As spring continues to open and unfold in northern NJ, I love walking and seeing all the flowering bushes and trees. Soon, the warm weather will be upon us. As I listen to the birds each morning and see more and more creatures and animals in my yard and garden, I am looking for the caterpillars that will soon appear. While I love caterpillars especially the fluffy ones, I love even more their journey of transformation.
In time, they will spin transform into a chrysalis and settle in for a short sleep. It is amazing that their body will transform from one that remains on the ground to being free to fly well above the bushes and trees that have been home to them till now. When you see a chrysalis it might be tempting to help the butterfly to emerge. If you come upon it as it begins to open you can witness its struggle to be set free. Yet, if you help it open and don’t allow this essential struggle for life, you will stop it from reaching its beautiful potential to fly- as its wings need this time and this effort to fully mature.
Teri Shilling, a great Lamaze educator with a Passion for Birth, was the first person who helped me understand how inducing a baby to arrive before it is fully ready may also take away some of the MotherBaby potential to have a safe, fulfilling birth. The journey of natural childbirth is needed for a safe, satisfying passage into motherhood and breast-feeding. We are starting to learn amazing things on how essential the babies hormonal opening is in childbirth, as well as the development of cells on the baby’s cheeks that happen only in the 24 hours before birth that are needed for the baby to find the breast and begin to feed easily. Mother Nature does not do well when disturbed! We are learning there are important reasons to allow our babies to arrive when it is their time and not before.
Lamaze Safe and Healthy Birth Practices- give us some of the science and information that will guide you to make an informed decision on when labor should begin. http://www.lamaze.org/HealthyBirthPractices. Healthy Birth Practice 1: Let Labor Begin on Its Own http://www.lamaze.org/HBP1
This weekend I will be speaking in Montclair NJ about Healthy Birth Practices- if you are nearby please join me and if you afar please stay in touch via my weekly Pleasurable Birth e-news.
I love this image of the caterpillar, cocoon, and butterfly for birth. I can’t wait to share this post with a midwifery student friend who has been doing a lot of work lately on “hands off” practice in 2nd stage of labor. I think she’ll also appreciate this imagery of “not prying the cocoon open or pulling the butterfly out”. Happy Friday, Debra!