked by tangible physiological changes like menstruation, menopause, pregnancy and birth.3 Can childbirth substitute the absent rituals of initiation in modern societies for women?

CHILDBIRTH AS INITIATION Provided by Nature -  Julia Karadi