Straight From the Heart of Mothering

by Robin Lim
 
 From Midwifery Today, Issue 49, Spring 1999

“A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.” — Carl Sandburg

I wish I was sitting with you now, at your kitchen table. I would listen to your birth story. I would rub your strong shoulders and ask to hold your baby. I wish this because I admire your courage. Thank you for bringing a new baby Earth-side. You are a heroine.
 

Some Native American tribes believe that the mother must journey to the land of the souls to bring back a child for her people. This is labor. Your own re-birth and the birth of this baby is the most significant journey, both spiritual and physical, that a human being can make. You return a mother, having completed the world’s most dangerous and blessed life event. If you do not believe that childbirth, in all its manifestations, is a heroic event, today as you read this, let me celebrate your bravery.