This I Believe #1

I believe in the sanctity of human life. I believe in the vessel that holds and nourishes life deep inside. I believe in the powers and the passenger and the passageway. I believe in the power of women, in birth, in the journey to enter the world. I believe in the mess, the blood and the soil.  

I believe that pregnancy is a normal and natural process, not a medical condition. I believe that women should be able to choose where to give birth and that babies should choose when to be born. I believe that birth changes women into mothers far more than in name. I have seen a mother become a mother for the first and for the fifth time and the transformation is there no matter the number. When the baby transitions into the birth canal there is fierceness. When the baby crowns it is a holy moment in which, all in the room become one as a fresh infant slithers into the world and onto its mother’s chest.

I believe in the magic that happens when a baby opens its eyes this side of heaven and sees the world for the first time. I believe in the power of a baby’s fist breath and throttled cry to bring a gown man to his knees, tears to a mother’s eye, and a knowing glimmer in the midwife’s heart.  I believe in standing back, a silent witness to the creation of a family.

I believe in the powers that ripen the cervix and prepare the way for change – uncomfortable, painful but necessary. I believe in the passenger, perfectly formed and ready to make the journey. I believe in the passageway that connects lives together forever.