As my kids have gotten older, I sometimes think back to their births as a grounding sense of power and complete presence. As you say, things can go sideways, and birth is not something we can control, but I do believe the way we welcome our children into the world matters deeply, and I loved this meditation on all the considerations.
I love the line about crossing thresholds. In all the stories, the characters cross one to begin a new life. I feel that moment keenly.
After having 8 children, most people might assume that it’s easy to give birth for me, but it never is. I feel the mental game is more important than physical preparation for labor. It can be startling to be so deeply immersed inside yourself to suddenly hear the blinding light of a baby’s cry. It truly is crossing a threshold.
Ah feeling this! I'm in my fourth (and final) pregnancy, and I too feel like I'm tempting fate. Oddly one of my bigger hurdles to wanting one last baby was that my third birth was such a good one- it would have been a good one to end on. AND here I am, with you in facing the unknown.
I will share some of my good third birth juju with you, including the tens unit magic ✨
Thank you for sharing your beautiful work- always so well-crafted! I have been reading you for a couple of years, here in Australia and I appreciate your clarity, the way you use stories to articulate these slippery, sacred times of birth and young motherhood.
I have two small children and am contemplating contemplating a third - perhaps in a year or so when we are in a bigger place.
I have always been a diary-keeper and have so many secret notes to myself from the last several years during the intensity of pregnancy, birth and caring for babies and young people.
Maybe it is too soon for me to understand them. I think I am still too close to see them clearly.
I take a lot of comfort from reading your work that I will be able to organise these transformative times into something coherent for myself and my babies when they are older.
I love your writing so, so much! This captures the final weeks of waiting so well. Especially in my second pregnancy, I suffered so deeply during that time and that experience has really stayed with me. I’m wishing you and your family all the best ❤️
Oh, so beautiful 😭😭 this is one of the best descriptions of birth I have ever read.
And this question is pertinent to many circumstances, and is one I will be asking myself: “Can I bring my whole self into that room, even the frightened parts?”
What a beautiful photo.
As my kids have gotten older, I sometimes think back to their births as a grounding sense of power and complete presence. As you say, things can go sideways, and birth is not something we can control, but I do believe the way we welcome our children into the world matters deeply, and I loved this meditation on all the considerations.
I often refer to postpartum being an underworld journey!
I love the line about crossing thresholds. In all the stories, the characters cross one to begin a new life. I feel that moment keenly.
After having 8 children, most people might assume that it’s easy to give birth for me, but it never is. I feel the mental game is more important than physical preparation for labor. It can be startling to be so deeply immersed inside yourself to suddenly hear the blinding light of a baby’s cry. It truly is crossing a threshold.
Prayers for a smooth labor! You can do it!
Ah feeling this! I'm in my fourth (and final) pregnancy, and I too feel like I'm tempting fate. Oddly one of my bigger hurdles to wanting one last baby was that my third birth was such a good one- it would have been a good one to end on. AND here I am, with you in facing the unknown.
I will share some of my good third birth juju with you, including the tens unit magic ✨
Hi Amy,
Thank you for sharing your beautiful work- always so well-crafted! I have been reading you for a couple of years, here in Australia and I appreciate your clarity, the way you use stories to articulate these slippery, sacred times of birth and young motherhood.
I have two small children and am contemplating contemplating a third - perhaps in a year or so when we are in a bigger place.
I have always been a diary-keeper and have so many secret notes to myself from the last several years during the intensity of pregnancy, birth and caring for babies and young people.
Maybe it is too soon for me to understand them. I think I am still too close to see them clearly.
I take a lot of comfort from reading your work that I will be able to organise these transformative times into something coherent for myself and my babies when they are older.
Alice
I love your writing so, so much! This captures the final weeks of waiting so well. Especially in my second pregnancy, I suffered so deeply during that time and that experience has really stayed with me. I’m wishing you and your family all the best ❤️
Oh, so beautiful 😭😭 this is one of the best descriptions of birth I have ever read.
And this question is pertinent to many circumstances, and is one I will be asking myself: “Can I bring my whole self into that room, even the frightened parts?”