Mindful, giving birth to your child
Today it is the fourth and last meeting of the cycle Mindfulness voor zwangeren (Mindfulness for pregnant women). We are having a small and close-knit group, some women will soon become mother for the first, others come to prepare for the birth of another child. What binds them is their pregnancy and coming the big event. I feel connected to these women and can empathize with them, despite the age difference of almost a generation.
Opening
Today, the period in which the child is actually born is central. For this it is essential you are able to open yourself physically, to use your strength and to be able to let loose. After a short meditation I let the pregnant women try out different positions you use when you give birth. That helps later to be open minded and be able to think further than the position in which the expectant mother will lie on her back. We explore: ‘ what do you experience, what feels powerful and open? Where does the gravity cooperate, in what position do you feel protected, in which vulnerable? ‘ There is no good, no wrong, only the experience of this present moment.
Letting go
Then we chance focus to the mental release. In a meditation I invite the pregnant women to imagine their labor and to make this imagination as rosy as possible. Only at the moment we have taken all the time for this, I ask them to let the image go, as you let go a balloon on a string, and to experience how that feels. Because no matter how much we want, a delivery is not makeable. During a birth the words of Epictetus come up in their ultimate power: ‘Give me the courage to accept what is not in my power, the power to do everything what is in my power, and the wisdom to make the distinction between these two.’
Are you wondering if Mindfulness for pregnant women is something for you? Then click on mindfulness-for-pregnant women Welcome!