Why Birth Matters March 15, 2009
Tomorrow, I am marching in the Minnesota Better Birth Coalition Day on the hill with many other moms, dads, kids and professionals that believe that their are research best best birth practices that should be supported by our legislature. (More info minnesotabirth.com) I will be there as a mom with a birth trauma history, a mom with a VBAC success history, as a psychologist who believes that birth trauma increases a woman’s risk for postpartum depression and I will be there representing Parenting Oasis and attachment parenting because birth matters to our kids.
I also offered my Healing Birth Stories workshop this weekend which reminded me how powerful and beautiful birth stories are even when they are raw and painful. Birth transforms a woman. And birth in and of itself is a hell of a lot to deal with but then they hand this vulnerable, dependent infant to you and before you have a chance to catch your breath and decide how you feel about birth, you go into parenting. When are you supposed to recover? How do you heal?
Mothers need enormous confidence to manage what we ask of them. What other calling asks so much of you on the first day? Birth matters. If you can’t come out to march in support with us tomorrow, check in with Susan Lane over at Better Birth and see what she needs. Who do we talk to, what is next? Those people in Saint Paul, and those people in Washington need someone whispering in their ears that birth matters to us.
Maureen
