CalmBirth Method
So many programs and only nine months?
By Candace Faith Frugé , BA, Dipl ABT
Today, there are many wonderful and beneficial birthing programs available for women and their partners. There are programs focused on the physical process of pregnancy, labor and childbirth and on the methods of birthing, as well as programs addressing the emotional and perhaps spiritual aspects of this phenomenal creative process. With all of these to choose from, it can be difficult to decide on the ones that are right for you.
Having studied and practiced various forms of mind/body and spiritual practices for over 20 years and having naturally birthed two children, I consider it extremely important to learn about your body and its physical processes. It will be to your advantage to know how your body is created to perform during pregnancy, labor and childbirth. If it is your first birth or if you know little about how your body works, you will want to study the anatomy and physiology of birth, but be careful not to get caught up in other peoples' fear and horror stories concerning a natural process that a woman's body is uniquely created to perform. Furthermore, if you have any specific health issues you will want to be fully informed of your choices, scientific studies, case histories and your doctor/midwife/doula('s) experience with such.
While becoming educated in the physical processes of birth will assist your mind in dealing with the changes, feelings and emotions, you will most likely want to do more to support yourself and your loved ones in the transformative process of birth. With childbirth being one of the most intense, demanding and all-encompassing experiences of a woman's life, her entire being is affected and changed by pregnancy and childbirth. Birthing calls upon or demands your complete presence, focus, surrender, faith in yourself, and your ability to release yourself from old thought patterns and fears that no longer serve you. Therefore, it is profoundly important to address the emotional and psychological aspects of pregnancy and childbirth.
The emotional process has, for too long, been discarded or undermined as "hormonal." Not only are there physical reasons for this "hormonal" process, there are emotional ones. Hormones are connected to emotions and they reveal patterns, thoughts and fears that need attention. There is emotional processing or transformation that needs to occur if one desires the most fulfilling of birthing processes. Fear, doubt, insecurity, discouragement, internalized oppression and unawareness of who we are as women undermines our innate feminine power and renders us helpless in our own birthing process.
Who are we? Who are you? Who am I? — These questions are not really answered — they are lived and pregnancy and birthing are an optimum time of self-discovery. While you certainly do not have to wait until you are pregnant to begin discovering or uncovering, enlivening and strengthening yourself, pregnancy is a ripe opportunity to do so, no only for your own benefit, but for the benefit of your child, family and all of humanity.
Along with addressing our emotional patterns, we must address our thought patterns that fuel our emotional patterns. Becoming aware of one's thought process is best done through meditation or mindfulness practice. As we meditate we begin to see our own thought and emotional patterns, we begin to notice our reactions to events, scenarios, smells, emotions, thoughts, etc. before they take over and create our lives. As we see these thoughts and emotional patterns for what they are, we begin to react less and notice more. Meditation enables us to become more fully present in the current moment and through this we become calmer and at peace with ourselves and others. This also allows us to slow down enough to bring more openness into our minds, in turn creating more space and less contraction around our thoughts and emotions. This space empowers us into controlling our minds instead of our unaware minds/ego controlling us. This may sound a bit strange, but as one meditates a more expansive "knowingness" sometimes called "the watcher" flourishes and begins to see the operations of the smaller more contracted mind or ego that grasps for security, familiarity and what is known (or what it thinks it knows). In this way, old and no longer helpful patterns of thought and emotion can be released, allowing for more balanced, healthy and fulfilling life creations.
This process, obviously, can be extremely helpful to a pregnant and birthing woman, both for herself and the being she is bringing into the world. I am sure you can imagine the impact that such awareness and way of being will have on our entire world. As more women regain their spiritual power and become more conscious and creative while bringing our future into the world we will see the changes we have all been longing for.
The CalmBirth Method has been specifically designed for this task. It addresses the emotional and thought patterns that keep us down and powerless. It has been created using proven techniques from both ancient and modern wisdom and is backed by many individual Calmbirth experiences. Additionally, the program has other components for addressing post-partum recovery and bonding in a deeper, more creative and enlivening way, as well as, training for the mother's support group in their assistance role of creating the space, birthing and post-partum experiences the mother so desires. This is done through CalmMother and CalmHealing programs. Furthermore, the CalmHealing program can be beneficial for anyone in their pursuit of a more healthy, balanced and creative life.
For more information and details see www.calmbirth.org, contact RoseSprings Center or contact the author at candacefaith2012@yahoo.com.
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