Passionate Mothering

I recently bought Dr. Sarah J. Buckley's book Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering. It is fantastic--well worth the money. She writes about birth and mothering as both a mother of four children and as a physician and scientist. She makes a compelling argument for undisturbed, instinctive birth. If you cannot find the book in your local library, which is likely since it is published in Australia, you can read many of her articles on her website. If you are pressed for time, read this one first.

Here are some excerpts from a chapter called "Healing Birth, Healing the Earth."

The ecstasy of Birth—her capacity to take us outside (ec) our usual state (stasis)—has been forgotten, and we are entering the sacred domain of motherhood post-operatively, even post-traumatically, rather than transformationally....

Giving birth is, inherently and hormonally, a passionate and sexual act. From the perspective of hormone levels in both mother and baby, we could say that birth is the most passionate experience that we will ever have....

These passionate hormones [oxytocin, prolactin, endorphins, and adrenaline] are not just feel-good add-ons. They actually orchestrate the physical processes of birth (and sexual activity) and enhance efficiency, safety and ease for both mother and baby. This hormonal cocktail also rewards birthing mothers with the experience of ecstasy and fulfillment, making us want to give birth again and again....

The problem in our times is that the passion of birth is neither recognized nor accommodated. Birth has become a dispassionate medical event, usually occurring in a setting that discourages emotional expression. If we are to reclaim our birthing passion, we must give ourselves permission to birth passionately and we must choose our birth setting and birth attendants with this in mind. Birth in these circumstances will be more straightforward, with less need for interventions, helping us to step into new motherhood with confidence and grace.

Passion, to my mind, is an opposite and an antidote for despair and depression. This is clear physiologically and hormonally. If we gave birth, and were born, in passion, how different would our primal emotional imprint be? And what about our brain chemistry, which is being set even as we are born?...As a birthing mother I have both witnessed and experienced the enormous passion that can be unleashed at birth, and that can fuel both passionate motherhood and a lifetime’s work on behalf of mothers, babies, and the Earth, and I ask: “Can we afford, as a species, to be born, and to give birth dispassionately?”