Enjoy your pregnancy

My Heart Flies
My heart is so joyous,
My heart flies in singing.
Under the trees of the forest,
The forest, our home, our mother.
In my net I have caught
A little bird,
A very little bird,
And my heart is caught
In the net with the little bird.
Pregnancy song of the Efe peoples

Cast your mind back through time, to a place in history when the Great Mother was revered and honoured in rituals and ceremonies. A time when as a pregnant woman, you would be the focus of joyful celebration and deep respect. You would spend your pregnancy intuitively listening and communicating with the new life growing inside you. Your community would surround you with love and protection and help you celebrate your journey. You would have midwives attending your needs and your mother, grandmothers, aunts and sisters would be there to teach you all you needed to know. Your birth would be rejoiced in as a transition for you and your partner into parenthood and your baby’s auspicious day, and there would be feasts, rituals and ceremonies in all of your honour.

CULTURAL CELEBRATIONS
This may sound like an idealised notion of pregnancy and birth, but it is the way in which our ancestors lived through this very magical time in their lives. Many cultures still have elaborate and joyful celebrations to mark their experiences. It is really only in the Western world that we have lost touch with the sacred in our preparations for birth. We have become used to connecting with our unborn child through a fuzzy picture on a sonograph and not through ritual, meditation and ceremony. Nature has created a mind-blowingly complex and perfect process that has worked successfully for millennia. It is only in the last century that we began tampering with such an unquestionably wondrous design, using machines which further distance us from innate knowledge. Technology is a marvellous thing and has saved many lives, but it has also served to remove us from our own deep knowledge. We are far more likely to trust what some coloured lights are doing on a screen than listen quietly for the messages from our own body.

DEEPENING SPIRITUAL AWARENESS
Pregnancy is a time to relearn your body and to have faith and love in all its miracles. Many women report heightened senses as their child grows inside them, and the development of what is sometimes called a ‘sixth sense’. Unfortunately we do not currently live in a society which celebrates or even recognises this deepening spiritual awareness. Yet a pregnant or birthing woman who doesn’t get the opportunity to access her spiritual realm can feel robbed or as if something unidentifiable is missing from her experiences. The rise in post-natal depression has been linked to birthing in sterile hospital environments utilising invasive procedures which result in the mother feeling victimised or out of control. If a woman has the opportunity to connect with her spiritual essence throughout her pregnancy and before her birth, there is every likelihood that she will feel stronger, wiser and able to make choices that empower her and her baby.

Express Yourself With A Paintbrush
There are many ways in which to get in touch with your spiritual self. Pam England, midwife and author of Birthing From Within, advocates the use of art and other creative pursuits that enable you to express yourself. In her experience, many women are able, through art, to convey fears, concerns and expectations that they cannot easily verbalise, or did not know existed. Even if you spent your school-day art classes flicking paint at the teacher, this kind of expression is open to everyone, there is no judgement or ‘good art’. Painting, sketching, doodling and clay modelling are all valid ways of connecting with the dream side of your brain.

Writing a Journal
If you are always putting off writing a journal, your pregnancy is an ideal time to start. A journal can be a very cathartic release – clearing your mind before bed. It enables you to focus on your goals for you and your baby and clarify what you need to do to achieve them. It can help you to access your innermost feelings, and remind you of your daily blessings. Taking the time to write one or two things that you were grateful for or that lifted your heart at the end of the day acts as a catalyst for bright, positive thoughts – soon you will find that you are writing pages of gratitudes.

Freeform journaling is recognised as a great way to access the most repressed of feelings. Write down a header such as ‘my expectations of birth’ and write as much as you can, as fast as you can, within two minutes. The aim is not to think, just to let the thoughts flow out freely. Then get a friend or partner to read out what you have written, and allow you the opportunity to discuss why. This kind of exercise can be incredibly illuminating – and surprising!

Creating a Scrap Book
Collecting stories, pictures and letters together into a scrap book can be a wonderful way of connecting with your unborn child. You are creating and fostering a thread of love – maybe when they are having children of their own they will look back to the treasures in the scrap book reflecting your pregnancy journey and create their own! The whole family can get involved, writing or drawing their thoughts and feelings down – you can add photos of you and your growing bump, places you go to, your day to day activities, all markers in your very special experience. Compiling heart-felt thoughts, inspiring poems and meaningful pictures in a scrap book gives you and your partner a focus and an opportunity to visualise and talk about your baby together.

Meditation
Devotees of meditation report feelings of deep peace and release, self knowledge and quiet calm. Meditating during your pregnancy brings even greater benefits as it allows you to talk and connect with the living person inside you. Making time for quiet reflection every day means that you are better able to cope with stressful and demanding situations and you are in tune with your body and its messages. In many cultures, pregnant women use meditation to whisper or sing messages of encouragement to their growing babies, asking them to grow healthy and strong and come into the world safely.

Find a time when you won’t be disturbed, turn off the phone and light some candles. Sit comfortably with a straight spine and allow yourself to connect with your breathing. As you breathe in, visualise your breath filling and energising your body and baby and as you breathe out, let go of your fears and concerns. As thoughts flit through your mind, acknowledge them then let them go. Take time to visualise your baby – imagine her swimming safe and protected in amniotic fluid, and then sense her in the core of your being. Talk or sing gently to her, either in your head or aloud, telling her how much you love her and how you can’t wait to see her. Some women are thrilled to recognise their newborn baby’s face from their pregnancy dreams and meditations. Learning to connect with your baby in this way will help you both during labour, when you can visualise her journey into the world and synchronise your efforts.

Connecting with the Elements
Even with our centrally-heated, electrically-powered houses insulating us from the outside world, pregnancy connects us with the elemental forces of nature. Getting outside and experiencing sun on your face, rain on your skin, air in your lungs and grass underfoot, can bring you a sense of spiritual elation. Find some woodland and lie down in the trees, listening to the sounds of nature living and breathing around you. You may find yourself rocked into the pulse of life, the rhythm that connects you to Mother Earth. Imagine yourself with tree roots which sink deep into the earth and nourish your heart and soul, drawing up life-sustaining energy. Aim to get outside as much as possible during your pregnancy and learn to love nature in all her forms, not just when the sun is shining. Many of us decide not to go for a walk because the sky is grey and it’s raining – but look at the heavy, pregnant sky swelling with life-giving water and listen to the sound of the rain hissing on the ground. Magic is all around in nature. If you live near water, you might want to make time to experience her healing properties during your pregnancy. The ebb and flow of the tides under a stormy sky is exciting and stimulating, the gentle ripple of a woodland stream is relaxing and refreshing. African women traditionally gave birth near rivers and streams, drawing strength from the sound of the rushing water. Seek out Mother Earth’s many gifts.

Primal Mother
Your primal self needs recognition and release, she is a vital part of your birth experience, as she is the part of you who knows instinctively how to give birth. Watching a storm can be a liberating experience, especially if you take the opportunity to run outside and do a rain dance, throw back your head and let out a few roars and howls. We can be very inhibited by the sound of our animal voice but it is a very potent and powerful part of our primal self. Getting used to releasing in this way will free you up during your labour when you can really let rip! Belly-dancing is a great way to get in touch with your body and helps prepare the pelvis and abdominal muscles for birth. It was traditionally known as la danse du ventre or womb dancing as its undulations and squatting simulate labour and birth.

Welcoming Your Baby
In Indonesia, the child in the womb is thought to be a mystic meditating in a cave, strengthening herself spiritually for her emergence into the world. A newborn baby is an old, wise soul who deserves to be treated with the same reverence and respect as an elderly traveller who has completed a long and arduous journey. Welcoming your baby into the world with gentleness and kindness lets him know instantly that he has reached his destination safely and is with those who love him.

Creating a birth space that is right for you both is tantamount to a birth that affirms your spirituality. Think of an animal that you respect and think has an easy birth and look where they choose to undertake this very private ritual. Humans are the only mammals who make a nest and then leave it to give birth. Think very carefully about what you want from your birth, and what ceremony or ritual might be appropriate for you to celebrate your achievements. Rigid birth plans are very limiting, as birth by its very nature, is transient and changeable. Consider all eventualities and visualise yourself giving birth happily in different situations – that way, if there are any unexpected changes, you are prepared and have inner spiritual strength.

Connecting with your spiritual nature in pregnancy and birth is about having the most profound and beautiful experience and celebrating every moment of it. You are a mother – the guardian of life and part of the magical regeneration that sustains all humanity.

‘The knowledge that each and every childbirth is a spiritual experience has been forgotten by too many people in the world today.’ Ina May Gaskin, Spiritual Midwifery

‘When we understand that birth is an incredible rite of passage of women and those around them, we can find ways which help us make meaning of this experience for ourselves.’ Sara Wickham, Sacred Cycles

‘The sacred journey of an egg and sperm merging to create a unique individual is as marvellous and miraculous as the creation of the universe itself. Spirit and molecules intertwine to manifest a new life.’ Deepak Chopra, Magical Beginnings, Enchanted Lives