Journal Page-Exploring our assumptions
Each question is to be answered in your journal. These will be questions that we will be coming back to throughout the classes. These questions are inspired by the book Birthing From Within by Pam England.
1. For 10 min write everything you know to be true about labor, birth, and motherhood. Write and family traditions, beliefs or ideas about labor, birth, or motherhood.
2. What is the overall feeling of what you wrote and what beliefs or assumptions are held in your view? Where did these come from in the first place? How do you feel about keeping this idea or belief? If the idea was gone, who would you be? Would you be different?
Here is an example:
I believe….
labor is a natural normal process and is best left that way. On the other hand, there can be complications, and it is best to be able to have someone there to help monitor both you and baby to make sure all is going well and give medical care when necessary.
birth and motherhood are some of the most difficult yet rewarding experiences and are intertwined with each other.
labor is hard work, but has wonderful rewards.
that through birth and giving life, an element of the divine is working through you.
pain and joy are intertwined.
My birth legacy:
I’m not sure I heard too much about birth from anyone really before I had children. I went into it with the only knowledge being from my providers. Luckily, they were wonderful and I had a great experience. It was when I moved and tried to find something similar that I realized that most women do not experience birth the same way I did. Of course I feared the pain, but I think I have learned to work through that. The pain is something that I worked with and learned to respect. I placed trust in myself as well as my providers to make sure I was healthy as well as my baby.
3. What, in your mind, is the most important question that you need to get through labor and birth? This should be a question that no one but yourself can answer. For example, “Who will I be able to trust”.
