I know that there’s a ton of things that demand your attention when preparing for natural childbirth, but please do not allow yourself to overlook what to do to your baby’s umbilical cord at birth. In this article I would like to express to you the enormous importance and value of waiting to cut the cord! The difference in waiting a short amount of time after your natural childbirth may not seem particularly monumental to you but to your baby it is huge, and can affect them for the rest of their lives!

What the Umbilical Cord Means to Your Baby - While inside the Womb

The umbilical cord is your baby’s main source of life while it is in your womb. Among other things it takes the place of its lungs.  It connects your baby with the placenta which pumps this amazingly oxygen and nutrient rich blood through their entire body feeding, sustaining and nourishing them. And then when the blood is ready to be cleansed it pumps it back to the placenta where it is refreshed, renewed and sent back to them to use. This is a continuous ever flowing beautiful process that nature has created perfectly.

So there is a constant feeding, nourishing and cleansing system that is taking place between you, your baby and the placenta. In essence it is your baby’s “life cord.”

You Chose When to Cut Your Baby’s Cord After Natural Childbirth- Please Make an Informed Choice

After your babys’ natural childbirth it is still going to be connected to its umbilical cord until you decide that it is time to cut it. Sadly we are living in the days where everything is rush, rush, rush, hurry, hurry, hurry! We seem to have forgotten the importance of slowing down long enough to respect nature’s process. It’s all about the short cuts. And this is what it’s become in the medical community; the quickest way to get things done has taken precedence over the most beneficial.

All too often we just go along with whatever procedures are in place simply because we don’t know any different. But please do not allow your baby to miss out on all of the benefits that nature has intended for it. And remember that this is your baby and all decisions surrounding its’ birth and care are yours to make.

What the Umbilical Cord Means to Your Baby - After Natural Childbirth

Even though your baby is now able to survive on its own without being connected to the cord does not mean that it suddenly is of no use anymore. Remember that this cord has been your baby’s connecting life force for the entire span of its existence so far. So to cut it suddenly, abruptly and prematurely is not beneficial to your baby. In terms of health benefits and emotional benefits it is much better for your baby to wait to cut its cord.

When to Cut Your Babys’ Cord after Natural Childbirth

 How long should you wait to cut the cord? After your baby’s natural childbirth the umbilical cord does not just lie limp not functioning. For several minutes after birth the cord is still very much alive and active, still pumping blood and oxygen into your baby. You should not cut the cord until it has completely stopped pulsating. Changes in the cord’s whartons jelly then produce a natural internal clamping within 10-20 minutes after birth. But as long as it is still beating it is still benefiting your baby.

Some parents choose to have what is called a “lotus birth” meaning that they chose not to cut the cord at all but rather allow the baby to naturally detach from the cord and placenta in its own time.

Benefits of Waiting Until the Cord Stops Beating

Besides, leaving the cord intact allows the natural physiological changes to take place within the child’s body at their own pace, and allows iron and many other very important nutrients to be delivered to the baby.

What It Means for Your Baby to be Allowed to Experience Natural Childbirth in His Time

Although the child is out of the womb he remains dependent on his mother through the umbilical cord, which continues to beat strongly for several minutes four or five sometimes even longer. Oxygenated through the cord and thus protected from anoxia the child can, without shock or danger settle down to breathing without being rushed – in his own time…

For a few minutes the baby straddles two worlds as it were. Then slowly, slowly he can cross the threshold from one to the other peacefully and easily, and with all safety, as long as we don’t rush in, interfere”

~ Frederick Leboyer “Birth Without Violence”

Trust and allow nature to work as it is intended, birth is not an emergency or a race. It is so precious, and those moments right after birth are what defines your child’s view of it’s new world. Savor those moments, allow them to be sweetly sacred. Just taking a little extra care and those few extra minutes can make all the difference in the world to your baby, sending them the message that you are there to support love and respect their individual journey in this life.  After your baby has been allowed to make the change over in its’ own time, and the cord has been detached you can keep it, make art out of it, all sorts of really cool stuff! What are your thoughts on the importance of this process? Do you have any plans on what you’re gonna do with the cord after your natural childbirth, or are any of you planning a lotus birth?

the beautiful umbilical cord stump

umbilical cord art

Happy Baby Minutes After Birth with the Umbilical Cord Still Intact

Though we have all come to embark upon this grand journey of natural childbirth through our own separate paths, we are not really separate at all but united in a common calling towards our purpose.

As a Mother our purpose is possibly the greatest of them all. We have been called to birth, to carry another soul and deliver it into being. This soul is dependent on us to answer this call fully with all that we are, because how he experiences his new world lies greatly in the way he is allowed to enter into it and how much love is presented to him in the process.

Within this article lies the secret to how we can rediscover ourselves as the masters and creators of our own experience, and how we can use this knowledge to deliver our babies upon the Earth in a loving way so that they may feel in peace, balance and harmony with life.

Preparing Yourself for Natural Childbirth- Shedding Your Past

 Who Would You Be Without Your Story?

I once saw a bumper sticker that read “who would you be without your story?” Of course I loved it and it has stuck in my memory for some time now. It pointed to the truth of what we really are.

We are more than just a compilation of events and experiences that have taken place in our lives, we are more than the judgments we have placed on ourselves, and the labels and opinions that others have placed on us.

In order to have a truly wonderful natural childbirth  it is necessary for us to realize who we are beyond our stories of who we make ourselves out to be. We must discover ourselves at our deepest level. We are infinitely more, infinitely greater then we can imagine. We are pure potentiality waiting to be fulfilled!

To Fulfill Your Potential For an Amazing Natural Childbirth You Must Move Forward into Your True Self

In order to realize the full potential of who we really are and what we’re capable of we must first free ourselves from the past.  When we continue the cycle of reliving in our minds the memories and stories of the past we are hindering our ability to move forward into our true selves.

The reason for this is that your mind cannot occupy two spaces at once. If your mind is preoccupied on the past, on things that have been done to you, or that you have done, or how you used to live, or what you used to think, or the million other things that have taken place in your life up to this point then you are not allowing any room for the present moment to take place.  

Although your body may be in the present moment your intentions are not there with it, you are instead living in a moment that is gone, and a missed opportunity for acting in the present moment then arises.

When it comes to birth this is imperative! Let me explain why:

During Natural Childbirth the Present Moment is all That There Is

Contractions or “Birthing waves” carry in them great intensity and power, they enter into your body like nothing you have ever experienced before and all you can do is allow them to happen, embrace them and stay fully present in the experience. If you resist them for even a moment their power can easily overwhelm you and take you to a place in your birth that will be less than desirable.

 It’s like the surfer riding the gigantic oceanic waves, he must be alert, aware and fully present in the experience; he can’t allow himself to get caught up in his mind for even a moment, he has to just let go and ride the wave. If he allows his mind to hesitate or slip away from the present moment for even an instant then the wave comes crashing down upon him and swallows him whole.

 The importance of the present moment during birth is the greatest secret there is! In no way is birth easy, it is hard work. It will stretch you to your limits and challenge you to overcome them and go far beyond.  However birth is intense and it takes a lot to not allow yourself to fall into the role of victim and pitying yourself.

We have all experienced pain in our lives, we all have doubts, insecurities, fears and uncertainties about ourselves. This is normal, however if these feelings are not released by the time birth arrives these uncertainties will come up during birth in the form of complications.

Show Up For Birth With a Strong Mind and Trust in Your Body

We must show up to birth with a strong mind, prepared to maintain our ground and be still in the midst of enormous energy, not allowing our minds to drift into the familiar patterns of “poor me.” We must treat birth as a meditation where we steady our minds and just simply allow the universal energy to unfold as it will, allowing and excepting whatever it brings.

Experience Your Contractions Without Judgment

Birth is a uniquely powerful act, there is nothing to compare it to and if you try to judge or label it, your mind is likely to just easily resort back to that familiar picture that has been painted that birth is pain, and since your mind can’t occupy two spaces at once, and the current focus is on pain then your mind will follow suit and pain is all there will be.

So let’s say a contraction comes on, the pressure is super intense and instead of freeing your mind and allowing it to take place you let judgment sneak in and take over. You then begin to analyze within your mind, whether these sensation is good or bad, short or long, painful or not.

This is when your mind begins its journey of leaving the truth of what’s really happening in the present moment and carries you into a false thought projected reality of either past or future that produces nothing good.

 So the contraction is over now, but in your mind you are still focused on it. Your mind is on the past on how painful that contraction was, then your mind is in the future on how you don’t know how the heck you’re gonna be able to do 15 more hours of this!

But where the mind is not, is on the present. And the present moment is all there is, it is taking place right now, there is nothing you can do to stop it, your baby is coming and birth is inevitable! And only your mind determines how you respond to it.

This is When Birth Gets Good

When we stop analyzing, stop trying to consciously act or respond and just trust and allow birth to take place. This is when birth gets good!

Don’t allow your mind to sit for one moment on the last contraction, once it is over it is over, and you are on to the next. You’ll be amazed at what can happen when you go into birth truly willing to free your mind, free your expectations, release your preconceptions and just allow the power to come in, without analyzing, and without judging. Then the birthing energy will appear as it truly is, it will be neither good nor bad, it will just be.

That is when the magic happens. When you act in the present moment as if that’s all that there is then all limitations you have placed on yourself lift away and you are able to allow the truth of yourself to shine through.

What is this truth? That you are all powerful, capable, loving, that you hold the power of the universe `within yourself and if you open those gates it will effortlessly flow through you unless you let mind come in and stop it.

Always say “YES” to the Present Moment as if you have chosen it, and a deeply satisfying natural childbirth will be likely to emerge!

Conscious gestation and natural childbirth is a gift of divine creation. It’s an ancient energy that acts powerfully through you, first growing your baby and then peaking during your birthing time, rhythmically pulsing, surging and moving through you, bringing life perfectly into the world.

What you and your baby experience together during this time is profound and sets the very foundation for you and your child’s life together. As Mothers we are the vessel in which this new soul will form and be given life through. We are the most important and influential factor in our baby’s life while living both inside and outside of us.

In this article we will explore why we are more important than we know, and how we can transform ourselves to be more supportive of our baby’s physical, mental and emotional health allowing us to create a balanced, confident and happy child by making just a few simple changes now.

You are Your Childs Teacher- During Gestation, Natural Childbirth & Beyond

So much of what your child experiences and learns about life is being learned right now in the womb world where your baby is literally living inside of you. Like a sponge your baby is soaking up everything that you are sending his way and building his ideas of life and personality traits based on his experiences thus far. This learning will be followed by how he is birthed and how he is greeted and cared for, or not cared for upon entering into his new world.

I think that we all too often tend to underestimate just how important of a role we play in our baby’s lives during those precious nine months and during birth. Maybe for sake of modesty we just don’t realize how powerful, influential and important we are.

The role of a Mother is to teach her child about many things, about life, about the world, about how to react and respond to situations, about selflessness and love. It is not enough to simply talk to our children about these things; after all talking is not something that is very familiar to your baby yet. Your baby communicates through a transfer of energy, emotions, and feelings. So we must set ourselves up to be in a place within us where we can teach and lead by example.

For a Great Natural Childbirth the Time for Transformation is Now

Pregnancy and natural childbirth is a significant time in both of your lives. It is a time for great change, an amazing and rare opportunity for growth and transformation on all levels. To prepare your child as an emotionally adjusted member of life you must first make that transformation within yourself.

To do this we must rediscover ourselves as pure potential waiting to be unveiled. We cannot be fully present in our role as a Mother and a leader unless we first come to terms with the fact that we ourselves harness all that we will ever need to give our baby a great birth and life.

To do this we must practice regularly going deeply within ourselves, preparing ourselves emotionally, physically and spiritually for our baby’s natural childbirth and our role as Mother and Mentor.

Your Baby’s Quality of Life and Birth is Held in Your Hands

Your baby is living inside its own universe which is YOU! Everything that you experience is experienced by your baby.

So when you are having a stressful day so is your baby; now this is important to realize because your emotional state will not only affect your baby’s emotional state while living inside of your womb but will also have a large influence on your collective birthing time.

Negative emotions felt by Momma such as fear, anger or inability to accept what is currently taking place offsets your baby’s emotional health and results in a general feeling of lack of security.

When the birthing time begins if your baby has experienced and harbors feelings of fear, stress or insecurity your baby will be less likely to be confident in making that leap off into the unknown, and will struggle with the ability to just relax, let go, trust and allow birth to happen. You are only one part of the birth; your baby is the other. So as you prepare yourself for natural childbirth remember that you are preparing your baby as well.

By Loving Yourself You are Loving Your Baby

For a Peaceful and Balanced Childbirth Balance Your Energy

When you are out of balance your energy levels, emotional state, and overall health suffer, which similarly affects your baby. However when you make it a priority to align your mind, body and spirit in unison with your baby you are creating two masterpieces! When you are both at your best birth will unfold perfectly.

Natural Childbirth Momma:

Take time for you. Pamper yourself, spend time doing things you enjoy, go on long walks, spend time in nature, daydream, paint, dance, laugh, meditate, do yoga, connect with yourself and let your creativity and imagination flow.

Natural Childbirth Papa :

If this were your boxing match you would be her man in the corner. Your job is to keep her feeling good. Do the things she enjoys with her. Practice asking yourself, “can she be any more comfortable? Can she be any more relaxed? Does she have everything she needs? Could you use a massage? Can you draw her bath? Be sure to go out of your way, above and beyond to be patient and loving.

When you make it a point to take time everyday to love yourself, balance your energy and to be happy you are not only soaking your baby in those wonderfully fluffy feelings but you are also teaching your baby the most important message: that no matter how stressed you are you always have a choice, you can choose calmness, peace, happiness, acceptance and self love over negativity and resistance. Work on building a more confident and happy self and you and your baby will be well on your way to having a great natural childbirth and a fulfilling and joyful life.

For many of us the thought of bringing our baby into the world in a hospital is simply not an option in our minds, and for us the only way we can imagine is to have a natural childbirth, and preferably at home. But how in the world do we get our partners on board with us, and how do we even go about it without just sounding like a crazy hippy??

Oh yes, I had this same dilemma, it took me the majority of the pregnancy to convince Andy that I wasn’t just trying to be a rebel, but that it was the most educated thing to do. In the end he gave me his full support, he was absolutely wonderful during the birth, we had an amazing experience and now he is Mr. Home Birth!

My partner wrote this wonderful article on how you convince someone who is accustomed to thinking of birth as a medical emergency that it’s really not such a big deal.

Why Men Think Having a Natural Childbirth at Home is a Crazy Idea

By Andrew Briggs

 The key is in understanding how they are accustomed to viewing birth. Imagine in general how uninformed women are about the birthing process and then imagine someone whose only experience in the matter comes from dramatizations they see on television.

Especially imagine the births you see in movies set in the Middle Ages, when I thought about birth before hospitals that’s where my mind went. So that’s how I thought a homebirth would be; dark and dank room with wet rags as our only tool against all the bleeding and screaming along with infections and dirt everywhere.

 So that made me think it was going to be a dangerous, dirty and scary way to give birth!

When in reality that is not the case at all. And none of this view actually holds up if given a rational examination of the situation.

What you are going to need to show them is that home birth is just as safe as hospital birth because safety is going to be their only real concern.

How to Talk to Your Partner about Having a Natural Childbirth at Home         

When you approach them you need to do so directly and let them know how important it is to you that they keep an open mind.

I was very stuck in the hospital mindset to begin with because I had used them often in the past so it was natural for me to think that everything they do there is for the best. So my initial reaction was to scoff and mock the idea but when April let me know how serious she was about the idea I became more open to evaluating it honestly.

Have Them Specify and List Their Fears

What you need to do is get them to analyze their preconceptions and actually specify and list the actual fears. Once the fears are listed they seem less overwhelming and can be refuted one by one. This will take some research, but from what I was told all the risks of home birth for healthy women can all be minimized by educating and preparing yourself.

When given enough information they will discover that there really is very little to fear, you just need to introduce them to that fact, and if they are anything like I was they really have only a vague idea of the potential risks.

Get the Facts on Natural Childbirth

Use as many hard facts as possible. If you can, get the actual percentages of complications they fear, show them how unlikely that situation happens in a homebirth scenario and what the midwife is able to do to help if it does happen.

 Persistence is the Way to Get Them to Except Natural Childbirth

It can be very difficult to change an ingrained misconception. This is the key to getting them to adjust their opinion. It was for me, and without the persistent extermination of the causes of my fear it would have been difficult to imagine such a dramatic change in my paradigm.   

               The Big Whammy- Our Natural Childbirth

The birth itself I found to be a very exciting and fascinating experience!

Most of the birth I just tried to read what April needed and do anything I could to make her comfortable.

 It was near the end when I went into the tub and got ready to deliver our daughter that I was most thankful to have the midwives there to reassure me that I was doing everything right. With them there I wasn’t really nervous or afraid of anything.

After Lileahs birth it seemed infinitely easier than I ever thought it would be! Everyone’s birth is different and I think I got off easy but in general I think guys are more afraid of not knowing what to expect than when they are in the middle of it.

It was great doing it at home because of how personal and peaceful it all felt. No body was running around screaming, and it was just me and April through the whole thing until the very end.  I was in the tub and when she came out I brought her up out of the water. It was the most amazing experience of my life to be the first one to welcome Lileah into the world!

Seeing Natural Childbirth Made Me a Believer!

After experiencing the birth of my daughter and seeing the benefits of natural childbirth versus hospital births I was convinced that this is the only way to bring our children into the world. The difference in her and other kids I saw that were born on drugs in the hospital is amazing! Lileah could hold her head up immediately and had her eyes wide open and alert for hours after she was born.  She was able to push herself up on her belly, she was unbelievably strong and healthy.

I was impressed and completely blown away by the experience so I have since been very much an advocate for natural childbirth! This is a huge change from how I thought just 6 months before Lileahs birth and it’s very much a result of Aprils research and our daughters beautiful entry into this world.

“ And remember be Persistant!” -Andy

Aww I love him!  What a Great man! If you haven’t seen our birth video yet you should definately watch it, he completely surrounded me with LOVE and support, he was so Amazing!! Makes me cry every time! When you work together the possibilities for a great natural childbirth are infinite!

~Peggy Vincent

If I could tell you the most important thing that you could know about natural childbirth it is that your birth will be what you imagine and allow it to be!  The physical act of natural childbirth is quite simple and natural; it is only when our minds get in the way that it becomes difficult. In this article I will share with you how you can shape your perception to allow the release of harmful thoughts and to embrace natural childbirth in a way that can open up the doorway to experiencing a truly amazing birth!

Go Beyond the Skewed Perception of Natural Childbirth

For most of us, before we got pregnant the thought of birth and what it’s going to be like rarely entered into our minds. Now suddenly it consumes our thoughts, and all we want to know is, “what is it going to be like?” Since most of us have never actually seen or experienced what a natural childbirth is really like and scince we have nothing to compare it to, this is a difficult question to answer. So we tend to draw from the only sources of reference we’ve had: Movies, TV shows and the chatty women at the office.

But little do we know that what they are telling us is not the truth. The picture of birth as a long scary and painful process is only a false idea that has been wrongfully passed along for too long!

“We must not allow other people’s limited perceptions to define us”

~Virginia Satir

 If we wish to reclaim birth, then we must break free from the restraints of fear and realize that it is us that makes the choice!  How we  experience natural childbirth will greatly depend on what we expect and allow ourselves to experience. If we continue to see birth as something undesirable that is happening to us and allow ourselves to be sucked into that fear then we are allowing our perception of birth to be fogged over and all we will be able to see and experience is pain and struggle.

But when we allow ourselves to see through that fog of misconception suddenly the doorway opens to realization that birth is the most amazing act that we will ever get a chance to be a part of. And that is when the potential for an amazing natural childbirth becomes limitless!

“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is – infinite”

~William Blake

Birth is the ultimate gift, the ultimate act of creation. It is the power of God manifesting itself through you to bring new life in existence. It is a bridge that finds you and your baby linked together straddling the gap between two worlds with the common purpose of life. It is a powerful, pure, and magnificent force!

Birth is a journey, birth is beautiful, birth will transform you, birth is work, birth is a reflection, birth is life, birth is LOVE!

How to Shift Your Perception to See How Amazing Natural Childbirth Really Is

 You realize very quickly when you become pregnant that it suddenly seems that everyone has an opinion and is dying to share it whether you ask for it or not. Let me tell you there will be no shortage of bad information and negative stories flying your way!

I don’t think that these people truly realize how harmful fear can be or else they might think twice before saying some of the things they say. But despite all of their bad advice the most important thing to remember is that it is completely up to you what beliefs you choose to embrace! Do not allow negative ideas to have power over you. If it does not serve you let it go!

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

 ~ Albert Einstein

For a Positive Natural Childbirth Fill up with Positives

If you wish to have a great natural childbirth you must focus your thoughts and attention on experiencing a great birth! Here are some tips to help you.

Watch Positive Natural Childbirth Videos

 If you wish to have a great birth you must take control of what images you allow to enter into your mind. Stop watching movies and TV shows that depict birth in a negative light and start replacing those images with positive images of natural childbirth.

No more TLC  birthing stories, no more Hollywood drama, instead start filling up with real live natural childbirth videos, the kind that shows birth in its full glory! Utube is a great source to watch natural childbirth videos, there are also a number of natural childbirth documentaries that show how inspiring and empowering natural childbirth can be when we allow it. Also my birth video is on this sight under the “my birth video” tab if you want to check it out

Practice Hypnobirthing

Hypnobirthing is a quite popular and effective way of getting rid of negatives and reprogramming birth into your mind as a positive and enjoyable experience. For more about hypnobirthing check out this article: http://mynaturalchildbirth.org/hypnobirthing-secrets/

Positive Natural Childbirth Affirmations

Another helpful tool is to practice natural childbirth affirmations. Take some time to think about and write down some affirmations that you can repeat to yourself everyday that remind you of how capable you are, and how much you trust birth. Tape them on your mirror and read them first thing upon waking up in the morning and last thing before going to bed.

Through affirming to yourself every day how powerful, capable, and amazing you are, how perfect your body’s knowledge of birth is, and how peaceful and loving your child’s birth will be you are actually recreating that reality inside of your head. You are actively filling your mind so full of positives that there is simply no more room for negatives to linger about. Birth then no longer becomes something that you fear but rather something that you look forward to embracing. With this mind-frame it will be much easier to relax and allow your body to do it’s work without interfering.

“Just as a women’s heart knows how and when to pump, her lungs to inhale, and her hand to pull back from fire, so she knows when and how to give birth.”

~Virginia Di Orio

How I Used My Perception to Create an Amazing Natural Childbirth

“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.”

~Albert Einstein

While I was pregnant I opened my mind to the significance of birth, not only for me but for my child. I saw in natural childbirth a chance to discover myself, a chance to discover my capabilities, my strength, my power. This was my time to reach beyond fear into the inner most depths of my soul to guide my baby into life with perfect love.

This was a rare opportunity for us to experience something amazing and powerful together, and one that I would not allow to be waisted. She was dependant on me to allow her the peaceful entrance into this world that she so rightfully deserved and I was not going to disappoint her!

“There is no way out of the experience except through it, because it is not really your experience at all but the baby’s. Your body is the child’s instrument of birth.”

~Penelope Leach

With no way out the only option left was to go into it, fully and completely, and so that’s what I did! When I did that my entire perspective shifted, and I began to view and experience birth not as pain but as an amazing and powerful act of energy. This is a picture that I drew when I was pregnant of  how I had imagined my birth would be.

It was turning out just as I had imagined it! With every pressure wave I imagined pure white energy spiraling through the universe and traveling amazingly through my body expanding me in every sense of the word, opening up a beautiful pathway for the energy to pour out of me bringing my baby right down with it and out into the world.

It was a very powerful feeling, and I knew that if I allowed myself to fall victim to fear for even one moment those magnificently powerful sensation would very quickly and easily turn to pain. So I kept it in my mind as the ultimate act of love and a gift that I was giving my child. I embraced it and it was Amazing!

 Remember that what you focus on with your thought and feelings is what you attract into your experience. Learn to become still and take your attention away from what you don’t want, and place your attention on what you wish to experience. Set a goal so big that if you achieved it, it would blow your mind! Imagine yourself experiencing an amazing natural childbirth and then make that your reality! Happy Birthing Mommas!

~ Sheryl Feldman

Mothers throughout the ages have shared a very primal connection to creating sounds during natural childbirth.

The act of natural childbirth calls to a sacred and powerful place inside of us that we may not have even known existed before. When we embrace this we begin to witness ourselves acting within our full source of power. Without any thought or preparation sounds begin to permeate from inside of us releasing in a intrinsic expression of hums, moans, chants, song and even animal noises. These sounds create a certain harmonic within our body that helps to release pain, keep us focused, and in general makes birth easier and more manageable.

What most of us aren’t aware of is just how significant these sounds are, or the enormous effect they have on us, our babies and the birth as a whole.

Through the right kind of vocalization a wonderful doorway opens up that can connect us with the harmony of birth and life in a profound way!

In this article I will share with you just how significant vocalization is during natural childbirth, and give you tips and techniques that will help you to use your voice to bring forth your personal power and create an amazing natural childbirth for you and your baby!

To Understand the Significance of Sound in Natural Childbirth You Must First Understand that Everything is Sound!

“In the beginning was the word… or in Sanskrit, “Nada Brahma,” the world is sound”…

I had heard this mentioned in reference to biblical text before, but had never quite understood the meaning until I stumbled across the science of Cymatics, which draws on the principles of the ancient Greek philosophers Heraclitus, Pythagoras and Plato, and cosmologists Giordano Bruno and Johannes Kepler’s theories that all matter is made up of sound.

Since we ourselves are made of matter, and so are our babies I found this idea very intriguing!

“Each celestial body, in fact each and every atom, produces a particular sound on account of its movement, its rhythm or vibration. All these sounds and vibrations form a universal harmony in which each element, while having it’s own function and character, contributes to the whole. “
-Pythagoras (569-475 BC

“What makes us feel drawn to music is that our whole being is music: our mind and body, the nature in which we live, the nature which has made us, all that is beneath and around us, it is all music.”
Hazrat Inyat Khan (Sufi Master) (1882-1927)

 I have to say that these videos, though a bit old are pretty amazing! You’ll be able see with your own eyes matter being formed and manipulated from sound waves vibrating at different rates, frequencies and pulses creating the illusion of solid objects and revealing that…

…“All is vibration!” ––Novalis

The Vibration of Natural Childbirth

During natural childbirth a dramatically increased charge of vibration travels through your body. Not only is the individual vibration of our bodies at work, but we also have the vibration of our baby’s body at work, as well as the power and vibration of birth.

This magnificent harmony of increased vibration is what brings life over the threshold and into the world. How we choose to work with this energy can be the difference between whether birth will be a struggle or an act of magnificence!

In order to have an amazing natural childbirth you must open to this energy and allow it to not only enter into you but to flow out of you.  If this influx of energy is not given a path to release itself it will build inside of us and turn into pain. Vocalizing is one of the body’s most primal ways of providing an outlet for this energy to flow through so that it can maintain balance.

How Vocalizing Effects You and Your Baby During Natural Childbirth

“In the germ, when the first trace of life begins to stir, music is the nurse of the soul; it murmurs in the ear, and the child sleeps; the tones are companions of his dreams- they are the world in which he lives”
~Bettina Skrzypczak

The sounds that are created during birth cause very real physical and molecular change within our bodies.When vocalizing  during birth, remember that your baby is living in a world comprised of those sounds. Do not allow yourself to loose control and get caught up in sounds of fear such as screaming or yelling that frighten the child and can cause physical changes in the babys heart rate, blood pressure and stress levels. Avoid harmful sounds that can trigger pain such as saying OW, instead remain focused and tuned in to your body. Use sounds that encourage calmness, peace and opening.

Using sensual sounds as we do when making love encourages us to release into the intense energy flow of the birth; and sounds like OM, AH, or WOW that require us to open our mouths wide encourage the opening of our bodies.

There is no set way to vocalize during natural childbirth and every woman will have her own unique birth song. The important thing to remember is to try and tune in to the energy and harmony of the birth and match your harmony in accordance.Listen to your body and do what feels good!

For an Amazing Natural Childbirth- Release Your Fear, Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone and Free Your Voice!

The best way to become comfortable with vocalizing during natural childbirth is to practice it often while you are still pregnant. In the local community classes that I teach we do chanting, which is pretty much universally awkward and uncomfortable at first, but once we get into it and we feel ourselves breaking out of our shells we start to realize what an amazing and powerful force we truly are! And then the awkwardness fades and we become very tuned in to that primal force that exist within us, it is then that we become empowered and ready for natural childbirth.

Amazing and Inspirational Natural Childbirth Videos

Here are some great examples of empowered women embracing the sound of birth and vocalizing amazingly! I encourage you to draw upon these videos for inspiration in your practice and during birth. If you would like you can even use this  first video during your practice, just play it and follow along with her vocally. There are also plenty of videos on utube of chants that you can follow along with.

In this video you can see the amazing and beautiful effects of some of these tones. Enjoy!

The magnificence of sound brings forth life, and will  bring forth our babies in perfect harmony! If we can allow ourselves to connect with birth on this very primal level allowing the vibrations to flow through us then natural childbirth will happen like a song!

Women are awakening; in growing numbers we and are diving in to experiencing natural childbirth in its full glory! We are reconnecting with our sacred feminine power and calling upon our sensuality to birth our babies.

 When we birth with our sensuality we effortlessly allow layers of armor to melt away and reveal the hidden jewel of our sacred sensual strength and passion. Within this secret doorway lies all of the power and connection we need to have an amazing natural childbirth.

When we embraced this it can lead us far beyond birth ruled by pain and fear and into the infinite where we rediscover natural childbirth as an empowering, expansive, satisfying, deeply rich, and even orgasmic experience! In this article I will share with you how women are able to use their sensuality to achieve an amazing natural childbirth, how I did it, and how you can do it too!

Orgasmic Natural Childbirth

ORGASMIC BIRTH! I know, it sounds bizarre, but it’s not orgasmic like we think, it is sensual but not sexual, it’s a whole new orgasmic that stretches way beyond what we have perceived in our lifetimes. It stretches far beyond, it is amazing, powerful, expansive, mind blowing, indescribable, a truly out of this world experience!

Natural Childbirth Video “Orgasmic Birth,  The Best-Kept Secret”

Among the natural childbirth documentaries I watched while I was pregnant was “Orgasmic Birth, The Best-Kept Secret.” It resonated with me that giving birth was a simple extension of the very sexual very sensual experience that created the baby in the first place. As this truth shone down upon me I began to see birth as an amazing opportunity to dive into unrefined freedom and feminine expression!

The most common way people give up their power
is by thinking they don’t have any.
~ Alice Walker ~

Don’t Be Fooled- You Were Made for Natural Childbirth

One of the best kept secrets and one of the biggest truths in this world is that as a woman you are an amazing and powerful force in this world, which is why you were designed for natural childbirth!

The energy of natural childbirth is also an amazing and powerful force in this world, and one that we have been perfectly paired with. As powerful and magnificent as birth is we are just as powerful and magnificent ourselves!

The secret is to draw upon your personal power and energy and align it to merge with the energy of the birth. To do this you must first understand that birth, by nature is the ultimate feminine act, it calls us to operate from our full feminine power.

One of the greatest sources of our feminine power lies within our sensual nature.

“Dive into the lusciously rich experience of who you truly are and birth your baby from there!”

We are rediscovering our primordial feminine splendor and power that over time seems to have gotten lost. Within our core lies the very essence of what we are as women. We are truly magical and powerful beings.

We are a woman’s touch, soft, tender, and sensual

We are a Mothers love with everlasting strength

We are passionate and fierce

Yet at the same time we are soft and yielding

These gifts run through us and this is whats going to help you to birth your baby!

“It is possible to have an ecstatic birth—in fact, that is the best natural high that I know of. And these states of consciousness are best reached when a woman is fully aware and fully awake. Women don’t have a way to know how their body works until they really try it out in birth. I think that women can be just completely surprised by the change in them from giving birth—you have something powerful in you—that fierce thing comes up—and I think babies need moms to have that fierceness—you feel like you can do anything and that’s the feeling we want moms to have.” Ina May Gaskin

You are Responsible for Your Own Orgasm – You are Responsible for Your Own Orgasmic Natural Childbirth

Remember that birth is an extension of the sensual energy that created your baby in the first place; natural childbirth is the grand climax, this is when the energy peaks and flows powerfully through bringing your baby into life

As your birthing time begins the flood gate swings open and this powerful flame which has so patiently waited inside is set free.  Now how you choose to interpret and use this amazingly powerful energy is up to you, and can be the difference between whether your natural childbirth is experienced as pain or pleasure.

“You are responsible for your own orgasm” Meaning you are responsible for your own experience. Most women will agree that you can have horrible sex or amazing sex just based on how you choose to interpret and respond to it.

It’s all about how much you can allow yourself to release into it.  

Embrace and Explore Your Birthing Waves and the Sensuality of Natural Childbirth

In birth it is helpful to use many of  the same tools as you would in great sex……Release into it…… Turn it into something that you embrace and explore. It’s about the exploration, the journey as much as the destination. Ride the intensity of the waves, welcome them into you, become uninhibited, breathe, moan, and tell yourself how AMAZING it feels!

How Your Partner Can Help You to Have an Amazing Natural Childbirth

The answer is love, it is always love. I’m not talking sex, but the physical expression of love can be an enormous help! Kissing, cuddling, sensual caress, massage, and nipple stimulation can all have a positive effect on the progression of birth. When you and your partner are able to remain conscious of allowing your love to flow freely without being restricted, then birth is more likely to flow freely without being restricted.

The Grand Finaly- My Orgasmic Natural Childbirth

There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
~ Anais Nin ~

 When my birthing time began I was amazed by the incredibly powerful sensations of the birthing waves.  They were nothing that I could have ever imagined! They were larger than life. About an hour into my birthing time a really powerful pressure wave came on and I thought to myself,”Wow that one hurt!” That moment will stay in my mind forever. It was my moment of truth.

 As soon as that thought entered into my mind I felt myself instantly being jerked down to a place of fear.  Then a vision opened up in my mind of the long dark and painful road that was ahead of me if I continued to allow myself to interpret the sensations as pain.

So with the very next pressure wave I made a conscious choice that no matter what happened I would interpret the sensations in my body as pleasure. In that instant the sensations turned from pain into pure juicy life force. It was dancing within me igniting my sacred femine power. I felt myself come to life, my sensaulity, my passion, my power, my undying love, and incredible strength rose up within me. Birth called to the feirce lioness inside of me inviting me to embrace and unite with it’s power, calling me to surrender and ride the waves of ecstacy. 

My mouth hung open wide as my breath poured from my body,  and entered again powerful strong and full, each breath building in momentum, each sensation stronger than the last, taking a hold of me, pulling me in, begging for my surrender, calling me to release and flow into it.

I moaned in ecstasy, it felt so incredible! Through this incredible sensual energy I transcended into an alternate reality, and became consumed by this exquisitley expansive feeling of connection on all levels. I was dancing with a pure and powerful energy. It spiraled through me and moved me baby out into my arms.

Here is our birthing video where you can see and hear the ecstacy of the experience!

My Natural Childbirth Advice

Embrace the sensuality of natural childbirth. Open wide the door that leads to your feminine power. Welcome the energy and intensity of the birth. Say YES to the sensations. Repeat to yourself how amazing they feel. Choose pleasure over pain, become uninhibited, and give your baby a natural childbirth encompassed in LOVE.

~Rumi

Secret Doorway #2 to having an amazing natural childbirth is through your breath. The simple act of breathing is surely the most natural, primal, and universal human experience, quite similar to birth.

When used to its’ full potential your breath can open up a whole new way of natural childbirth,  that can not only be free from fear and pain, but can actually emerge as an amazing and truly enjoyable experience!

In this article I will share how to use the power of  breath to assist you in remaining calm, flexible and relaxed during your birthing time, to effectively focus the energy of the birthing waves, to minimize discomfort, and allow you and your baby a much more comfortable and enjoyable natural childbirth.

Through Breath Lies Everything You Need to Give Your Baby a Great Natural Childbirth

“You know that our breathing is the inhaling and exhaling of air.  The organ that serves for this is the lungs that lie round the heart, so that the air passing through them thereby envelops the heart.  Thus breathing is a natural way to the heart.  And so, having collected your mind within you, lead it into the channel of breathing through which air reaches the heart and, together with this inhaled air, force your mind to descend into the heart and to remain there.”

~Nicephorus the Solitary

Because we are always breathing, like most things, we tend to take it for granted, and fail to recognize the infinite store of potential that lies within the power of our own breath!

We each hold within us everything that we need to bring our babies into the world: personal power, love, strength, confidence, passion, wisdom and determination.

When you breathe with conscious awareness into your heart it activates all of these systems, as you inhale it gathers them together, and then on the exhale pours them out over your birthing time.

You must understand that when you are operating from love and strength there is simply no room for fear, they cannot share the same space at the same time.  And in the absence of fear there is no limit to what you can achieve.

Your Breath Sets the Tone for Your Natural Childbirth

Your breath sets the tone for your entire body. If your breath is relaxed your body is relaxed.

So the goal is to get your breath to be a mirror of what you are trying to achieve in both body and mind during your birth. So the goal of your body is to remain relaxed, and to be open and expansive, but at the same time your mind must be calm and strong. So then these are the things to encompass in your breath, these are the things that you should focus on incorporating into your practice.

Natural Childbirth Exercise: Mastering the Breath of Birth

As you focus your awareness on your breath take the time to notice each one of these qualities,  Go down the line and activate these things within your breathing, relaxed breaths, open breaths, expansive breaths, calm breaths, strong breaths. There is no need to change the way you breathe, or to breathe in a certain way. Your breathing already encompasses these qualities,  your job is to simply bring your awareness into your breath and to be aware of these qualities that already exist within it. Be the “watcher of your breath” so to say.

Proper Breathing for Natural Childbirth and for Life

First you must relearn how to breathe correctly:  Which is through your abdomen, as you inhale you abdomen rises, and as you exhale it sinks. We were all born breathing this perfect way,  but as life and stress compound we learn to take short shallow breaths through our chest. This way of shallow breathing really limits the potential of our breath and tends to disconnect us from the primordial connection with the one universal breath or flow. In order to embrace the power and strength of your birthing time it’s essential to reconnect with this powerful primal breath , because this is what reconnects us with the powerful breath and energy that propels birth.

Spiral Breath

Throughout your practice and birth always maintain a relaxed jaw and wide open mouth. Inhale and exhale through your mouth, this encourages the opening of your body’s sphincters. As you breathe in and out feel your breath flowing into and out of you. Now do it again, but this time there is no pause between the inhale and exhale,  just imagine it flowing into and out of you in a continuous flowing spiral. Good Job!

The Amazing Secret To Using Your Breath is to Gather, Compress, and Disperse

As you inhale imagine gathering energy or “chi” as a beautiful light… picture it flowing into you through your breath… as it flows into your body it begins to gather and activate all of your gifts:  your personal power, your love, strength, confidence, passion, wisdom, and so on… it then compresses, and as you exhale they flow through you carrying out all negative, dark or stagnant energy and dispersing it.

Focusing the Energy of the Birthing Waves and Dispersing Pain

During your birthing time you use this same Gather, Compress, and Disperse to handle the intensity of the pressure waves.

• Gather- as you inhale you gather and allow the pressure and intensity of the birthing waves to flow into you,  gathering and activating your calm inner strength, love, confidence, and personal power
• Compress- you then allow the intensity to combine with your personal power, and as it compresses the  energy is focused downward
• Disperse- as you exhale you take all of the intensity, energy, discomfort etc. and allow it to completely disperse back into the earth clearing the way for the next pressure wave to come.

Renewing Cleansing Breath

One of the most powerful qualities that lie in your breath is the amazing cleansing ability that it has. Every breath is all new. And even if with your last pressure wave you got pulled into a place of fear, that’s OK because each and every breath is a chance to start over fresh.

Every breath is a choice. With every breath you must choose relaxation. With every breath you must choose pleasure over pain, love over fear. With every breath you must choose to gather and bring forth your calm inner strength, with every breath you must choose to embrace birth, to embrace the energy, to embrace the magnificence, and to embrace the power of it.

You must allow yourself to breath openly, and freely.

Although the body is moving, the mind remains centered with the steady flow of breath creating a dynamic since of tranquility and internal strength. With this on your side birth is more enjoyable on every level! It can emerge as a painless, empowering, and amazing act of love that can give you and your baby an enjoyable natural childbirth without fear!