Are you over-intellectualising your pregnancy?

By Yolande Hyde. Women do not give birth within a personal bubble; every aspect of their birth will be influenced by the culture within which this birth is happening. While birth is a universal experience, the rituals surrounding it are remarkably different across cultures and over time.

Traditional birth rituals offer inspiration, illumination, patience and group support. Modern western society, however, has few birth rituals that work that way. Western birth customs are medical, rich with symbols such as the clock, the forceps, the gown and mask and all operating within the final word: ‘Hospital policy’.

Those of us birthing in this modern world need to seek out two kinds of teachings to facilitate two kinds of knowing. The first and most basic is primordial knowing—that innate capability to birth that modern woman have, and modern knowing which is all the savvy stuff.

Primordial knowing takes us beyond the text book norms and well-meaning advice of others. It is not something that we can read in a book or buy over the counter, but more something that is cultivated and nurtured. This type of knowing often arrives in a moment of understanding – ‘I get this’ and is the type of knowing that goes deep into your marrow and becomes part of what defines you. Meditation, visualisation, yoga, pranayama, journaling are all examples of how we might cultivate this knowledge. Inward focused activities that feed the creative and intuitive mind.

The second, modern knowing, involves being well informed about the medical and hospital culture and how to give birth within it. Our modern knowing helps us to navigate the lead up to the birth, to form the guidelines for our preferred birth experience, to give us power of information so that we can articulate our needs and our rights to our advice givers and care givers.

As modern women, birthing in this information age we wouldn’t want it to be any other way however, it is the original knowing that will support and nourish us in the darkest moments of our labour. The primordial knowing within is the source of the inner strength and power to continue this process to its end.

The reality is that mothers aren't AT their births, they're IN their births … And great faith, great determination, great love is required. Lucky you have all three in abundance.

Our guest blogger, Yolande Hyde, is a prenatal yoga instructor, a qualified doula, and runs Avalon Yoga studio as well as Barefoot Birth Services. She teaches holistic childbirth preparation courses and helps women to achieve trust and confidence through yoga and breath work. She is also a guest blogger on Miranda Kerr’s KORA website.