"Am I my body?" Mind-body-spirit in childbirth (Part two) - Empowering Pregnant Women through Mind, Body, Spirit Connection
Introduction
Welcome to the second part of my blog series on "Mind-Body-Spirit in Childbirth." In the first post, I introduced the concept of the mind, body, and spirit connection and how it relates to the childbirth experience. I highlighted the importance of incorporating spirituality into all stages of life, particularly during pregnancy and childbirth, for the benefit of both mother and baby. In this post, I will delve deeper into practical tools that pregnant women can use to connect with their minds, bodies, and spirits in order to achieve a balanced, joyful, and healthy pregnancy journey. Additionally, I will discuss the impact of biomedicine on pregnant women's beliefs and behaviors in a culture that often lacks a strong emphasis on spirituality. Finally, I will discuss the importance of all maternity care providers considering spiritual care in their practice. Thank you for joining me on this journey, and let's dive in!
As neuroscientists have pointed out, the mind plays a crucial role in shaping our reality. Our thoughts, feelings, and choices, both conscious and unconscious, can greatly influence our emotions and the physical experiences we have in life. In order to fully experience joy and fulfill our spiritual potential, it is vital to maintain a healthy mind.
Childbirth is a transformative and powerful experience that can serve as a catalyst for awakening a woman's spirituality. The thoughts and beliefs of pregnant women can greatly impact their childbirth experience, and it is essential for them to take steps toward a balanced and positive mindset.
Here are some practical steps that pregnant women can take to renew their minds and build a new brain for their bodies in order to experience the miracles of life and potential self-transcendence during childbirth.
The ABC baby steps in childbirth
Step A - Awareness: Start by becoming more aware of your thoughts and feelings. Practice mindfulness techniques such as meditation and yoga to help you connect with your body and spirit.
Step B - Beliefs: Educate yourself about your options for childbirth and make informed decisions. Understand the benefits and risks of different options and make choices that align with your personal beliefs and values.
Step C - Connection: Connect the mind and body as well as seek out spiritual support such as counseling or support groups. This can provide a safe space for you to explore your thoughts and feelings and gain perspective on your experiences.
In order for pregnant women to have a meaningful and positive childbirth experience, they must first believe in the power of spirituality and the innate strength of their bodies. With this belief, they can create a vision for their birthing journey. A positive mindset is essential for achieving a positive childbirth experience, as it allows women to manage their thoughts and emotions and respond to unexpected challenges. For example, a woman who trusts in her body's ability to produce oxytocin during labor and her ability to give birth and breastfeed naturally will be more likely to achieve a successful natural birth.
Pregnant women must also make a conscious effort to connect their minds with their bodies during childbirth. This involves letting go of fear, self-doubt, and ego and being open to all possibilities. For example, a woman with a positive spiritual mindset is more likely to remain calm and fearless, listen to her body, and seek appropriate professional help when needed.
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The benefits of the ABC baby steps in childbirth
Childbirth is a transformative and powerful experience that can offer pregnant women a great opportunity for spiritual and emotional growth. It allows them to reflect on who they are and who they want to be and make important decisions during this critical transitional period in their lives. However, the journey of childbirth can be challenging, and managing the mind with a positive mindset is crucial for the mental and physical well-being of both mother and baby.
Spirituality plays a significant role in this process, as the experiences and awareness of pregnant women can greatly influence their beliefs, behaviors, and decision-making during childbirth. When pregnant women believe in their innate strength and ability and have self-awareness, it can lead to positive changes in their brains and bodies, allowing for a smoother and more positive childbirth experience.
More and more research is being conducted on the health benefits of spiritual connectedness in childbirth. Studies have found that women with spiritual beliefs and connectedness tend to have better outcomes, cope better with complications in high-risk pregnancies, and recover better from childbirth-related trauma.
Mindful practical tools:
To navigate the ABC baby steps, pregnant women need practical tools that will help them cultivate a strong and positive mindset, enhance their spirituality, and create a positive experience during childbirth. These tools can include physical and mental activities that teach women how to connect their minds with their bodies and allow for a smooth and natural birthing process.
Here are some mindful tools that pregnant women can practice during pregnancy, labor, birth, and motherhood:
1. Be Mindful of yourself: (self-love)
1) Spending time in nature:
Look at the trees, flowers, grasses, birds, and any creatures to see their aliveness in them. Listen to the sounds from the wind, footsteps, trees, and birds to experience the power and beauty inside nature and the aliveness inside yourself. It can help women connect with their senses and find inner peace.
2) Be consciously present in life:
Negative emotions cannot exist when you consciously live in the present moment because they are only tied to the past and future — being present means feeling peace, stillness, wholeness, love, appreciation, gratitude, compassion, purpose, and meaning.
3) Mental exercise:
Having mental exercise can help pregnant women spiritually set up a constant internal dialogue with the higher power and experience a deep connection with the body to prepare for physiological childbirth. Mindfulness practices such as meditation and yoga can help women connect with their bodies and spirits, reducing stress and promoting well-being.
4) Journaling:
Regular journaling about thoughts, emotions, and stress can help release tension and stress, process their thoughts and feelings and gain insight into their experiences.
5) Education:
Education about their options for childbirth and informed decision-making can help women make choices that align with their personal beliefs and values.
6) Breathing practice:
Taking a couple of deep and slow breaths can activate the vagus nerve to stabilize abnormal electrical activity in the brain and increase cerebral blood flow and oxygen levels in the right frontal lobe to help us think and make decisions.
7) Physical body exercise:
Regular physical exercise helps pregnant women prepare for an optimal birth, e.g., running, walking, cycling, and swimming.
8) Mindful eating:
It is part of the mind, body, and spirit connection, such as what to eat, when to eat, why to eat, where to eat, who to eat with, and feeling joy, gratitude, and appreciation at eating.
9) Tummy talk:
Tummy talk is very important for pregnant women to establish early relationships and strong bonding with their babies.
10) Disease prevention:
Pregnant women should get vaccinated for flu, COVID, and whooping cough to protect themselves and their babies from preventable diseases during pregnancy. They should also attend their routine antenatal checkups and consult qualified professionals if unsure.
11) Be in a healthy environment:
Stay away from toxic chemicals, substances, and people with a toxic mindset.
12) Visualization:
Visualization is to intentionally shift the biochemistry in the brain to build confidence and power. For example, a birthing woman visualizes the opening and ripening of the cervix and descending of the baby's head with each normal painful contraction; a breastfeeding mother visualizes her milk ejection flowing into the baby from her breasts with loving thoughts.
2. Be mindful of others
Be mindful with family, friends, and others in the community, share experiences, emotions, stories, and thoughts with others, support and empower each other and build compassion for the experience of oneness. In addition, seeking out spiritual support such as counseling or support groups can provide a safe space for women to explore their thoughts and feelings and gain perspective on their experiences.
3. Be mindful of maternity care providers
Pregnant women need to understand that physicians are trained in biomedicine. Women's innate instinctive capacity for birthing may not be recognized, supported, and empowered by their physicians. Emotional preparation for their childbirth may not be achieved with physicians for the remarkable journey. Pregnant women may need to seek spiritual care from other professional providers.
By incorporating these tools into their journey, pregnant women can learn how to pay attention to their bodies, listen to their intuition, stay calm and centered, and be receptive to whatever comes. They also learn how to seek professional attention without delay if any adverse event occurs. By following these mindful tools, pregnant women can connect their minds with their bodies, and allow physiological birthing to manifest, and create a positive childbirth experience.
Calling for spiritual care in childbirth
For thousands of years, pregnant women have been incorporating spirituality into their childbirth experiences. The connection between the mind, body, and spirit has been scientifically and clinically proven to be a vital aspect of overall well-being. Studies from diverse cultures have explored the experiences of pregnant women with spirituality and have found that it has numerous health benefits for both mother and baby.
Spirituality can shape a woman's beliefs, strengthen her mind, empower her body, and help her to lead a joyful, meaningful, and purposeful life. It can also provide a sense of oneness and high satisfaction during childbirth through connectedness with oneself, others, nature, inner wisdom, and a higher power.
Research also indicates that higher levels of spirituality in pregnant women are associated with lower levels of stress during childbirth and lower rates of health risk behaviors such as smoking and substance use. Additionally, spirituality in pregnant women may help to eliminate health disparities and improve both maternal and infant quality of life.
Furthermore, studies have found that both parents experience childbirth as a powerful and transformative experience. They acknowledged that incorporating spirituality into childbirth can significantly improve their physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being.
It is believed that all women are born with the innate knowledge of how to give birth.
Birth is an instinctive process, and spirituality plays a crucial role in providing inner peace, energy, and strength for comfort, coping, and self-fulfillment during childbirth. However, our modern consumer culture has led to a heavy emphasis on material possessions over spiritual needs, causing spiritual deprivation in many individuals. Research has shown that 75-98% of human diseases are stress-related, caused by negative thoughts in mind.
Biomedicine and technological advances have treated pregnant women's bodies as separate from their minds and spirits, causing them to lose faith and confidence in themselves during childbirth. Many women have also been subjected to unnecessary medical interventions in childbirth, such as induction of labor, epidural anesthesia, and elective C-sections, without proper medical indications. This diminishes the powerful experience of natural contractions, the empowerment of giving birth, and the opportunity for self-transcendence.
In the early 90s, several organizations in the U.S. recognized that biomedicine was inadequate at understanding women's spirituality in childbirth and called for spiritual care in maternity healthcare. Cultural awareness courses were implemented in some medical schools to address spiritual deprivation. Since then, more and more medical and midwifery schools around the world have also implemented cultural-based spiritual learning into their curriculum for students.
However, spiritual care in childbirth goes beyond the knowledge that can be taught in a classroom setting. It requires a deep understanding of the cultural and personal beliefs of the women they serve and an approach that is empowering and non-judgmental.
Asking a pregnant woman about her religious beliefs or whether a Maori woman wants to keep her placenta or a Jehovah's Witness woman wants to accept a blood transfusion is important, but it is not enough to provide spiritual care in childbirth. It is necessary to provide a safe and comfortable space for women to express their beliefs and feelings, to listen actively and understand their points of view, and to respect their choices.
It is important for healthcare providers to understand that spiritual care in childbirth is a continuous process that requires ongoing education, self-reflection, and cultural humility. It's not only about providing information or asking questions but about building a relationship of trust, respect, and empathy with the woman and her family.
Spiritual care in childbirth is a women-centered partnership approach that prioritizes the emotional, mental, and spiritual needs of pregnant women. It requires maternity care providers to actively listen to and understand the beliefs, hopes, fears, and doubts of the women they serve and to incorporate these elements into individual childbirth plans in a respectful and equal partnership.
Spiritual care in childbirth also requires a heightened awareness of the inner feelings and needs of pregnant women, as well as the unique humanity of the unborn baby. This intuitive understanding allows for timely and appropriate interventions that support women spiritually throughout the birth experience.
Furthermore, spiritual care in childbirth empowers women to connect their minds and bodies during childbirth by expressing their emotional feelings and physical needs. It also empowers women to make informed choices for themselves and their babies.
As the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates stated, "the goodness of a physician is to superintend the sick to make them well, to care for the healthy to keep them well, but also to care for one's own self, so as to observe what is seemly." This holistic approach to care, which includes spiritual care, is essential for the well-being of both the mother and her unborn baby.
Conclusion
In conclusion, childbirth is a transformative and meaningful experience that can awaken women's spirituality and offer them an opportunity to connect their minds, bodies, and spirits. It is a special time for them to turn to a higher power and let the flow of well-being flow to them, leading to a sense of oneness and self-transcendence. Pregnant women need spiritual awareness in order to gain the health benefits of the mind, body, and spirit connection.
It is important for healthcare providers to recognize the lack of spiritual care in practice and the importance of empowering women to truly experience the joy of giving birth and self-transcendence, as well as in decision-making during their unique journey.
In the next part of this series, we will explore how to heal from childbirth-related trauma.
References:
https://www.medicinenet.com/what_is_health_and_wellness/article.htm
https://acim.org/acim/lesson-199/i-am-not-a-body-i-am-free/en/s/607
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871519215000037
https://www.hfma.org/topics/hfm/2021/february/medicine-should-be-for-mind--body-and-spirit--.html
https://trauma-recovery.ca/introduction/the-mind-body-and-spirit-connection/
https://drleaf.com/blogs/news/the-one-mindset-that-can-help-you-through-any-problem
https://books.google.com/books?id=tM5fAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA319&lpg=PA319&dq=where+there+is+love+of+man,+there+is+also+love+of+the+art.+For+some+patients,+though+conscious+that+their+condition+is+perilous,+recover+their+health+simply+through+their+contentment+with+the+goodness+of+the+physician&source=bl&ots=G1eXog7ebb&sig=ACfU3U1PFhV14g8zEs8IyJgcAitHiT8JsA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiml4GUy8D0AhVOV80KHWnABHsQ6AF6BAgNEAM#v=onepage&q=where there is love of man%2C there is also love of the art. For some patients%2C though conscious that their condition is perilous%2C recover their health simply through their contentment with the goodness of the physician&f=false
