Instinct

Some combination of these factors lead to enhanced understanding of “the way”, today:



1) Skateboarding I did the other day, the most instinctive of sports, perhaps except surfing.

2) The middle age Korean-American “smart-looking” woman on the train with the fashionable purse and coat, reading a large soft-bound book with the title “Parenting Teenagers.” (I say start by putting the book down, burn it ceremoniously, and start observing your instinct and listening to them).

3) The tough guy on the train with his fly down.

4) The obese teenager on the train flipping around between screens on her ipad (my child asks for an iPad and is confused when they get a skate-pad, or skateboard, instead).

5) The season’s first taste of cold air and the way it hit my lungs, the adjustment my body made, the pleasure masked as pain and weakness.

6) Carolyn’s interpretation of a several-hundred page book she is reading, written by an obstetrician, that “instructs” you to put the book down, put all the books down, forget what you know about birthing, and do it from instinct.



The lesson is instinct.

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Later in the day, I was talking to the CFO of my company about how Carolyn is doing. She's fine, I said, she's not putting on crazy water weight like some girl in the birthing class, etc. He asks me what kind of birthing class. Natural childbirth I tell him. Some admin or secretary or random dumbass from the company proceeds to hijack the conversation to tell us all about her own birth. At first I was confused whether she was telling us about herself being born or her labor with her own child. I figured it out as she told us about when and how her water broke (4:30 in the afternoon at work), but she wasn't feeling anything (I am not even sure she knew the word "contraction"). So she rushed to the hospital and told her doctor to "get her on pitocin" because it was already 5:00 in the afternoon and she didn't want to be up all night. They got her on pitocin. Now the doctor could tell her that she was "contracting" but she couldn't feel it (she may also have not known the word "uterus" which is the muscle that does the "contracting" to get the baby and placenta out). But then all of a sudden she started having uncontrollable shakes and the doctor decided that she needed an epidural, or maybe she planned to have one, but either way, she was shaking uncontrollably (this was being acted out for the CFO and I) and they had to physically restrain her and had to tell her "DO NOT MOVE" as they were putting the needle in. She had a short labor and ended up OK. However, the CFO excused himself from the conversation, and I got nothing out of it except for the need to share the dumb story.

It is baffling and astounding how little we collectively understand about birth. It is also astounding how very simple the process can be for us (without a hospital). It is astounding how the medical industry has brainwashed us into thinking it is more complicated and similar to an injury as they do.

Gestation and childbirth are incredibly complicated natural cycles that the female body is designed to complete, several times over. A woman need to do very little more than take extra care of herself during this time, to ensure that she is getting appropriate nutrients. When the child decides it is ready to be born, the chemical balance within the child and mother both change and the incredible process of childbirth is initiated. The mother needs a safe, warm, quiet, dim location. She does not need doctors or interventions. She might benefit from having support from loved ones (it might be scary to do it alone).

The level of brainwash that "they" have pulled off is incredible. The work that a conscientious parent needs to do to prepare is to simply unlearn the lies they have been fed, and to believe that it is an incredibly effective natural process that both the mother and the child participate in fully.