The power of release
Giving birth to a baby is the time when a female body opens most. It is a powerful moment in the cycle of life: a doorway into the unknown. You take your body and soul to its limits and discover a new relationship with your baby who has been inside you for nine months. You have been prepared for birth by the release (menstruation) phase of the menstrual cycle along with the powerful release which can happen during sex. These moments are not so dissimilar. For release to happen emotionally and spiritually, in a nourishing way, rather than simply a physical opening, you need to feel safe and loved. I always loved how Michel Odent (who recently passed, 19th August, after a rich 95 years of life) described oxytocin, as “the love hormone”. He said that you wouldn’t expect a woman to orgasm if you put her on her back on a bed in a room with bright lights, surrounded by people she didn’t know who prod and poke her and ask her questions. Why would you expect her to give birth like this?
“Birthing” during other times of life
The energies used during birth can also be used at other times in life when we need to open and release: either physically or emotionally. These can be birthing any creations, opening during sex or menstruation or other times when you need to release. I have created some visualisations to support you in this.
Gifts
I open to fully release the most intimate and precious part of my being (baby, or other creation, such as a book) into the world.
Challenge
Can I give enough space to what I have birthed so it can seek its own life in the world?
Each birth is unique
We are each unique and our birth experience reflects this. Some women feel safe when they are alone in a quiet, dark space. Some women want their close friends and family around them singing songs, dancing and having fun. Some want their male partner with them, others want a female companion. Since birth can vary in length from 45 minutes to days, many different experiences are possible. Yes, it can be challenging, but whatever happens it takes us to the limits of our being, to uncover the depths of our soul and stretch beyond our limits.
You are invited to step into an altered, more primitive state and gain a different awareness of reality, if you can let go of your rational mind. Tools which support birth, such as body awareness, pain management, maintaining rhythm, relaxation, mindfulness, positivity, and self-nourishment, are also valuable during other life stages.
Childbirth is a powerful gateway; offering an opportunity to release old patterns, especially from the womb. It can heal trauma from your own birth and transform your relationship with your mother. Although deep blocks may be created during birth, these may offer powerful opportunities to grow and transform.
In traditional societies women were prepared for its power. Sadly, today many women are afraid of birth rather than looking forward to it. Pain is often part of its process, but it is a pain we are designed to go through and is unlike other pain. If we accept and surrender to it, our natural hormones kick in and we can surrender to deeper levels of opening. Some women think that if they experience pain they have “failed”, their mind was not strong enough, they should have been able to breathe through it, but pain shows us something. We may need to change position, or move. If the pain is intense and unbearable, perhaps something more serious is happening, but that is rare. Some women experience ecstasy, but many don’t.
Preparing for birth, is like preparing for a journey which could start any time, last from half an hour to days, stop any time, with no map of the terrain. The only thing you can really trust is to be prepared for whatever arises. Like life, birth is surprising, and you only discover its nature when it ends. It truly is a journey into the unknown.
From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective (TCM) birth is a movement from Yin, protecting a baby in water, to Yang, bringing them out into the world. Following the five-phase movement of elements, birth is Spring, the Wood energy of growth and transformation. Girdle Vessel contained the baby in the womb and needs to open, as in menstruation and during sex. It promotes the descent of the baby deeper into the pelvis. The overall shift from Yin to Yang is primarily supported by Conception and Governing Vessel supported by the Stepping Vessels. The emotional shift of letting going of your baby and placenta, and moving them out of your body, is the movement of Penetrating Vessel supported by the Linking Vessels. This is Fire, summer, love and bonding which will move into Metal, autumn and letting go of being pregnant, your relationship with your baby. Grief accompanies the ending.
Physical preparation
The most important is to work with flow in your Girdle Vessel: which runs from the bottom of your ribs all around encircling you and its lowest part is your perineum.
Any of the more releasing exercises with the Girdle Vessel will help, but it is important to remember that rest is an important part of birthing. We need to pause and enter in the Yin. Finding your own rhythm and taking time to rest as much as you need is vital.
I have some Girdle Vessel movements on my YouTube channel. Here is one where it is linked with its pair: The Penetrating Vessel.
Meditation/visualisation
The power of the mind makes a difference.
What we believe about our bodies hugely influences how we give birth. If we believe our body is designed to give birth, we approach it completely differently than if we are worried or afraid. As a mother, you can learn how to listen to your body and to your baby, and be able to connect in an instinctive way during labour. Your partner, whoever they may be, can learn to work with you and your baby and they can learn specific touch techniques to support you.
Simply surrender, trust and go with it. I have created some visualisations to support you , but it can be worth creating your own visualisations with things which you relate to.
The wave is a powerful image and it will be up on my YouTube channel soon. You will find it in my visualisation playlist.
If you have given birth, is there anything you still need to release? Was there something blocked? What kind of support could you now seek?
If you have not given birth, what times in life might it have been helpful to have accessed this level of opening?
I recently did a student zoom on this.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on birthing, either birthing a baby, or something else!..
