tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71339834087875893632024-03-16T11:51:47.016-07:00Birth Peeps with Pam EnglandA meeting place for parents and birth people to meet for conversations about the mystery and madness of birth in our culture: what's new, meditations, personal growth, and ceremonies for the childbearing year. Written by Pam England, author of the ground-breaking book, "Birthing From Within."Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.comBlogger112125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-41403607314004117692015-11-17T08:44:00.000-08:002015-11-17T08:44:01.154-08:00Dear Birth Peeps,<br />
<br />
I want to thank all of you who helped us reach our fundraising goal to publish <i>Ancient Map for Modern Birth</i>. Enough money was raised to ensure the design for an e-book!<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">On this cold morning of November 17th, I am sitting by my fireplace reading the newest edition of Harper's magazine which </span><span style="font-size: small;">arrived yesterday with a stunning cover
photo of a pregnant woman lying on her side; the feature article: “<b>The Bed-Rest
Hoax” by Alexandra Kleeman.</b> I highly recommend this excellent article to all
birth peeps (as well as a subscription to Harper’s, a magazine that’s been in
circulation since 1850 and covers a wide range of articles and short stories).</span><br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Kleeman reminds us that in spite of research over the past ten years that shows bed-rest has no health benefits (in treating
hypertension, a shortened cervix, miscarriage, or impaired fetal growth), it is
still being prescribed regularly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each
year, 700,000 pregnant women are put on bed-rest, ranging from a few hours a
day to complete bed-rest for days, weeks, even months. Do some birth attendants do this out of habit, or out of wanting to give the woman something to do to make them both feel like they are "treating" the problem?<br /> </span><o:p> </o:p><span style="line-height: 115%;">Consequences of bed-rest include: bone loss, blood clots,
muscle atrophy, weight loss, and psychological stress. In addition to the
physical complications, bed-rest means loss of income and difficulties with
older child-care. Although it is not mentioned in the article, bed-rest often
interferes with eating a healthy pregnancy diet which is an essential part of
holistic management of any diagnosis leading to the recommendation for
bed-rest.</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="line-height: 115%;">If research does not support this treatment, from where did
it come? One of the most interesting parts of Kleeman’s article is the
historical roots she uncovered beginning with a treatise written in 1863 by
John Hilton called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rest and Pain</i>. As
they say, “old habits die hard,” and this one applies! The history of bed-rest is fascinating and enlightening.<br /> </span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Get up and go get the magazine and read this article. It will make you
think twice about bed-rest in pregnancy.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Stay warm, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Pam</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /> </span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></h2>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment-->Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-32149981262872857982015-11-12T08:30:00.000-08:002015-11-12T08:30:03.727-08:00<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e5dKiMwsOag/VkS8J6WIKBI/AAAAAAAAAM0/eLt4mL3Gx7Y/s1600/Gestating%2Bin%2Ba%2BLabyrinth%2Bfinal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e5dKiMwsOag/VkS8J6WIKBI/AAAAAAAAAM0/eLt4mL3Gx7Y/s400/Gestating%2Bin%2Ba%2BLabyrinth%2Bfinal.jpg" width="301" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Gestating in a Labyrinth</i> by Pam England,<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> acrylic 28"x22"2015</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Good Morning Birth Peeps,</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
My newest painting depicts a universal contemplation of how the mother and baby's journey from conception and through life is labyrinthine. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This painting is one of the perks on the IndieGoGo campaign to raise funds for the production and printing of the new book, </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>Ancient Map for Modern Birth</i>. This campaign ends on November 15. We are so close to meeting our goal of $30,000 by Sunday. Less than $1000 to go!!</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Please, visit IndieGoGo today if you've been putting it off til later--or remind everyone you know to go to IndieGoGo today and pre-order a book--</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Or take this beautiful painting away as a perk!</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/new-birth-book-ancient-map-for-modern-birth#/</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Many Thanks for your support.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Pam England</div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-22214733479466621572015-11-02T14:53:00.000-08:002015-11-02T14:57:20.834-08:00Pre-Order New Book: Ancient Map for Modern BirthHi Birth Peeps,<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm B a a a a c k... and I have some exciting news.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After four to five years of research, writing, illustrating, and editing... the NEW book, <i>Ancient Map for Modern Birth</i>, describing how birth can be a heroic journey is done and in design <span style="line-height: 29.333335876464844px; text-indent: 0.5in;">now, and will be ready for printing <i>next month</i>. We are raising $30,000 by November 15 to cover the costs of the beautiful interior design, printing, and early marketing. I need your help!</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 202.5pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> If you would like to be among the first to
read <i>Ancient Map for Modern Birth</i>,
even before its official release (estimated February 2016), please <b>pre-order your copy Today</b> <b>at a 10% discount</b> on the crowd
funding website, Indie GoGo. Here is the link: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/new-birth-book-ancient-map-for-modern-birth#/</span></b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: center;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> <span style="color: #741b47;">And check out the cool perks... </span></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: center;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and these excerpts from the new book!</span></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></span></i></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 29.333335876464844px;">It is human nature to want to know how to get from “here” to “there”—without getting lost. As a pregnant woman preparing for birth, you will be handed our culture’s standardized “modern map” of birth. This map is useful for navigating routine medical and consumer tasks. And yet, many women have told me that something is missing from that modern map—they know there is something more. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 29.333335876464844px;">While the standardized or medical map is accessible through common knowledge,<b> </b>the “ancient map” is one that must be actively sought.</span></i><b><i><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 29.333335876464844px;"> </span></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 29.333335876464844px;">When parents and birth professionals are shown the ancient map through modern birth (in classes or workshops), they instantly feel excited, validated, and guided. <o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; text-indent: 27pt;">
<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">A pregnant woman has within her a personal compass, and yet if she has never been to Laborland, she needs a map that highlights tasks of pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum transition.</span></strong></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></i></strong></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ancient Map for Modern Birth</span></i></strong><strong><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> weaves together art, science, meditations,
ceremonies, and the telling of great stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A pregnant woman has within her a personal compass, and yet if she and
her partner have never been to Laborland, she needs a map that highlights her
tasks of pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum transition. This book offers that
map.</span></strong><strong><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-right: -.9pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 9.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%;">Ancient Map for Modern Birth</span></i></strong><strong><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%;"> <span style="color: #660066;">sheds light on many important</span> issues
in childbirth education <span style="color: #660066;">including some</span> that were
not addressed in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Birthing From Within</i>,
such as inductions, ultrasound, vaginal birth after cesarean, postpartum
ceremonies, and more. This book also introduces the six archetypes of birth: Gatherer,
Mother, Gatekeeper, Fool, Huntress, and Birth Warrior. All of these archetypal
energies are within you, and each one plays a part in your preparation and
transition into parenthood. Here’s another excerpt from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ancient Map for Modern Birth</i>:<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria;">The journey of the Birth Warrior is
reflected in a complex map made up of many layers. Within the body, a living
map flows through our veins. Within the soul, a timeless map guides our
intuition. Within the mind, an ever-changing map is engrained in our values and
beliefs. Within the heart, a personal map connecting thousands of stories
informs us. Mindful preparation for birth and parenting means becoming aware of</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"> your multi-layered personal
map.</span></i></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1J6QnaaGWp4/VjfpXiM33WI/AAAAAAAAAMc/xC1Ulea_jO4/s1600/Ancient%2BMap%2BCoverChoiceRev1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1J6QnaaGWp4/VjfpXiM33WI/AAAAAAAAAMc/xC1Ulea_jO4/s320/Ancient%2BMap%2BCoverChoiceRev1.jpg" width="224" /></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria;">Have you ever
seen the cellophane overlays of human anatomy in the old Encyclopedia
Britannica? Each structure of the body (skeletal, muscular, circulatory, and so
on) was drawn on transparent pages, so, as you turned the pages, you watched
the human body built, layer-by-layer, from skeleton to skin. In the same way,
as you turn the pages of this book and of your life, each new discovery, each
new task you complete on your journey, will build, layer by layer, a new self
who is fully ready for birth.</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria;">The <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Birthing From Within</span> model and this book
are both layered in four parts: the Call, the Tasks of Prenatal Preparation,
the Descent into Laborland,<sup>++</sup> and the Postpartum Return.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Stay tuned Birth Peeps, I'll be posting more excerpts from the book this week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Warmly,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Pam</span></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-81079779998001127002015-02-28T08:53:00.002-08:002015-02-28T08:53:48.917-08:00<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Take Your Baby on
a Color Walk</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When you feel your
child move in your belly, your connection to nature and the mystery of life
awakens. For the first time in years, you may notice birds making their nests
in the spring, feel especially tender toward baby animals, or be aware of buds
unfolding. You may enjoy quiet moments during a busy day to commune with your
growing child. A color walk is a lovely practice that fits naturally with this
awakening to nature and your baby still cocooned in his dark, watery world.</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> Once
a week, take a leisurely walk and describe to your baby the world of color and
beauty that is waiting for him out here. Choose a different color every week. Wherever
you take your walk, through a city park, on the beach, along the river or
mountain path, or down a bustling city street, be your baby’s eyes and tell
your baby about everything of that color.</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> Your
narration might sound like this: <i>Look, this shirt is red . . . There are
hundreds of roses bursting in red . . . The petals are very soft, like your
velvet-soft skin . . . Can you hear the red truck?. . . There’s our red
mailbox. I wonder what the letter carrier is bringing .</i> . . “</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Even before your baby
is born, taking him on a color walk begins building a playful relationship with
your baby. On a color walk, you are not just walking to get from here to there
or performing an exercise routine. Even before birth, nurturing your
relationship with your child helps you to see as a child sees and to be
delighted with the smallest miracles in nature.</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Today it is a winter white day in Albuquerque. It snowed more last night than it has since some time in the 1930's. So today's color is WHITE. Take your baby on a White Winter Walk. Tell your baby about snow, about mittens and boots and how someday you will build a snowman together! When you drink hot chocolate, tell your baby about hot chocolate and marshmallows. Your little one growing within is a "sheep" (Chinese Astrology), so s/he will be plenty warm and cozy in you!</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">On my walk I took pictures of snowy madonnas. Here is one to celebrate the Great Mother, in nature, and within you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jhmMWas4Nvc/VPHyduyDqdI/AAAAAAAAAL8/Lp9ISkzwX_k/s1600/snow%2Bmadonna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jhmMWas4Nvc/VPHyduyDqdI/AAAAAAAAAL8/Lp9ISkzwX_k/s1600/snow%2Bmadonna.jpg" height="320" width="179" /></a></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-18275754094815107192013-02-03T17:34:00.000-08:002013-02-04T17:04:32.124-08:00Diane Wolkstein, the passing of a great storyteller<span style="font-size: large;">Dear Birth Peeps,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">As you know, of all the stories I love to tell pregnant women, I love the stories of Inanna best. Many of you know the story of <i>Inanna's Descent</i><span style="font-size: large;"> (</span>and all the stories of Inanna) written over four thousand years ago in Sumer. We would not know this story were <span style="font-size: large;">it</span> not for the archeologists who found the clay tablets on which the <span style="font-size: large;">poems were written</span>, and for the people who painstakingly deciphered the cuneiform--the first written language. </span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nUi-57eoj7o/URBahGwM2mI/AAAAAAAAAK4/FyvVCIsz7aw/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nUi-57eoj7o/URBahGwM2mI/AAAAAAAAAK4/FyvVCIsz7aw/s1600/images.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">Samuel Noah Kramer, a renown Sumerologist, was one of the original translators of the epic poems about Inanna. But his work was a direct and s<span style="font-size: large;">cholarly<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span>translation<span style="font-size: large;">;</span> the poems were not in language modern people could relate to. So, Diane Wolkstein, a famous storyteller, spent hours with Kramer, searching for "other words" she could use to re-write the epic poems so we could understand them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/nyregion/diane-wolkstein-author-who-sparked-a-storytelling-revival-dies-at-70.html?_r=0">Diane Wolkstein died</a>, suddenly<span style="font-size: large;">, j<span style="font-size: large;">ust a few days ago (January 31, 2013).</span></span> When the news came to me I had just finished writing the chapter, "Inanna's Descent Into Laborland," for my new book, <i>Birth as a Hero's Journey</i>. I had been thinking about Diane's work all day. Had she not made that beautiful translation available in her book, <a href="http://www.birthingfromwithin.com/store/show/308" target="_blank"><i>Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth</i></a>, I would not have known Inanna. I would not have the internal map of the hero's journey. My life, my births and birth stories, and my work all would be void of this most powerful influence. In fact, I cannot imagine my life without the story of Inanna.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Now the woman who loved Inanna, who brough<span style="font-size: large;">t Inanna to us, has left us. And I want to say thank you<span style="font-size: large;"> to this great st<span style="font-size: large;">oryteller who has touched all of us. <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://dianewolkstein.com/">Visit Dian<span style="font-size: large;">e's</span> website</a> t<span style="font-size: large;">o learn more about her and her wor<span style="font-size: large;">k.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Pam </span></span></span> </span><br />
<br />
<br />Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-25144294221984499492013-01-08T14:50:00.002-08:002013-01-08T14:50:34.906-08:00Change #36 A Tribute to Family Practice at UNM and the Changing Attitudes of Doctors<span style="font-size: large;">Hi Birth Peeps,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Happy New Year. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I didn't make too many new year resolutions. Of the three I made, number one is to finish the book, <i>Birth as a Hero's J<span style="font-size: large;">ourney</span>.</i> But I did make another: to blog once a week. May<span style="font-size: large;">be we'll get to the 50th way to change birth in our culture this year. I was kind of hesit<span style="font-size: large;">ating to put too many eggs in that basket just in case the Mayan calendar was right.</span> </span>So here we go.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On December 7, I was invited by Drs. Larry Leeman and Jen Phillips to give a little talk about <i>birthing from within</i> and birth as a<span style="font-size: large;"> hero's journey </span>at Family Practice Grand Rounds at the University of New Mexico Hospital. The room was packed with young docs who I think were just beginning their OB rotation. Larry and Jen had prepared a wonderful power point presentation orienting the new docs to the philosophy of <i>care</i> that they are cultivating at UNM Hospital labor and delivery.</span> <span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Wow<span style="font-size: large;">!</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Larry and Jen took turns <span style="font-size: large;">describing the importan<span style="font-size: large;">ce of mothers being up, walking about, delayed cord cutting, and doulas... among other things we know matter. The last comment was that women remember the day they give birth, this day matters. T<span style="font-size: large;">he message was to do their best to make the birth experience <i>memorable</i>.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">I sat there an<span style="font-size: large;">d said<span style="font-size: large;"> to myself, "This is really amazing. This is not a conversation or orientation new doctors <span style="font-size: large;">would have had a decade or more ago!</span>" A room <span style="font-size: large;">full of new d</span>octors were being oriented to <span style="font-size: large;">mother-centered, midwifery<span style="font-size: large;">-</span>tinged care<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">... in addition to their </span>medical ob training which still prev<span style="font-size: large;">ails and should in a ho<span style="font-size: large;">spital. (I want to add there are nurse<span style="font-size: large;">-</span>midwives at this ho<span style="font-size: large;">spital, too, <span style="font-size: large;">so the midwi<span style="font-size: large;">fery model is also practi<span style="font-size: large;">ced there.) </span></span></span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">And yet, under the sup<span style="font-size: large;">ervision and modeling from Larry, Jen, Mary and other experienced Family Practice docs and midwives, </span>these new doctors are going to <span style="font-size: large;">see a different kind o<span style="font-size: large;">f birth management than docs see elsewhere or would have seen anyw<span style="font-size: large;">here a decade ago.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">During this <span style="font-size: large;">rotation, t</span>hese new docs</span> are going to have different kind of conversations about case<span style="font-size: large;">s; they are going to </span></span></span>learn to listen to parents<span style="font-size: large;"> a<span style="font-size: large;">nd learn how </span></span>to support t<span style="font-size: large;">hem</span> emotionally as well as providing safe birth care. (I re<span style="font-size: large;">cently witnessed the a warm, midwifery-home birth<span style="font-size: large;">-</span>like ho<span style="font-size: large;">spital birth attended by great nurses and Dr. Leeman... so I know <span style="font-size: large;">he walks his talk, and this message is one they sincerely want to make happen.)</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">When <span style="font-size: large;">t</span>hese docs graduate and leave UNM and scatter in towns across the country, they will take this<span style="font-size: large;"> philosophical seed of care with them. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">And this... the changing attitudes and practice of do<span style="font-size: large;">c<span style="font-size: large;">tors...</span></span> is changing birth<span style="font-size: large;"> in our culture.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hats off to Drs. Larry Leeman, Jen Phillips and all the docs and midwives at UNM<span style="font-size: large;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Pam </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-28855627533848669252012-12-28T10:07:00.004-08:002012-12-28T11:10:15.568-08:00DOULA FROM WITHIN JANUARY 12<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1g-_VJAp7x0/UN3carSplDI/AAAAAAAAAKg/ru56DXu6dkU/s1600/hj+center+for+doula.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1g-_VJAp7x0/UN3carSplDI/AAAAAAAAAKg/ru56DXu6dkU/s200/hj+center+for+doula.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-size: large;">I am offering three one-day </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">DOULA FROM WITHIN workshops </span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">in Albuquerque:</span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">I January 12</span>, <span style="color: #134f5c;">II February 9, and III March 9 (10 am to 5 pm)</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-size: large;">Here's the exciting learning agenda for <b>DFW I</b>:</span></span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Doula Work as Your Hero's Journey</b></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>How You Can Help Parents Experience Any Birth as a Hero's Journey</b></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Integrated Doula</b></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Time to Heal <i>Your</i> Birth Story</b>: <i>When/if you have attended a birth where you didn't know what to do, or what you did didn't seem to work, and you want resolution: bring your story</i></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>An introduction to Solution-Focused Dialogue.</b></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><i>A demonstration showing you how SFD creates amazing results in minutes! (This training will continue in DFW II and III).</i></span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="color: #45818e; font-size: large;">This </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"> workshop is for everyone who supports women/couples in labor: nurses, midwives, and doulas (new, experienced, regardless of where you received training or certification).</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #e06666;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #e06666;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Register Now</b>: Early Bird Registration only $95 for the day. Late Registration is $125.</span></span><br />
<b><span style="color: #e06666;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sign up for all three and get 10% off the Early Bird price, only $265 for all three.</span></span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Details and info: <a href="http://www.birthingfromwithin.com/doula_from_within" target="_blank">http://www.birthingfromwithin.<wbr></wbr>com/doula_from_within</a></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Register here: <a href="http://www.birthingfromwithin.com/store/show_by_tags/Pam%27s+Events" target="_blank">http://www.birthingfromwithin.<wbr></wbr>com/store/show_by_tags/Pam%<wbr></wbr>27s+Events</a></span><br />
<br />
5.5 contact hours will be awarded by California Board of Nursing.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #45818e;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hope to see you soon,</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #45818e;"><span style="font-size: large;">Pam </span></span>Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-16484294275095674722012-09-02T09:19:00.002-07:002012-09-02T09:19:59.412-07:00Response to Daniell about the Birth Huntress
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #006600;"> </span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #006600;"><span style="color: black;">Dear Danielle and Birth Peeps,</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #006600;"><span style="color: black;">The study of the archetypal patterns of our lives, our behaviors, and of the world adds depth and new dimension to how we experience our lives, birth--and how we share the meaning of birth with others. One of our readers is really taking up the study, thinking about the Birth Huntress. Danielle wrote, and I promised her a response on the blog because I think my answer will speak to others, too. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #006600;"><span style="color: black;">It is very easy to confuse the Huntress archetype with the Gatherer, the part of us that gathers up bits of information and opinions and birth plans.... the Gatherer has an external perspective, her attention is turned outward, and she gathers from others exclusively. In this model, the Birth Huntress turns her attention inward, she is not hunting for what she wants in the world "out there," rather she is stalking her own mind, her beliefs, her patterns. There is no "killing" involved; hunger is sated when we "know ourselves." </span></span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #006600;">Danielle wrote:</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #45818e;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"As with a Huntress (perhaps this is just my
own notion of what it i to Hunt) you have to be prepared for the beast you are
chasing down to turn on you. And, as wild as it sounds, does Birth not often
turn on us and become the very thing we are running from? Does the next step,
the next surrender, the next question-to-be-answered not terrify enough that it
feels as if it will grab us by our necks and we will indeed die from it" </i></b></span></div>
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Just as in the animal world a predator can easily become
prey, in the psychic-spiritual world of personal growth, we too are both
predator or prey depending on how we have <i>learned to</i> perceive and respond to life
circumstances. Sometimes when we are caught by surprise, we don’t have time to
make a conscious “choice” and we respond unconsciously, from instinct or habit,
which means we may behave either as prey, or as predator. When it feels like someone or something "out there" has "grabbed us by the neck and we may die from it," we are in the Victim, helpless Child part of us, and it is this urgency to "wake up" that awakens the Huntress to seek power, awareness, patience, truth, and new ways of being.</div>
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To the degree we are
developing our Huntress awareness skills daily, during ordinary times,<i> that is non-threatening
</i>times, we are more able to draw on those skills under duress. Under threat is
not really the time to cultivate our Huntress and awareness skills; under
threat we will do whatever we have already learned or been conditioned by,
and act without <i>thinking it through</i>.</div>
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<span style="color: #45818e;"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">". . .you have to be prepared for the beast you are chasing
down to turn on you. And, as wild as it sounds, does Birth not often turn on us
and become the very thing we are running from?"</i></b></span></div>
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In your present thinking, Danielle and perhaps other
readers, you may be thinking of the predator being <i>exclusively</i> “out there.” In the
archetypal model I am presenting to you, the Huntress (predator) turns her
attention <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">inward</i> to stalk her habit-mind, the inner-predator <i>and</i> prey of negative and limiting beliefs, defined by what she is
telling herself about herself, about life, and about what the situation means about
her. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This </i>archetypal inner-Huntress
is <i><b>not </b>going to be hunted by “birth”</i> but she might be “taken down” by what she is
telling herself about herself, the moment, the circumstances.</div>
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Danielle, and readers… in this model, in your own life,
prenatal preparation or postpartum inquiry, the seeker must ask herself, "From What am I
running? How do I <i>know </i>to run, rather than stalk, study, fight, pounce?"</div>
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“Birth” is a word that contains many meanings, both literal
and metaphorical. In one dream “birth” might be a beast, it could be symbolized by a force of
nature, for example a weather pattern, or a physiological process. In our work we strive to be very
specific about what exactly it is that we are drawn to, and why; what exactly
it is we are trying to avoid, and why; and what exactly we might be inclined to
run from, and why? </div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #17365d;">“…birth turning on us…”</span></i></b> In
my way of thinking, birth<i> is</i>. Life <i>is</i>. It arises in us and we in it—without
separation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we do fall into
subject-object thinking and perceiving, we then perceive “birth” “out there”
–but how we see it is still a mirror of how we “see” and what we
believe--<i>within</i>. So when we think of “<span style="color: #45818e;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>birthing turn on us,</i></span></span>” we create a
split, a subject-object, victim-perpetrator, hunted-hunter split… which activates primarily victim-prey-Child energies within us in which we try to outrun something bigger than
us, something that is coming after us. In this state of mind, we are no longer
<i>co-creators</i>, we are not <i>participants in the creation and the solution</i>.<span><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span></div>
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In labor, and in the daily process of life, death, and
rebirth, we cannot run from “birth” but we can try to avoid a certain,
particular thing that, if it happened, we would feel we failed, or we were
weak, or we were not a good mother… or whatever negative self-belief our
habit-mind comes up with (btw, none of these beliefs are true). “Birth” as an
experience, no matter how grizzly, does not take us down. What takes us down
the downward spiral is our own mind, our own stories about ourselves, what we should
have done, what others should have done—or not done, how this event/outcome
should not have happened if only this, if that. We confuse planning to avoid it
in the future with the Huntress, but in fact this is the scared Child trying to
control her future.</div>
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<span style="color: #17365d;">Danielle wrote: "<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If we set out on our Hunt with
the deepest respect for the thing we wish to consume, our own Birth, and
realize it will lead us where we are meant to go, when it turns on us, we may
be able to adjust in a different way.. To release our control to it and allow
it to, instead, devour us. Radiantly and on the hallowed ground of our own
path.</i></b></span>"<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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So now you see the Huntress is not an informed health
consumer (that is the Gatherer archetype). Information, planning, and deep
beliefs or respect do not “lead us where we are meant to go.” Maybe we are not "meant" to be anywhere in particular, maybe we can’t
know how or why we wind up in a particular spot at a particular moment. This is
one of the Great Mysteries. It seems we have some say in it, at least some of
the time, but then there is this unexplainable force that leads us, stalls us,
detours our intention… and then the unexpected happens. </div>
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The Huntress is awake, a master of awareness. Even so, being
human, we are limited in how far we can see, hear, smell, and feel. Nonetheless,
she neither “releases control,” nor is she “in control” of the situation or
outcome…. Danielle observed, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #17365d;">When we realize that the Huntress. . . never knows the
outcome of her Hunt, </span></i><span style="color: #17365d;">not on the veld or
Discovery shows of wild animals, and not in birth or in life<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. </i></span>Rather, she is ever-practicing
sensing, awareness, responsiveness or deliberate patience. </div>
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The Huntress is not “devoured.” (That might be Victim… I’ll
have to think on this.) However, when we are one with our environment and
hunger, when subject and object merge in those rare moments of human bliss and
clarity, the Hunter as a separate ego dissolves and becomes the activity of the
hunt. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She so becomes the prey she
hunts she anticipates the prey’s next move. Do you see and feel the difference?</div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #17365d;">Hunting is deliberate, quiet, patient. I cannot say to you, lightly, "Happy Hunting," because true hunting stills and calms the emotional waves within, and yet there is no stagnation. True hunting or stalking of habit mind</span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #17365d;"> </span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #17365d;">is utterly dynamic. It can be done on a meditation pillow or in a busy airport. I sincerely wish for each and everyone of you the call of the Huntress that you will become a Master of Awareness.</span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #17365d;">Pam</span></span></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-87982972476927829232012-08-29T09:51:00.002-07:002012-08-29T10:26:55.975-07:00First Living From Within (TM)Hi Birth Peeps,<br />
For two days I have been in Santa Fe, New Mexico.... overlooking beautiful vistas with two lovely and bright yoga teachers who are eager to learn the Birthing From Within model <i>Beyond Birth--and to learn about LIFE as a Hero's Journey</i>! As those of you who have taken our workshops and are in our program already know.... Birth and Life as a Hero"s Journey is a multi-layered, rich, uplifting, healing, forward-moving model that guides your participation in, and your understanding of, your life (both your past and future). This model also helps us to understand how systems (work and family) and culture works, and how we can help in a small way towards building cohesive relationships and personal freedom with this model.<br />
<br />
Over the years many people have told us we should take Birthing From Within into the world as <b>Living From Within</b>(TM)--so non-birth people could benefit from the philosophy and practices. Thanks to this invitation, and the exceptionally committed attention of DeAnna Alvarez and Peter Goodman, who will take this message into their lives and work, BFW has added another rung to her spiral of influence.<br />
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<br />
Love,<br />
Pam<br />
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<br />Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-70886578783254306682012-08-18T21:15:00.003-07:002012-08-20T12:50:01.650-07:00#35 What We Can Do . . .<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Dear Birth Peeps,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Last week, I shared how chronic stress in the first trimester of pregnancy is associated with preterm labor and
low birth weight babies. This week I continued to think about the problem of
stress during pregnancy— and about practical solutions for decreasing stress for pregnant women living,
working, driving in </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">—</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">and being driven by— our culture. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">If we are going to motivate
parents, employers, family members, and business owners for change and present a strong argument, we need to understand the autonomic nervous system and its role in health and in
stress. If you are interested in reading an excellent paper presented by Roz
Carroll in 2001, </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">a registered body psychotherapist and trainer in London, </span><span style="line-height: 150%;">explaining the autonomic nervous
system, its function, how its imbalance affects health, and how body work can help, go to: </span><span style="line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://www.thinkbody.co.uk/papers/autonomic-nervous-system.htm">http://www.thinkbody.co.uk/papers/autonomic-nervous-system.htm</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Briefly, I’ll explain the autonomic
nervous system (ANS). There are two parts: the sympathetic (drive) and
parasympathetic ("brake"/rest).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"> The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) kicks in when you
need to be focused, analytical, goal-oriented, fight/flight. <b style="color: #cc0000;">When SNS is in play</b><span style="color: #cc0000;">, the heart and
respiratory rate and blood pressure increase, increased muscle tension,
constriction of circulation, thoughts, feelings, breath, you are extroverted;
body organs lack tone.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"> <span style="color: #0b5394;">When the </span><b style="color: #0b5394;">parasympathetic
nervous system (PNS)</b><span style="color: #0b5394;"> is in play, you are receptive, introspective, speak slower, “process-oriented
and solution-focused. Everything flows better in the body: breath, thoughts,
blood, and digestive juices. You can rest, recover, rejuvenate.</span></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Here are some practical things to do, and to encourage parents in their childbearing year to do, to re-balance their ANS:</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">1. Everyday, “stop and smell the flowers.” Brief rest
periods or mini-meditations throughout the day help to re-balance the
sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Meditate on a favorite phrase, quote, or poem. Listen to an uplifting song. Discover a new relaxing hobby, such as handwork (knit a baby hat), paint or draw, learn to play a musical instrument, plant a tree or start a small herb garden and tend it daily.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">2. Yoga, walking, swimming, dancing, Qi Gong, massage and other body-work are all physical ways to get out of our "head" and into our bodies-- this can re-set our nervous system.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">3. Think positively. Be solution-focused, not problem-focused. Practice and express gratitude.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">4. Starting your day in peace and calm is a little seed for the day. Soon the seeds will accumulate and you may be waking and living in a garden of a calmer mindset. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">5. Practice forgiveness, compassion, and patience with yourself and other
humans. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">6. Don’t compare yourself (or your pregnancy or birth) with
others. Your experience is uniquely yours. Don't strive to "get it right", instead, do the best you can and embrace your imperfections.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">7. Eat well. Take your vitamins. Eat whole foods. Decrease
processed junk food. Sit down at a table to eat; light a candle. Eat slowly, mindfully; taste your food. Perhaps eat breakfast in silence with your baby (no TV, radio, conversation, or reading). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">7. Organize your day to drive less, and leave five minutes
earlier to decrease stress from fear of being late.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">8. Make a ritual out of bedtime so you can wind down
before going to sleep. Have a warm cup of tea or milk and honey. Listen to
music or white noise (rain/river sounds).
Light a candle, meditate, consciously release tension from head to toe.
Sleep is essential for rejuvenating the body and rebalancing the nervous
system.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">9. Decrease electromagnetic stress. Turn off computers,
television; schedule quiet time each day where you turn off digital stress. Make sure you don’t have electric clocks, radios, computers near
your head when you sleep.*</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Many of these ideas came from another
excellent article on stress, health, and hair analysis: <a href="http://drlwilson.com/Articles/NERVOUS%20SYSTEM.htm">http://drlwilson.com/Articles/NERVOUS%20SYSTEM.htm</a>. </span> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 150%;">Here are some cultural hurdles to consider, because these "realities" will
interfere with making this radical change a reality:</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"> Women
in their first trimester are often "couch potatoes"--our bodies are telling us we need naps and more sleep to nourish the parasympathetic nervous system and prenatal/fetal health... And yet there are no social mores to allow the exhausted new mother to do this without
penalty in pay, hours being saved up for the baby postpartum, or losing a
"grade" in school. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"> Our culture at large has not been informed or entrained to treat women in the first
trimester (or at any time in pregnancy) more kindly. Because pregnancy is a healthy physiological even, she is expected to keep up with work, school, errands, social events... even when her body is telling her to rest. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 150%; margin-left: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"> When a partner/family can’t even tell she is pregnant yet, it’s easy for a partner, friend, boss, there may not be motivation to pick up the slack to ensure the groceries
or household tasks got done, or the older kid(s) get picked up from school. So, the partner, family, and again everyone, needs to be educated to change our collective attitudes. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Let's be careful not to lay the burden on the mother, or to blame her if she can't make changes to reduce her stress. When
new mothers learn about the importance of first trimester rest, meditation, and
stress reduction they tell me they cannot really do what it would take to
reduce their stress because they need to keep their job (or two jobs!), and
they know or doubt their employer would give them a day off in the middle of
the week and let them work on Saturday, or take a longer lunch break to rest.
In addition, the U.S. does not give generous maternity/paternity leave;
therefore, pregnant mothers hoard every hour of their sick time and vacation
time to use after their baby is born. Even if they are stressed or sick, they
often can’t afford to take a break during pregnancy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Prenatal
clinics are often over-booked; by the time a woman can get her first
appointment, she may be at the end of, or even past, her first trimester. So
even if a birth peep has this new information and could teach a mom a
meditation technique, scheduling might not allow it.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">When
talking this over with Virginia Bobro, she pointed out that many women do not
share with others or their employers that they are pregnant—in the first
trimester. This means that even if we wanted to share the importance of this
new research with our sisters, or an employer might have been open to
supporting her, the opportunity might be lost.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">As part of my recovery, and understanding the role stress played in my illness, I have taken up a daily practice of meditation and visualization to re-balance my ANS. It has made a tremendous difference in my well-being and my ability to concentrate and be creative. I highly recommend taking up even one small change every day. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">To a more balanced life and more compassion for pregnant women and babies,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Pam</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><b>References: </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"> http://website.lineone.net/~thinkbody/biography/index.html</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">http://drlwilson.com/Articles/NERVOUS%20SYSTEM.htm</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-87954147599227963832012-08-09T19:52:00.001-07:002012-08-09T19:52:37.276-07:00Radical Change #35: Shift Focus of Early Prenatal Care: Teach Mothers to Reduce Stress to Reduce Preterm Labor and other problems<style>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Hello Birth
Peeps,</span></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">A
growing number of studies are confirming there is truth in an old wives’ tale
that says pregnant women should be protected from stress or a sudden shock to
avoid premature labor (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ahhh, high fives
to the power of observation by the old ones who </i>did know!). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> Most of us think we should help
mothers reduce their stress and rest more in the third trimester, or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">after</i> she develops symptoms such as early
contractions or hypertension. But research is showing an ounce of prevention in
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">first trimester</i> is worth pounds
of cure in the third. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify; text-indent: .15in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> Recent research
is showing a correlation between stress in the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">first trimester</i></b> and early
</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">miscarriage, pre-term labor, low birth weight, and influences on
the baby’s temperament.<sup>1</sup> One in ten babies is born prematurely
in the U.S., as we know, and have sympathy for these little babies who struggle
with many health problems. If you could do something to reduce this suffering,
you probably would… <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">read on!</i></b></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify; text-indent: .15in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">After the Northridge Earthquake in California, it was observed
that women who were in their first trimester when it happened had shorter
gestations than women who were in second or third trimester. Why would stress
in the first trimester increase preterm labor and low birth weight?:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify; text-indent: .15in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">When
a pregnant woman perceives a stressor, her brain releases a hormone called CRH
(corticotrophin-releasing hormone)—a hormone that signals the body to release
other stress hormones (e.g. adrenalin and cortisol, among many others) needed
to generate the complex fight-flight-freeze response. When the threat or
stressor is resolved, the stress hormones return to baseline, and all is well.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .15in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Stress hormones cannot return to baseline whenever
pressure and tension is unrelenting; when she is in a constant state of anxiety
and worry because she doesn’t know what to do, or she believes there is “no
back door,” no way out. Her stress might be related to work, or not having a
job, not having enough money, racial discrimination, a pregnancy-related
concern, among other stressors.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .15in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Persistently high levels of maternal stress hormones </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">signal
the baby’s placenta to increase production of CRH (as much as twenty times
normal level), which cross the placental barrier and circulate in the mother’s
blood. The developing baby is also stressed and begins producing its own stress
hormones. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .15in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .15in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Did you know that elevated CRH levels measured in the mother’s
blood between 16 and 20 weeks gestation can predict whether she is likely to
deliver prematurely (the risk is three times higher).<sup>2</sup> Thus, CHR
levels have been referred to as the “placenta clock.” </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .15in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #783f04; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Here's where it starts to get interesting because there is something we can do:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">In
addition to external stressors, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the
mother’s coping style</b> also influences her level of CHR and stress hormones.
It makes sense that when the mother reduces her stress by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">taking action</i> toward solving the problem, stress hormones can
return to baseline. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">On the other hand, when she does not or
cannot make a decision or take action on her behalf, the problem or
"threat" (whether real or imagined) continues to loom over her. If her
coping style is to disengage, to try to ignore the problem, or hope that
someone or something “out there” will intervene on her behalf, she will
probably have higher levels of CHR and stress hormones.<sup>3</sup> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #990000; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">RADICAL CHANGE BEGINS HERE!!</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">We can’t hold this information or
responsibility solely over mothers’ heads as another thing she “should” do
(unless we want to risk increasing her stress and guilt). We know it is not possible
for mothers in the first trimester, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in
this socially obtuse birth culture</i>, to make this radical change <i>on their own</i>--independent
of the support of their families, work place, birth attendants (who may "order" rest), and culture as
a whole. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">This important change, Change #35,
will be realized when birth attendants collectively and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">radically shift their focus</b>—from enrolling pregnant women in their
first trimester in prenatal care primarily to gather a medical history,
estimate the due date, and take lab tests—to<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
using early prenatal visits to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">teach each
mother how to assess and reduce stress, and how to rest. </b></i>Again, we must stop thinking that there is nothing we can really do in the first trimester and call for "Early Prenatal Education" classes. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #b45f06; line-height: 150%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> <span style="color: blue;">How the Huntress Warrior Lowers Stress: </span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; line-height: 120%; margin: 0.1pt 0in 0.1pt 0.2in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Track your daily rhythm and level of stress.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; line-height: 120%; margin: 0.1pt 0in 0.1pt 0.2in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Pay attention to what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is </i>happening
around you and in you.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; line-height: 120%; margin: 0.1pt 0in 0.1pt 0.2in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Ask yourself, “What needs to happen next?”</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; line-height: 120%; margin: 0.1pt 0in 0.1pt 0.2in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Dare to act deliberately and decisively.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; line-height: 120%; margin: 0.1pt 0in 0.1pt 0.2in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Do what needs to be done, but nothing extra.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; line-height: 120%; margin: 0.1pt 0in 0.1pt 0.2in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Don’t look back, second guess, or judge yourself; </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">just reassess the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">new</i>
moment </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do </i>what needs to be done next—</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">without an attachment to outcome.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; line-height: 120%; margin: 0.1pt 0in 0.1pt 0.2in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Stalk <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">early signs </i>of
tension, dread, or stress, </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">notice when you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">start</i> to
feel pressured by daily hassles—</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; line-height: 120%; margin: 0.1pt 0in 0.1pt 0.2in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">do</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">something different</i>—and lower stress <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">early.</i></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; line-height: 120%; margin: 0.1pt 0in 0.1pt 0.2in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Eat well, eat mindfully, avoid fast food.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Organize your week to do fewer errands, less driving.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Greet the sun with a poem, a dance, or a meditation.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">See the humor in life, laugh, watch funny movies.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; line-height: 120%; margin: 0.1pt 0in 0.1pt 0.2in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Practice guided imagery, following your bliss,</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">yoga, tai chi, and take long walks in nature.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">(excerpted
from upcoming book, <i>Birth as a Hero’s Journey</i> copyright 2012 Pam England)</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .15in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #990000; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.15in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-size: large;">In-Love,</span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .15in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"> Pam </span></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: blue;">P.S. Are you still wondering why stress in
the second and third trimester is less problematic? Here’s another
mini-physiology lesson</span>:</span></i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">CRH levels normally increase in the
second trimester, and increase even more in the third, even when pregnancy is
not particularly stressful. Ordinarily, this surge of CRH would stimulate an
overproduction of stress hormones in the mother, but this does not happen
because simultaneously her body begins producing large quantities of a CRH-<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">binding</i> protein that prevents CRH from
being recognized or utilized by her body.<sup>4</sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-right: .2in; text-indent: .15in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Citations and Resources:</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">1<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Retrieved
July 2012 from: stresscourse.tripod.com/id11.html, “Stress Management for
Health Course: The Fight or Flight Response.”<span style="color: #943634;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #548dd4;"><<Johntel,
no author given anywhere. Since these are facts and not creative material,
let’s not spend a lot of time on permissions</span></i><span style="color: #548dd4;">>></span><span style="color: #943634;"></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">2</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=51730&page=26<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">3<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Latendress, Gwen, Ruiz, Roberta J.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(2010). </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">“Maternal Coping Style and Perceived Adequacy of Income Predict CRH
Levels at 14–20 Weeks of Gestation”</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">http://brn.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/06/30/1099800410377111.abstractAbstract</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">4 <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Dewar,
Gwen Pregnancy stress hormones: How a natural rise in hormone levels may
benefit baby…and re-program mom’s brain Copyright © 2008 by Gwen Dewar </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .2in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">retrieved July 2012: www.
parentingscience.com/Stress-hormones-during-pregnancy.html </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Hobel, Calvin, Goldstein, A.
and Barrett, Emily S. “</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 32.5pt;">Psychosocial
Stress and Pregnancy Outcome”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .2in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.0pt;">Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.0pt;">. Volume 51, Number 2, 333–348 </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.0pt;">r </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.0pt;">2008, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins</span></div>
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<br /></div>Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-75526772260625900652012-07-21T12:46:00.005-07:002012-07-21T12:49:45.600-07:00Change #34 The Birth Huntress-GathererGood Morning Birth Peeps,<br />
<br />
I have been away but think of you often. I have tunnel vision right now for finishing the new book, <i>Birth as a Hero's Journey: An Ancient Map for a Modern Birth</i>. My muse is with me, putting fire under my feet--or my writing hand. Today there was a Conference Call on <b>Birth as a Hero's Journey</b>. 140 people came. Thank you... and if you missed the call, you can hear the recording at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FMOWwrm&h=WAQHprwBi" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/MOWwrm</a>.<br />
<br />
Here is one idea presented on the call in the new book:<br />
<br />
Drawing from the ancient, archetypal images of the "Huntress-Gatherer," we can develop a more sophisticated and meaningful approach to childbirth preparation. Presently, our birth culture promotes the "Gatherer" archetype: parents and birth peeps are encouraged to gather lots of information, anecdotal stories, opinions, statistics, and things we might need to carry with us to Laborland. It's easy to roam about carrying our big basket, filling it up and up, even trading bits while we visit and gather with other women or groups. We can fill our baskets fairly mindlessly as we talk and laugh and gossip, maybe not even notice what fell into our basket. It's easy to become very attached to what's in our basket, and not want to let bits go.<br />
<br />
In line with the study of Masculine and Feminine energies and polarity, the Gatherer is in her feminine aspect. It's what women do (or the feminine aspect of men, too), we gather, store, save bits and pieces that might come in handy in the future. When we are in our Gatherer, and we talk with others, we don't want single word answers, we want to get the whole scoop, the why, when, where, who details, the berries, the leaves and the roots... put them all in our basket... for future use. So this is the part of modern woman that responds to evidence-based preparation: this approach fills our baskets and we feel full and ready for the future.<br />
<br />
What is missing in present-day preparation for the ordeals that may present during the childbearing year and the emergence of the new role as parent is the qualities and skills of the Huntress. <br />
<br />
While the Gatherer gathers in groups as part of a social activity, the Huntress requires introspective attention, patience, deliberate focus and solitude to study patterns of thought and behavior in herself and "out there." A Huntress first must learn to hunt; for humans it is not innate but a skill that must be learned through discipline and from lots of trial and error, or more efficiently from an experienced hunter. Hunger for something in particular awakens the Huntress archetype-- but without the skills she will scare away her prey and remain hungry; she may even give herself away and become the prey!<br />
<br />
Cultivating the Huntress develops the masculine aspects of herself. The Huntress has a kind of <i>internal </i>intelligence; a primal instinct and a sharp intuition; keen awareness of the space around her,; she notices small changes early and the habits of others (lest she become their prey); she conserves energy so that every act counts (rather than hit and miss, or reactive). The Huntress is the Master of Awareness.<br />
<br />
As you can see, this model does not preserve or promote magical, idealistic, rebellious, or outcome-focused birth preparation. It is designed to help the Child-Mother, Child-Father (or new Child-Birth Peep) "grow up" and develop adult thinking and skills that may be necessary to negotiate the uncertainties and Ordeal of labor and postpartum.<br />
<br />
How do we develop both aspects of the Huntress-Gatherer in childbirth preparation? If one aspect is already strong in an initiate (or in your classes), how can you (the Mentor) help cultivate the less developed aspect so parents' preparation is well-rounded before the Ordeal?<br />
<br />
The first step is to study and know the Huntress-Gatherer within you. If one is undeveloped, make an effort to bring those qualities forward and see what happens in your life. Birthing From Within processes and classes are designed to do this... but it is important for each of us to explore the possibilities completely to become Masters of Awareness in our own lives.<br />
<br />
Love,<br />
<br />
Pam<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Birthing From Within has been teaching this model, as it is being developed, since 2007. Our lawyers just applied for registered trademark. A new website will be up soon.Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-9083219365417423632012-06-01T01:47:00.000-07:002012-06-01T08:09:26.523-07:00Change #33 Annual Red Tent Story Retreat<style>
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Hi
Birth Peeps,</div>
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<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Birthing From Within</span>’s <span style="color: #c0504d; font-variant: small-caps;">Red Tent</span> is unique. Our first <span style="color: #cc0000; font-variant: small-caps;">Red Tent</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> </span>was held in Taos, New Mexico about a decade ago.
Right from the start, the idea was to create a conference-retreat exclusively
for our certified mentors, one that not only provided advanced training but
also offered personal and spiritual growth. Typically in childbirth
organizations, annual conferences offer lectures about a wide range of
birth-related topics; registration is open to all aspiring and certified
members. However, as I gained experience as a birth professional, I personally wanted <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">something more</i> from birth conferences—something
that really helped me mature professionally in a holistic way, beyond informing
me. </div>
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So when our
first BFW childbirth mentors and doulas became certified—and also wanted <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">something more</i>—the idea of having a special
retreat for personal and professional growth, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">exclusively</i> for certified childbirth mentors, was conceived. Around
that time Anita Diamont’s book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Red
Tent</i> (1998), was published, so we named our retreat the “<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Red Tent</span>.”</div>
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Because of
the popularity of the book, there are lots of “Red Tent” gatherings across the
country. There are Red Tents for healing, for women’s groups, for sharing life
stories, and some specifically for telling birth stories. Our <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Red Tent</span> centers around storytelling, too,
but in a very unique way: We do not share personal birth stories. Rather, we
learn Great Stories, myths, or folk tales that map the hero’s journey or convey
a teaching to the listeners.</div>
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In past <span style="color: #cc0000;">Red
Tents,</span> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">one </i>Great Story was told, then
throughout the retreat, mentors continued to explore its deeper meaning in
break-out sessions, birth art projects, and story ceremonies, finding
relevance both in their own lives and as it might apply to parents in the
childbearing year. </div>
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Our <span style="color: #cc0000;">Red Tent</span>
retreats are still intimate; about 20 women came this year to beautiful
Synergia Ranch near Santa Fe. We enjoy meeting up with old friends we’ve met at
previous trainings. Meal times and hikes are a time of
joyful sharing of mentoring creativity and birth politics from around the
world. Experienced mentors learn from and teach one another advanced mentoring techniques
and share case studies. </div>
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BFW's <span style="color: #c0504d; font-variant: small-caps;">Red Tent May 2012</span> theme was inspired by the novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Damascus Nights</i> by Rafik Schami (2011).
Thus, we modified our former theme: instead of presenting just one Great Story, we
invited seven mentors to tell <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">seven</i> stories.Here’s a
little background: </div>
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In his book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Damascus Nights</i>,
Schami weaves a delightful tale of Salim, an old storyteller, who is visited one
morning by none other than his Story Fairy, who, until that fateful visit, he never even knew existed!
She tells him that it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">she</i>, who,
for sixty years, "breathed life into his dusty, wooden words and mad them
grow into a magical tree of tales" and that it is she who picked up the
thread when he forgot where he was in a story. But now she is old and gray and
wants to retire. And when she does, she warns him, he will lose his voice. She knows he is not ready to
retire as a storyteller. So, she tells him she has asked the Fairy King for a
favor, which he granted—with the following conditions: </div>
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From this moment on, he
has only 21 words left to speak before he becomes mute. If, in three months
time, Salim receives seven gifts, he will be given a new, younger, story fairy and his
voice will be restored; he will go on telling stories. Sure enough, 21 words later, Salim the storyteller goes mute.</div>
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Salim has
seven good friends who try to help. They gift him everything they can think of
from seven great meals, to seven great wines, to seven trips.... Time was
running out. Finally they decide to each tell a story <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to </i>Salim-- a Gift of Seven Stories-- And with the seventh story, Salim
is granted a new Story Fairy and he begins to tell stories again.</div>
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At our Red Tent this year, seven Certified BFW Mentors told seven fabulous stories. (And not one of them was a
birth story!—and yet every one of the stories could be Medicine for mothers
during their childbearing year.) </div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zzc0uUTH-JM/T8h02g1E7rI/AAAAAAAAAHg/J2zYAPX-yl8/s1600/Red+Tent+Seven+Storytellers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zzc0uUTH-JM/T8h02g1E7rI/AAAAAAAAAHg/J2zYAPX-yl8/s320/Red+Tent+Seven+Storytellers.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Carolina Quintana from Guadalajara,
Mexico told a story she created about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mariposa</i>
(Butterfly) and described an amazing butterfly mandala process she has developed for pregnant women; Erika
Primozich from Colorado told the sacred story of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">White Buffalo Calf Woman</i>; Guina Bixler from Atlanta,
Georgia, led us in a clay art process; Rachael Adair from California told the Celtic story of <i>Cerridwen; </i>Monique Paris
from Hawaii told the story of <i>Seal Skin,
Soul Skin; </i>Leticia, also from Guadalajara<i>, </i>shared a gift of <i>Rebozo; </i>and<i> </i>Virginia Beall from Idaho told the
Lakota story, <i>Jumping Mouse. </i>(During our<i> </i>Mandala Painting workshop just before the Red Tent, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> S</i>tephanie Rayburn, a Bear
mentor from Colorado, told us the story of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The</i>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Velveteen Rabbit</i> by Margery Williams). Her rendition was so moving, you could have heard a pin drop… that is
before we had to pass the tissue box. </div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Rofjdk_r0_Y/T8h3DUx5P-I/AAAAAAAAAH0/oM-XdNTGOsM/s1600/Rent+Tent+Erica+White+Buffalo+Calf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Rofjdk_r0_Y/T8h3DUx5P-I/AAAAAAAAAH0/oM-XdNTGOsM/s320/Rent+Tent+Erica+White+Buffalo+Calf.jpg" width="246" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;">In truth
there were more than seven stories told. Because within every story is a story,
and within every mandala is a story, whether it was a personal journey or a
Great Story, we were gifted with seven times seven stories! Five of our
storytellers made a Story Mandala representing the story they were planning to
tell. . . so we also had a journey-image of the story—which we had watched
emerge slowly by the hand of the storyteller. This was doubly rich for both story-listeners
and storytellers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;">(<i>This
is Erika, a BFW Mentor and Advisor, who told us the story of White
Buffalo Calf Woman, with her finished mandala. Erika had never told a
Great Story or painted before--so this Red Tent was a milestone in her
personal and professional journey--and an inspiration to us all.)</i></span></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WcasQa5JJ_c/T8h6EZCPtOI/AAAAAAAAAIc/4L6ZnL0Nmls/s1600/red+tent+storylisteners.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="241" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WcasQa5JJ_c/T8h6EZCPtOI/AAAAAAAAAIc/4L6ZnL0Nmls/s320/red+tent+storylisteners.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A storyteller needs a story-listener: Linda, Rachael, Guina, Monique, Donna</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;">After telling
her story, the Storyteller would invite the story-listeners to reflect on the
meaning it held for them personally, as a mentor, or as Medicine for parents during the
childbearing year. The sharings were as delicious as the story.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"> Storytelling is an integral part of the lost art of mentoring. Storytelling was the original form of teaching. A Great Story, a hero-journey myth or folk tale, is "indirect" or ambiguous, which means that every story-listener can draw from the story unique meaning or Medicine that speaks to where she is on her journey. And, each time the story-listener hears the same story, she will draw still yet new meaning because she is hearing it with new ears on a new place in her journey. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;">During a Great Story-telling, the story-listener identifies with one of the characters or a particular event in the story; it is in this emotionally- or imagination-charged identification that something within the listener begins to stir. She begins to feel instead of think, she remembers who she is, or she envisions a new solution or possibility. Oddly because a Great Story is not a personal birth story or a story about birth directly, the Medicine is even more potent and has a "slow-release" effect. In labor, when a woman's rational mind recedes to the background, her imaginal right-brain becomes more accessible. It is then, that she may recall and begin to draw strength from the images she made while hearing a Great Story during her childbirth preparation. A Great Story becomes an "inner map" guiding her--not toward striving for a particular outcome (which is more typical of direct stories or birth stories)--but more importantly, into her infinite wealth of unconscious resources and creativity and self-awareness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;">BFW Childbirth Mentors know this to be true, because women returning from birth testify to the power of a Great Story, and how, in the throes of labor, they recalled the hero in the hero's journey story and found inspiration or a different kind of knowing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;">This is why BFW believes that Awakening the Storyteller in Midwives and Doulas and Mentors will change birth in our culture. When we change the stories we tell and the stories we hear, birth in our culture will change. The most powerful teachers are the Story and the Storytellers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;">This was
one birth event and Red Tent no one wanted to end. Before it was over, the consensus
was to make at least one change: instead of having our Red Tent Story Retreat
every other year, we should have it every year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;">We will continue... and I hope you will join us in the future.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;">Pam </span></div>Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-60941664910531039212012-05-24T12:25:00.002-07:002012-05-24T12:25:42.205-07:00Change # 32 THINKING IN CREATIVE CIRCLES<style>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> Dear Birth Peeps,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Birthing From Within</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> just offered a special (and AMAZING) All
Mentor Conference (exclusively for our mentors from beginners to certified). The
theme was<b><span style="font-variant: small-caps;"> Myths, Mentoring, and Mandalas</span></b>. We gathered at Synergia
Ranch near Santa Fe, New Mexico. </span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EyiBWEkmsZo/T76FLcN1HOI/AAAAAAAAAHA/yGaDJvN_pQk/s1600/mandala+never+painted+before.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EyiBWEkmsZo/T76FLcN1HOI/AAAAAAAAAHA/yGaDJvN_pQk/s320/mandala+never+painted+before.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Our
colorful conference began Friday evening with a brief power point presentation
showing a variety of mandalas and an introduction to sacred geometry. About
half of the women had previous experience painting with acrylics, so I offered
a mini-lesson in how to paint and layer with acrylic. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Sweet Dreams</span></b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">: Finally, before going to
sleep after a long day of travel, everyone was invited to invoke a “mandala
dream.” Mandalas and symbolic art arise from dream-like states of reverie, or
that in-between place just before falling asleep or when we are waking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we try to paint from our ego-mind,
we paint what we already know or what we have already seen. The best part of creation
and painting is the unexpected aha-moments that come with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">new and sudden</i> associations between two familiar ideas. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That</i> is true learning. Those moments are
the joy of creation, creativity, and daring to paint. So off we went… to our
cozy little rooms. We left paper and pencil on our bedside tables to catch the
dream images. At breakfast we shared our new dreams and were soon in the art
room laying out designs and under-paintings.</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Mandala</span></i><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> means “circle” in Sanskrit.
A mandala may be composed of circles, squares, upward and downward triangles, and/or
star shapes. Alternating and “telescoping” squares and circles, in decreasing
diameter, leads the viewer’s eye inward toward the center—and out, or around
the border.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In
geometric mandalas, the center, is marked by a small black dot, a “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bind</i>u.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bindu</i> represents the "seed" of life, the universal
creative potential; it represents the duality of all that is unmanifest made
manifest. One of the first tasks in creating a mandala (that is built on sacred
geometry) is to mark the center of the mandala and build from there. The center
can also be marked by a sacred figure, symbol, bead, or milagro.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There
are story mandalas, meditation mandalas, and what I experience as “spontaneous”
mandalas. Carl Jung made a series of spontaneous, process-oriented, mandalas
during a phase in his life (see the <i>Red Book</i>), and many of us made this type,
too. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
began making story mandalas as a “map” on the wall when I was telling complex
hero journey myths or fairytales. Instead of using words, little drawings
represented key segments, characters, or moments in the story. Last year I made
an intricate hero journey mandala which was featured on this blog. This piece
is also a meditation mandala because, by focusing on one area or symbol, the
viewer can take an inward journey.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mKBzzY8cL_k/T76K7D91duI/AAAAAAAAAHU/SuXrXZA2pBg/s1600/Mandala+v+and+stephanie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mKBzzY8cL_k/T76K7D91duI/AAAAAAAAAHU/SuXrXZA2pBg/s320/Mandala+v+and+stephanie.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Why are childbirth mentors
interested in making mandalas?</span></b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Designing,
painting, and beading</i> a mandala is an uplifting meditation and journey
inward. Hanging our mandala in our teaching or interviewing space creates a
certain mood for us and the parents we work with. Parents enjoy looking into a
mandala—taking a journey through all the colors, symbols, or little
illustrations. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Of
all the childbirth workshops I’ve ever been to, this one was the most joyful
and peaceful. Throughout the day, mentors worked side by side, sharing rulers,
brushes, and stories, watching one another’s images build and build, and
hearing insights. Painting tips and techniques were shared as we went. On
breaks, we shared how we used creativity in our own lives and workplace… deep
friendships were forged.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">More to come,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">With love,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Pam and Virginia </span></div>Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-32233956929872166302012-04-09T15:56:00.002-07:002012-04-10T09:59:50.418-07:00#31: ?Hello Everyone,<br />
Today while I was searching for the new study on the link between obesity and autism, I found a link from BBC's "Witness." They interviewed <b>JANET BALASKAS</b>, who, in 1982, was (in her own words), "just a mother and childbirth teacher in north London." She had never given a speech but found herself speaking to a <b>group of 6,000 people</b>, mostly mothers and fathers (and babies too). Balaskas announced and organized this march in London for the right to birth normally, and through a groundswell of consumer-interest (the internet, let alone social media, was not around yet!), 6,000 parents gathered to <b>demand the right to birth normally</b>. The protesters carried signs with messages such as: "SQUAT FOR YOUR RIGHTS" and "STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS." Janet invited Dr. Michel Odent, author of many books on birth, and he came to support them! Fortunately, a rock band offered the free use of a stage and sound system.<br />
<br />
<b>JANET BALASKAS, </b>now a well-known author and founder of <i><b>Active Birth </b>(1990/1992) </i>and birth activist, is an amazing woman. She has a beautiful, peaceful <b>Active Birth Centre </b>in north London (Virginia Bobro and I have both enjoyed giving talks and workshops at the Active Birth Centre when we were in London).<br />
<br />
What inspired Janet to organize a march in 1982 was that women were literally being "forced" to birth on their backs. Janet went to the library to inform herself on other positions women could labor/birth in, and she discovered that, until the 16th century, women gave birth standing, squatting, and kneeling--there were no illustrations of women lying on their backs. She also learned (it was new news back then!) that when mothers lie on their backs, the pelvic diameter decreased and blood supply to the fetus decreased.<br />
<br />
When Janet became pregnant, she sought out a midwife for a home birth. At the time her midwives had not seen a woman give birth upright, but they were willing to go with this; Janet did birth at home. She had four children.<br />
<br />
When Janet first taught women "Active Birth" and upright birth positions, it was revolutionary. <b>"Active Birth" was banned</b> in the hospital. One doctor referred to active birth as "animalistic behavior." Through persistence, the idea of birthing upright, or in whatever position the woman desires, has become more "accepted." Even so, recently I was speaking with a mother who was still surprised to learn she could give birth without lying on her back!<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><b><br />
</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">In 1982, women were actively learning about their bodies, the midwifery model, and wanting autonomy. It was an exciting time to be a midwife and a mother. It was parent-driven change that brought 6,000 parents in London together to demand the right to birth normally in hospitals.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>That is impressive, inspiring; I wish I could have been there! In a way, even if I missed the march, I feel some of Janet Balaskas' frustration today, in 2012. Yesterday I spoke with Virginia Bobro (co-owner of Birthing From Within) who imagined someone arriving in a time capsule in London and telling everyone at the march for natural birth, "<i>Hey, this is a great turn out! You are probably envisioning a really conscious birth culture thirty years from now. But, I just came back from 2012, and I'm sorry to report, most women are still birthing on their backs... but for different reasons.</i>" (e.g. the incredible rise in inductions, epidurals, and cesareans, as well as (still!) birth attendants' preference for the mother to be in the bed when she is pushing).<br />
<br />
There are new questions to ask, now in 2012:<br />
(1) How many mothers in Western hospitals (who are not being induced or are confined to bed because of an epidural) are really encouraged or "allowed" to stand and birth, or get on hands-and-knees, or squat on the bed or on a blanket on the floor?<br />
(2) How many mothers who ARE "allowed" to get up and walk in labor are told to get in bed during pushing and birthing?<br />
(3) How many mothers are "demanding" the right to give birth naturally?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">I ask myself: Would even 1,000 parents come together today to Occupy Birth and demand midwifery care or natural birth or protest routine monitoring, inductions, or high cesarean rates? The passivity among the majority of parents is deafening and confusing. Something has happened. It's not all about the medical model; some hospitals do offer parents midwifery care and many more options than before, this is true. It's also about the collective attitudes of mothers; some midwives tell me that many parents do not desire, value, or demand natural birth.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">When I tried to think of a title for this post, #31 of 50 Ways to Change Birth in Our Culture, I stumped myself. Is the problem within the medical model or within the parents' vision of birth? Can parents organize a march to motivate parents? </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Here are two links:<br />
<br />
To hear the interview on BBC's "Witness" with Janet Balaskas:<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue;">http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/witness#playepisode5</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">To learn more about the Active Birth Centre in north London: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.activebirthcentre.com/index.html </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Warmly,</div><div class="MsoNormal">Pam</div>Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-70826167577702456532012-03-08T20:36:00.000-08:002012-03-08T20:36:40.153-08:00International Women's Day: Get the Government Out of Our Wombs<span style="font-size: small;">Hello Birth Peeps,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">I admit I have not paid close attention to International Women's Day in the past. But today, as we find ourselves in a bizarre retro fight for our reproductive rights <i>again</i>, we all took notice! In the early 1900's, a National Women's Day was created to mobilize women to press for the issue of the day: the vote.... and birth control and sex education! About 1910, the National Day was expanded to <i>International</i>. International Women's Day 2012 in the U.S. will go down in history as women everywhere are speaking up, speaking out, writing, protesting, tweeting, FB, blogging, reading and talking....and don't forget. . . </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><br />
</b></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>WE VOTE</b>!! </span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">The irony of it!! From the same Republican men who are calling for small, less intrusive government when it comes to the IRS, health care, banking education, business and how to pray in schools. The only area they seem to have the confidence to intrude is into women's wombs and our reproductive rights and health. They seem to feel <i>they</i> own that part of us. How much more intrusive could Republican men get than in the manner in which we decide how and whether or not to bear our children.What could be a more private matter?</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
Another reason we will remember International Women's Day 2012 is because:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Yesterday, Virginia's Republican Governor, Bob McDonnell, signed into law a controversial bill that will FORCE women to have an ultrasound before having an abortion. <b>This law defies a woman's right to informed consent</b>. However, McConnell is confused or convinced that having an ultrasound provides information she will need to make her decision. His argument does not hold water: a woman already knows she is pregnant, an ultrasound will not provide additional information critical to her decision. He thinks he did women a favor by backing off on the vaginal ultrasound, but any unwished-for ultrasound procedure is intrusive.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">This new law also defies physicians and caregivers their right and responsibility to provide and honor informed consent with their patient. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Many friends consoled me earlier this week; they were certain the bill would not be signed because of the public outcry and pressure from other politicians. The bill was signed in spite of overwhelming response in protest from women. I thought Santorum was Comstock reincarnate; he is not the only one!!</span><br />
<br />
Today my housemate, Toby, told me to put on his headphones and he turned on a taping of the Rush Limbaugh show. When Limbaugh went to a commercial break at the usual time.... it was silent for over a minute, then later for over two minutes. Limbaugh didn't realize it at first, but there was silence where there should have been an advertisement. BoycottRush is working! Silence.<br />
<br />
There is power in numbers. Keep putting pressure on legislators and "the men"-- so we can Silence "the men."<br />
<br />
In-Love,<br />
PamPamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-89362408870303302182012-02-26T10:16:00.000-08:002012-02-26T10:16:55.318-08:00Building a Pain Coping Mindset Empowers Mothers and Prevents Birth TraumaGood Morning Birth Peeps,<br />
Friday evening I gave a little talk at the New Mexico Midwives Association about how building a pain-coping mindset during pregnancy empowers women and prevents emotional birth trauma associated with not being prepared to cope with pain.<br />
<br />
I don't think of pain-coping preparation as simply dealing with the sensation of cervical dilation, but rather a broader stroke of labor experience. Building a <i>coping mindset</i> includes preparing the new mother (and father/other mother) to embrace and work with the sensations of pain, but also uncertainty, intensity, and exhaustion.<br />
<br />
It is interesting to me that the first sensation that alerts most women that labor has started is "pain".... and yet it is the last thing we want to talk about in a meaningful way. Mothers are well informed about the risks and benefits of medical birth, but often <i>least informed</i> about labor pain, intensity, and uncertainty and <i>least prepared to cope with these primal elements of labor</i>.<br />
<br />
We'd like to think that because labor is natural and our bodies are made to do it that we will just "know" how to cope, that we will figure it out... hence the popular dictum, "Trust Birth." (And of course, if labor is short enough, and the woman has had certain life experiences up to that point that have prepared her, and her support team and environment are all in alignment, she will be blessed with a harmonious experience!)<br />
<br />
It is my point of view that we cannot risk allowing women (especially first-time mothers and their partners) to figure this out--on their own--in labor. I respectfully think of new mothers (and their partners) as <i>uninitiated</i>. In traditional cultures, the uninitiated were not expected to initiate themselves. They were mentored through some kind of personal and experiential preparation so that when the Ordeal or new role in life occurred, they were prepared to meet it.<br />
<br />
The catch word in birth is "empowerment." I work with mothers who have experienced emotional birth trauma related to being surprised and unprepared to cope with the normal pain of labor or how to labor in awareness (and self-acceptance) with an epidural. Feeling betrayed (by false assurances) is not empowering. Feeling unprepared for uncertainty and pain-coping is not empowering. Experiencing helplessness and not knowing what to do--does not engender empowerment. These lead to negative self-beliefs that are not true, but feel very true to the mother who was not prepared.<br />
<br />
The midwives had so many good questions and shared experiences. I thoroughly enjoyed sharing a little time with them and hope to do this again soon.<br />
<br />
Warmly,<br />
<br />
PamPamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-58674426637129766182012-01-28T11:09:00.000-08:002012-01-28T11:09:24.145-08:00A Poem, Pathways, for youGood Morning Birth Peeps,<br />
<br />
This morning I began a new painting I am dreaming.<br />
And, I rearranged my office; something I've attempted for months but had no inspiration, only frustration.<br />
I was telling a friend I needed to be "more organized," a frequent lament of mine.<br />
He suggested I strive for a space, an office, that would be "<i>contemplative</i>."<br />
<i>Contemplative, a restful place to work</i>. I sighed with relief.<br />
Instantly the judgment against myself fell, and I was motivated.<br />
I should send you all a before and after picture of the transformation in progress.<br />
<br />
Instead, I'll send you a poem about our Call... I found while I was re-organizing.<br />
It is called PATHWAYS by Mark Nepo. It was published in the current <i>Parabola</i>.<br />
<br />
"I don't know why I was I born<br />
with this belief in something<br />
deeper and larger than we can<br />
see. But it's always called. Even as<br />
a boy, I knew that trees and light<br />
and sky all point to some timeless<br />
center out of view. I have spent my life<br />
listening to that center and filter<br />
-ing it through my heart. This listening<br />
and filtering is the music of my soul,<br />
of all souls. After sixty years, I've run<br />
out of ways to name this. Even now,<br />
my heart won't stand still In a mo-<br />
ment of seeing, it takes the shape of<br />
my eye. In a moment of speaking, the<br />
shape of my tongue. In a moment of<br />
silence, it slips back into the lake of<br />
center. When you kiss me, it takes<br />
the shape of your lip. When our dog<br />
sleeps with us, it takes the shape of<br />
her curl. When the hummingbird<br />
feeds her baby, it takes the shape<br />
of her beak carefully dropping<br />
food into our throats.<br />
<br />
Ahhh, how wonderful when delicious words and poems feed us! <br />
<br />
In-Love,<br />
PamPamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-11746468179788441982012-01-17T19:39:00.000-08:002012-01-17T19:39:44.570-08:00#30 Changing Our Response and Attitudes to Birth FearsHellllloooooo Birth Peeps,<br />
I have been away from this blog a long time because I became absorbed in writing, research, teaching, making a new website for bfwnewmexico.com, and recently, travel took me to Ojai Foundation in California for a week. Presently I am in Santa Barbara where Virginia and I will be working together this week.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P2uk_b5gOMU/TxYvjuRhujI/AAAAAAAAAGw/D6_kS-1m2so/s1600/Ojai+bear+group+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P2uk_b5gOMU/TxYvjuRhujI/AAAAAAAAAGw/D6_kS-1m2so/s320/Ojai+bear+group+cropped.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>This week, Virginia and I enjoyed spending time with sixteen wonderful birth mentors who attended the six-day Advanced Mentor Training at the Ojai Foundation in California. These women share various backgrounds in birth work and two common intentions:<br />
1) Personal growth and awareness, and<br />
2) Learning mentoring, visualization, storytelling and teaching skills that will help them prepare mothers/couples for birth in a holistic way.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gitMhAkNsXg/TxY5xSNLW6I/AAAAAAAAAG4/MILk_Qejdq0/s1600/Ojai+under+the+teaching+tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gitMhAkNsXg/TxY5xSNLW6I/AAAAAAAAAG4/MILk_Qejdq0/s200/Ojai+under+the+teaching+tree.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>One of the Threads of this training was about embracing personal and collective birth-related fears and worries, and to examine our own strategies to avoid unwished-for events (in life and) during the childbearing year. We began "within" by learning how to really hear, tune into and embrace <i>our own</i> fears and powerlessness in labor and life. What better place to take time to reflect than under the 700 year old Teaching Tree!<br />
<br />
Then, we slowly built various skills and a framework to be able to truly hear, validate and embrace parents' fears and worries, and strategies--and to lead them in an uplifting visualization that might later prevent them from abandoning or judging themselves for whatever might happen in labor.<br />
<br />
If every parent and birth peep learned how to hear, embrace and transform fears, worries, and strategies related to "being in control" during the childbearing year... If they could let go of just one or two things they are holding on tight to avoid. . . Birth really would change--because this process directly balances our neuro-hormonal-physiology!<br />
<br />
When new parents are gifted with this process, with this "self-knowledge," <i>before </i>the journey begins, there is no telling how it <i>will change</i> their physiology and ability to relax and open <i>even before</i> labor begins, and continue to open and be resourceful in labor! A fear/worry ignored and denied is still very alive in the nervous system; it needs to be seen, heard, and embraced to be healed. <br />
<br />
And when birth peeps gift themselves with this process and self-awareness, no doubt, they would see, hear, and respond differently to parents during the childbearing year.<br />
<br />
I cannot go into this complex topic on a short blog tonight. But I might say a little more. The more we--<i>as a birth culture</i>--try to deny parents' their natural doubts and fears, the further we put this part of preparation in the collective unseen underworld; the more parents must try to deny it too, thus denying them support in one of the most important parts of their preparation work. If they feel ashamed to have fear, doubts and worry, they may censor themselves, isolate a part of themselves, try to figure it out by themselves. Shrouded in self-judgment (e.g., "I shouldn't worry," "I should trust," "What is the matter with me to feel this way?") they may become immobilized, waiting for someone else to explain, protect, assure. . . i.e. the proverbial "frozen in fear" response.<br />
<br />
Bringing fear, doubt, and worry into the "light" and creating a new "story" about it ensures a new, although not always predictable response. This is one of the most important tasks of prenatal preparation.<br />
<br />
Warmly,<br />
PamPamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-28501682395320400962011-11-27T14:09:00.000-08:002011-11-27T14:09:42.573-08:00#29 Meditative, Multi-Cultural Laborinths in Birth Rooms<style>
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Greetings Birth Peeps,<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">This is Thanksgiving weekend (in the US), and for me it was a particularly special, even magical and blessed one. All weekend I’ve wanted to reach out to each of you, Birth Peeps, to share my gratitude with you for our shared work together, even though I don’t know all of you (yet), I know we are drawn together by a shared dream. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0ocdnby1nxM/TtKzzpDbr6I/AAAAAAAAAGg/ZBnVeLHE7c8/s1600/Lab+Mex+bd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0ocdnby1nxM/TtKzzpDbr6I/AAAAAAAAAGg/ZBnVeLHE7c8/s320/Lab+Mex+bd.jpg" width="219" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">Today I want to share a painting I’ve been working on. I began this painting with a goal to finish it in two weeks… because every painting I make seems to take four months. I worked each morning toward that goal. Two weeks later I had gotten no further than an under painting! I continued working. It is now at least two months out and, I am still tweaking!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">This painting began with a story my friend and hairdresser, Alberto, told me about his <i>tias</i> (aunties) in Mexico who were <i>parteras</i> (midwives). They used to tell pregnant mothers that they were warriors because in labor they would have to go to the underworld and battle with underworld spirits who held their babies. Each mother alone had go there and battle with the spirits to free her baby and bring it back to this world, to its new family who was waiting for him or her.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">Inspired by this birth warrior mythology I began this painting using acryclic paint. There are many symbols in this painting, but I will point out just a few.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">There are two worlds, an upper “natural world” and the labyrinth of birth, the underworld of labor, divided by a gold line. This gold line is how I draw contractions. Typically contractions have been depicted as hills (as shown on a fetal monitor), however, I found in labor that my attention went downward and deep within with each contraction—so I began drawing the contractions as downward dips. In this painting, at the peak of each contraction-dip, the mothers consciousness dips, trickles, pours, into the underworld…. then returns to her resting baseline.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">You can see six “spirits” holding babies in Laborland, and a mother swimming out with a baby (top right of the labyrinth’s opening), and the Fire Keeper.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uqRW3d-3Lyw/TtK0Ka5htvI/AAAAAAAAAGo/XWN6qtEe8aY/s1600/Lab+Mex+bead+lowr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uqRW3d-3Lyw/TtK0Ka5htvI/AAAAAAAAAGo/XWN6qtEe8aY/s320/Lab+Mex+bead+lowr.jpg" width="306" /></a><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">Last week I was frustrated because the colors in the labyrinth were flat, dull and dreary. I kept changing the colors over and over, still flat. Then about five nights ago I had a vivid dream that showed me what to do, which colors to use and how to add beads! I jumped out of bed, found my odd collection of beads, then mixed up the colors and went to work… a few hours later… Look, the labyrinth now is vibrant, expressing both the dark and light aspects of journeying in the underworld. I also added four shells and a gold pendant of Mary.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"> One of my visions of how I might help change birth in our culture is to make a series of beautiful multi-cultural, labyrinth meditation paintings (and eventually prints of those paintings) so that birth rooms everywhere will have LabOrinths for women to gaze upon, to trace with their eyes during contractions to help ease the pain and still the mind.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">Perhaps like-minded Artists of the Spirit will join me in this endeavor.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">In-Love, In-Gratitude,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">and still tweaking this painting…</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">Pam</span></div>Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-74257419886452594882011-11-22T02:51:00.000-08:002011-11-22T02:51:44.192-08:00Change #29 OCCUPY BIRTHDear Birth Peeps,<br />
I have long been a fringe birth activist. I have been wanting to post "Occupy Birth" on this blog, but I don't feel I know enough or can remember all the statistics and arguments to make strong argument s as compelling as the activists we admire. And, when I study the trends in obstetrics and midwifery, I easily fall prey to my Victim/Judge. So, I watch from the sidelines and consider the arguments, I read, think, and wait... while I try to cultivate the Huntress/Warrior to carry my arguments and actions forward.<br />
<br />
This morning I felt/heard a Call, it came one of our long-distance Birth Story Listening students, Shelley, who wrote a thoughtful post on our forum, and she shared a video with us that I want to pass on to Birth Peeps.<br />
<br />
Here's the scoop: "Women are rallying for a December protest at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital in San Diego, which has the highest cesarean rate in the state of California. The larger purpose is to draw attention to the Cesarean epidemic issue/problem <b>in our society</b>. A doula and childbirth educator in the community put together this video clip to inform and inspire people to join in the movement. This video has been posted on FB, and it's going around like crazy." <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiEwAN-AeIo&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=IiEwAN-AeIo&feature=youtu.be</a><br />
<br />
This video is very well done and really fires you up. The message is simple and clear and a call to action. I would like to stand with the women at this rally in San Diego. I hope some of you will be there, or organize a similar gathering where you live.<br />
<br />
I need to gestate my thoughts on hearing and changing the Collective Birth Story... but for now...<br />
I wanted to pass this video on to all of you.<br />
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Warmly,<br />
PamPamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-82908085175498382152011-11-07T14:17:00.000-08:002011-11-07T14:17:19.739-08:00Change #?: HOLD YOUR APPLAUSE, PLEASE<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">Dear Birth Peeps,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;">Several times I have heard of the following group “recognition” observance. It goes something like this. A group has gathered for birth storytelling or a birth movie, and a leader asks everyone who has had a cesarean to stand. The room is silent for a moment. The cesarean mothers sit. Then the moderator asks all the mothers who birthed normally to stand and applause breaks out.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">Not wanting to assume I understand the meaning of this curious ritual,<span> </span>I would like to ask each participant, “<i>Who</i> is observing silence or applauding?,” and “What message are they intending to send to cesarean mothers?” Then, I would ask the cesarean mothers what meaning they took from this? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">I imagine the “moment of silence” could be out of respect for a "loss." I imagine that, depending on which Story Gate of Return each mother is in, different meanings might be drawn by each woman; perhaps there is a time having one’s grief and loss of a desired birth witnessed in silence feels just right. But, not every cesarean mother is (still) in grief about her birth experience; some may feel they should be applauded too for having done their best or having survived their Ordeal. I have long ago completed my work with my cesarean birth and no longer carry any grief about it, so if I were standing in that room, the silence would seem to me to be a projection of someone else’s loss or grief, not my own. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">And the applause for those who birth naturally, normally, or vaginally… I just don’t get it. If you/they are fortunate to birth normally, I can understand gratitude, but applause? I could also stand with this group, but "I" do not want or deserve applause for the Gift I was given; the opportunity to birth normally humbled me. I am especially disturbed by the juxtaposition of applauding one group, the Victors?, while asking the other group (?Victims) to stand in silence… should their heads be hung low?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;">We have a confusing double standard. I am learning about birth in undeveloped, occupied, or oppressed countries. Women may have to wait in agony for hours, begging for relief, drugs, surgery, even death. But help does not always come quickly if it comes at all. Some women do not survive the wait, their Ordeal. If they are “rescued” by visiting western medicine teams, we all sigh a sigh of relief for modern medicine reaching them. They might even be applauded for surviving, however they did it, by their village, by us. </span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"> I am confused by my own projections and where I draw a line in the Sand. But, I sit in my confused mind and enquire who is thinking these thoughts? Who wants to grieve? Who wants to applaud? Who is the ‘I’ that decides who should get a moment of silence and who should get applauded?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;">In-Love,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;">Pam </span>Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-32779164199403165082011-10-21T07:01:00.000-07:002011-10-21T07:01:42.877-07:00REFUSAL of the CALLGood Morning Birth Peeps,<br />
This morning I received a thoughtful email from Katherine who was wondering about how "Refusal of the Call" played into Answering our Calls during the childbearing year. The "Refusal of the Call" is an important and necessary part of the hero's journey, it is an inevitable part.<br />
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As I have explained, the Call to Love, to Remember Who we are and live our authentic life, is coming all the time. It is not One Call, but a steady stream of Invitations. Most of the time--using the analogy of our phone technology--we have our inner Ear turned off, turned outward to the world, or put on our "Call Waiting." Why is this? Think about it in relation to your own life. What would change, what would it mean about you IF you actually answered the Call from Love to Love in your ordinary life? The Ego and the Judge Voice within begin to chatter and keep you in your former place -- of safety, following some Rule... protecting your boundaries...<br />
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At some point, a Call gets through and when it does it excites our passion, it wakes us up. We have a new vision. At first all we can see is what we will "get."<br />
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But then when the striving to achieve the goal begins, we realize the price, the work, both inner and in the physical world it may and will take to even strive for the goal.... and it might all be in vain. We might not be able to achieve it anyway...<br />
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And then the Voices of Doubt, which is the inner Voice of the Judge whose job it is to keep us in our old place, not take too many risks, stay in line, and<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> avoid failing (again)--begins talking us (the inner Child) down off the high mesa where we actually saw a new possibility. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt;">And this is the necessary part of the Call, the Refusal of the Call.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt;">I have to return to the archetypal world of characters to explain this, it is how I understand it. It is the inner-Child who first hears the Call, who sees the new vision or remembers her purpose. It is the inner-Child, not the Adult archetype, that actually begins the hero's journey. It is through completing the arduous tasks of the journey that she becomes "more adult." With this in mind, it makes sense that the Child, at first excited when quickened by the Call--suddenly realizes, "Wait a minute! If I answer this Call, I will have to 'leave home,' What if I don't know enough? I am not ready. I need to study more first, get bigger, get a map..." </span><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt;">Whatever it is... if the Child begins the journey without it, she may indeed be overcome, unprepared and fail in some way that she senses would be harmful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt;">So the Child hesitates; she Refuses the Call, at least for now. There is also a bit of the Love Warrior here ... foreseeing or overseeing Tasks of Preparation so this Child-Warrior will have a chance at succeeding.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt;">I don't like to romanticize or over-simplify the real inner-work of the hero's journey. This Refusal is not a cop-out, it is not a failure in itself. This Refusal can be a process that takes a few days or weeks of "reconsidering" while weighing the risks and benefits and making a plan. Sometimes it looks like the would-be hero has fizzled altogether; before the hero can undertake her Vision or what she was born to do, she may need a decade of undoing old agreements or learning new tasks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt;">But now we return to our topic, Birth as a Hero's Journey. If our imaginary would-be hero is a pregnant woman, she doesn't have a decade to sort it out. She has a Vision, she hears a Call.... and there are mere months to Answer, to Prepare, to make the Descent Into Laborland.... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt;">This is our Question, Birth Peeps. This is Our Call.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt;">How do we Mentor the initiates who hear a Call, how do we assist them through their Tasks of the Refusal so they don't miss this golden opportunity. Birth is a profound rite of passage, it only comes once or a few times in a life time. We also need to really look into WHY it is a profound rite of passage, and not let ourselves be lulled asleep with the comforting and familiar cliche phrase.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt;">I am enjoying the emails I am receiving from those of you who are writing and living your Heart's Question. Those of you who have taken up the practice of the Heart's Question, or your Deepest Question, will Refuse your Call at least once if not a dozen times today. Good... use your Refusal to examine the Refusal. When you understand your own process of Refusal deeply, you will have the Wisdom and compassion to help the initiates who come your way to understand their own.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt;">In-Love,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt;">In-Love with my own Refusals,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt;">I am,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt;">Pam</span><br />
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</span>Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-37964214828766235352011-10-11T11:59:00.000-07:002011-10-11T11:59:46.138-07:00Your Call is an Invitation to Awaken the Love WarriorDear Birth Peeps,<br />
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When we prepare for birth as a hero’s journey, we begin with hearing our Call and answering this Call (whether we are aware of this or not). This Call—to act, to know, to do something you have not done before and that may even seem out of reach!--comes from Love itself; it is an <i>Invitation</i> to love yourself, to become your own Love Warrior. . . a Birth Warrior.<br />
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When I say the Call invokes you to act or to “do,” it is not necessarily to “do something” for the sake of achieving, let’s say, your fantasy fabulous birth or any other personal goal (although by Grace our actions may lead--or seem to contribute--to that desired result. This Call is answered from our Soul, not from our ego, <i>not to Get something for ourselves</i>. We are compelled to answer the Call, and in so doing, there is no attachment to outcome, there is no pride, no getting. <b> </b><br />
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<i><b>It is about Doing What Needs to Be Done Next—and nothing extra. </b></i><br />
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The Calls to Love and to Be and to remember who we are are coming to us all the time. The Call—to Love yourself, to bring your True Love to this moment of your life, to Be authentic—is coming to you as you read this blog, and again, with your next breath! We wee, but busy and important, humans often don’t tune into it because we are distracted in our hectic lives and world.<br />
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There are infinite ways to be called; the Invitation might come to you suddenly almost as an inner whisper in an unexpected moment, or in a dream, or one might be awakened by a call in the midst of the Ordeal of labor or while reading an article.<br />
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<i><b>The Call is not about achieving, it is about your heart’s longing. </b></i><br />
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Oriah Mountain Dreamer describes her own Call in her book, <i>The Call</i>, as “a long wail of my heart [that] opened to its own longing.” She goes on to say, “Our longing may be just the beginning, just a door into a deeper knowledge of what we are and why we are here, but it is a necessary beginning. We cannot go deeper into our lives or the world [or I interject, into our childbearing year as a hero] until the heart has had its say, until the heart has been heard.”<br />
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<b>You have to <i>Hear</i> your Call <i>before</i> you can Answer it, that is, before you can <i>Live</i> the answer. </b><br />
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Women are often directed to: “listen to your self,” or to “listen to your body.” This advice sounds sage, but! most modern women have never been taught to meditate, contemplate, to listen-in, or how to differentiate the feeling of intuition from the feeling of fear, or their own sense of danger that requires action from everyone else’s imagined fear. <br />
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<b>Knowing your Heart’s Question is central to preparing for birth as a hero’s journey. </b><br />
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One way to tune into your Call is to <i>tune into your heart’s longing</i>. If that conditioned part of you says, “You can’t do that because….”, or “So-and-so will get mad if you do that…”, keep listening. . . Is this Voice of Doubt or caution coming from your Love Warrior or your Inner Child that wants to please and avoid getting in trouble or grounded!? <br />
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Listen deeply, earnestly, patiently. Feel … find your heart’s longing and intuition… Listen within for that one heartfelt Question that is tucked away. This step awakens your Huntress archetype.<br />
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Once you have it, write in on the wall of your heart, or on your bathroom mirror, and say it to yourself often during ordinary moments of every day—Don’t wait until you are meditating, or in a crisis, or in labor to remember your longing, your Question…<br />
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<i><b>Ask yourself your Question during ordinary moments every day. Live the answer. </b></i><br />
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Your Heart’s Question is a <i>living question<i> </i></i>which means you are compelled to <i><i><i>live </i></i></i>the answer<i><i><i><i> in any given moment—even this moment—not just in labor. </i></i></i></i>There are no wordy, logical answers to this question—you will manifest the answer with your whole being in the way you breathe, walk, talk, and live. Living the answer to your deepest question will form new habits of thinking and responding--and cultivate the Birth Warrior in you.<i><i><i><i><br />
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A few Examples:<br />
What does this moment need?<br />
How am I opening to this moment?<br />
How am I bringing my Love to this moment?<br />
When I speak my truth, what do I say next?</i></i></i></i><br />
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<b>Please, share your Heart's Question,</b> your Living Question, here... to help inspire others. Maybe you have had a life-changing experience by taking up this practice... please inspire others with your story.<br />
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Thanks,<br />
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Love,<br />
PamPamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7133983408787589363.post-8780751845220242572011-09-29T12:14:00.000-07:002011-09-29T12:14:54.453-07:00# 27 FROM INNOCENCE TO GENUINE TRUST: LIVING YOUR HEART’S QUESTIONMy Dear Birth Peeps,<br />
<i>I have been away too long, and you have been patient. I thought of you all often, and missed you, and yet, the blogger needed time to reflect, rest, and write new material... but I am happy to be back and to continue our journey together as we compassionately change birth in our culture. We resume...I believe we are on change #27, a two-part entry.</i><br />
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PREGNANT WOMEN ARE CONSTANTLY BEING TOLD what to believe, fear, and do—after all “(acquired) knowledge is power”—and then they are told: “trust yourself!” The new initiate, trying to get it right, is clichéd with mixed messages. <br />
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When we have not yet lived a life-changing event, one that we anticipate living in the future (e.g., college, vacations, a wedding, childbirth), we can only idealize, dream, fantasize about the event from a place of innocence and trust. All children have done this. And so has every adult, at the <i>beginning</i> of a life-changing initiation, the initiate must begin in her <i>archetypal Child</i>, a natural place of Innocence and Trust. This is why when a woman is at the beginning of her first childbearing year, she is often in her archetypal Child, a place of Innocence and Trust--and why we must <i>meet her there and listen</i> to what she trusts and doesn't trust before we try to <i>cliche </i>her or lead her our way. <br />
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It is also a given that during the Ordeal (e.g., Ordeal refers to a trying event that may occur at any time during pregnancy, labor, or postpartum), she <i>will lose some part of her innocence</i> as the price for Wisdom—and “growing up.” We cannot keep our Cupcake of Innocence and have the Frosting of Wisdom, too! <i>Did this blended metaphor work? You get the idea anyway.<br />
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And yet, there are many who do not understand this part of birth as a hero’s journey, who inadvertently encourage mothers to remain in innocence and vague trust. What exactly she should “trust” is up for grabs and will be determined by the one advising it. It might be an order to unconditionally trust her body, or trust in a benevolent Force to protect her, or trust the wisdom of some expert, or even to trust her own intuition—even though (she will soon find out) nobody else will trust or allow her to act upon! <br />
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<b>For this reason, this cliché message to “trust” is often, or later becomes, confusing to the initiate.</b><br />
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When an initiate shares her Innocent Trust openly with others, she will invariably encounter one of two responses from: those who share or support her innocence and keep her dreaming sweetly, or from those who will dash or dismiss her innocence and trust in a misguided attempt to prepare her for the moment she loses her innocence. <b>But neither sweet support nor jaded warnings serve to prepare the initiate to meet that moment that awaits her.</b><br />
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There is also the possibility the Seeking-initiate will encounter One Who Knows (i.e., one who has completed the journey, lost her own innocence and gained true wisdom and compassion)—one of YOU birth peeps!!<br />
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Or, she might be visiting this blog and take up a process that will help her genuinely prepare to meet the moment she loses her innocence during or after her Ordeal. There are countless ways to prepare the mind, heart, and soul for this moment, here is one:<br />
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Let’s lay the groundwork first with a little philosophical groundwork. Let’s think of the natural Innocence and Trust in something not yet lived as a “seed thought.” Within a seed is the full potential for a particular plant, tree, or fruit. But the seed must be watered often, even daily, and protected to allow for its full potential to be realized. Just planting a seed and “trusting it will grow on its own” does not ensure it will grow and later bear the fruit we need to sustain ourselves during the Ordeal.<br />
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The daily effort of watering the little “seed” of trust and inner-knowing with intentional practice throughout pregnancy matures and strengthens the gardener, too! The gardener becomes invested in, and “owns,” the plant. This is a very different experience and relationship from giving the gardener a full-grown tree that someone else grew and saying, “Here! Eat this fruit to sustain yourself in your upcoming Ordeal.”<br />
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We cannot assume that an initiate “has everything mature and ready within her at the beginning her Preparation or Ordeal. Telling a new mother, “Everything you need to know is already within you,” might misguide her to relax and do nothing during her Preparation Phase, when she should be taking action. Instead, she waits, trusting that this Knowing, this Oak Tree of Knowing, to magically sprout from the ungrounded acorn during the Ordeal. And this why so many mothers are in shock and feel lost, overwhelmed in and after labor.<br />
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Becoming pregnant does not automatically ensure a spontaneous awakening of intuition, knowing, and trust. The gestating-mother may have to do a little inner work and practice, take time to reflect, then take small, deliberate steps, even small risks, to try out and integrate her new knowing. Her success is dependent on daily attention to the practice, and often guidance and encouragement from a childbirth mentor or elder.<br />
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A NEW MOTHER NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING to water her newly sprouting mother-instincts, mother-voice, and nurture a <i><b>genuine, deeply rooted, trust</i> in herself and others</b>. In this way we could say her initial pure innocent Child-trust is maturing as her baby grows in her. For her baby to grow she must feed her baby, not just trust her baby will magically grow, she must take action. By taking action, her Trust and Knowing is embodied, it is hers!, it is registered and rooted in her body, so that if and when her Innocence and Trust is shaken in labor, even if she is scared, she will not abandon herself. <br />
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In the Garden of Soul Change,<br />
we are growing a new consciousness together!<br />
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PamPamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08505611799889906264noreply@blogger.com5