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 When and if you’re having your baby at home, I believe you should be doing it your way. That means that what works for you is, or should be, the best for you.This said, we also need to take in account physiological matters. Something that obviously doesn’t happen in hospitals for example, where a mum is normally constrained to the gynecological position. Let’s do a very fast but explicit comparison: try and poo in a standing position; now, bend your knees and go to a squat position. Same happens in birth when squating: the pelvic bones open wide, your gravity center lows down and gives your tights and perineum muscles greater strength and pressure on the anus/vagina is deviated front and back ways.

When lying on your back, the uterus and vagina are pointing slightly over the horizon. When pushing stray, you are actually forcing the baby’s head against a muscle wall formed by the tissue joining your anus and vagina: that is the perineum. If pressure becomes excessive then a severe tear might occur. In order to control the tearing direction -and not to avoid it-, medicine invented episiotomy, which basically is cutting the tissue so that it’ll continue to tear sideways and not towards the anus. In this position you’re also forcing the baby’s head to go upwards, and thus fighting gravity which again is putting pressure on your perineum.

If you’re facing a natural home birth, you should fellow what your body inspires you during labor. This of course will change from a woman to another, but there are common grounds. When labor starts you will probably be inclined to some walking: excellent as it helps gravity do its job and the uterus collar to dilate. Same goes for the “slow dancing” position, bending and resting on your partners arms while standing and waiting; this is perfect for first stage and second stage contractions.

Once in deep labor, I feel that what was once called “African position” as African women would usually hang from a robust tree branch with one hand while almost kneeling for birth, and now more widely known as “squat position”, is your best, more natural, intuitive and physiological choice. The squat position will allow for fast and efficient labor, reducing stress and pain on your body and your baby’s, allowing you to actively intervene in your birth as you’re able to catch your baby yourself and your chest is just nearby to welcome your newcomer. From this position it’s easy to kneel forward and rest after the effort without losing any of the positive aspects of this position. Usually as well, the birth tends to end with the mum on one knee while the other leg still in squat position.

Depending on the situation, I find that ideally the partner is supporting the mum; the squat position allows intimacy and direct communication, as often eye contact in these cases can be more of a difficulty. Accordingly, the midwife can stay discreet out of eye range but still make sure that everything is going fine, and come back to concrete presence when needed. The fact that the midwife is also in this case below the horizon and the parent’s eye line gives back to the mother her pro-activeness and the midwife her original role: assistant. Physiologically speaking, the squat position relieves all barriers for the baby, levering down the efforts of the mother and easing the way out, as nothing obstructs directly anymore.

Now, what about water births? As I stated above, what works for you is best for you, so if you’re facing a physiological birth and you want it to be in water, please go for it with the assistance of your carer. If I have to be honest, I’m not personally very fond of them. Water pressure reduces the gravity force and the mum is back to a closer gynecological position type; I don’t find this ideal and in a natural environment, you wouldn’t probably give birth in water as it would be too cool. There have been some incidents in water births, as birth baths need to be very specific in order to drain bacteria, blood and organic rejections, need to keep water temperature stable, etc… Anyway of water birth still seems to me safer and more respectful than a hospital one.

In any case my advice would be to do what feels right for you.

WARNING: this article contains pictures and graphical photos of a birth, labor and delivery. You may be chocked by their explicit nature.

I’m proposing today a set of pictures taken during a homebirth. In order to protect the mother and family’s privacy, I’ve made sure that there was no way to identify neither of them, and as a result it may not be that easy to guess that this is happening in a home environment .

I want to draw your attention on to one particular fact: although the mum is giving birth laying on her back, a position that in my opinion is unnatural and unadapted to labor, you’ll see that there is barely any blood. That is because in a physiological birth there is no need for episiotomy -a horror close to torture and hardly ever needed (only when pathology is involved and at that stage, yes I believe you should be delivering in hospital. If a mum to be has  been followed properly during her pregnancy, it’s usually easy to tell if she’s facing a  physiological or risky birth)-; most of the blood you can see in a birth comes from the mother after the episiotomy has been done. Of course, there is some blood coming from the placenta and other parts anyway, but nothing comparable.

The laying down on back position puts a huge amount of stress on the perineum, and it’s important in these cases for the midwife to help support the pressure with one hand to avoid heavy tears. This is done by applying gentle pressure with the palm and fingers between the vagina and the perineum area, allowing for extra resistance and support (as you can see in picture 2).

Other positions let gravity do its job reducing pain and tear risk. 

But the reality is that even in this position, homebirths actually have a much smaller tear ratio than hospital births, and this is one of these testimonies:

Theurgy is a vertical path towards Illumination. It represents the practical application of the Laws of the Universe, in a way where God calls, and man answers; where man calls, and God listens. For those who are familiar with Theosophy, Theurgy is its application in our daily world. It’s a lonely path that meets all the wisdom of the World, but you may have heard of some secret societies such as The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.As these are matters difficult and delicate enough to deal with, I will let each of you decide what you want to take, believe and practice. For those interested in this path, I would suggest reading Franz Bardon’s  books.

Franz Bardon was officially born the first of December of 1909 in Katherein, in Tchecoslovaquia; he died the 10 of July of 1958 in Brno, after struggling in pain for three days arrested in a police station. His father, Victor Bardon, had for long prayed the Divine Providence for a guide, and when his son was 14, the Soul of one of those higher beings that are free from Karma and incarnation descended on this boy’s body; this is who we know as Franz Bardon. He had to accommodate to the original Franz Bardon’s karma, which led him to a life of physical pain and difficulties. But he left us the most precious gift: five books, of which only three and a bit remain, where all the steps toward inner Illumination and self-realization are clearly explained and marked. Want to grow and embrace divinity? All you need to know can be found in his books: Initiation to Hermetics, The Practice of Magical Evocation and the Key to True Kabbalah.

What interests me for this site and anthroposophical birth, is how Theurgy deals with Karma. Karma is not a punishment, it is a “mathematical” low where we inherit the consequences of our acts, whether we were conscious and aware of what we were doing or not when acting. How we live and learn from Karma can be re-arranged in order to suffer less when learning our lessons, and parents can play a huge role into this matter.

By daily education towards awareness of course,  helping with Waldorf education, consciously  procreating the baby’s body to be, etc… But also by welcoming the new life with a specific ritual that the French translator of Franz Bardon, Alexandre Moryason, published in his excellent book “La Lumière sur le Royaume”.

This will be discussed in another post, and I don’t expect to write much more about Theurgy. Not that I’m not interested in it, but my concern is to let Life do its Job, including the learning. I am specifically concerned about making sure that the baby’s soul incarnates as easily and conscious as possible, and that is where this particular ritual, which I will discuss on another occasion, comes in.

Anthroposophy was created by Rudolf Steiner in the early XX century. This approach to Spirituality states that anyone who “conscientiously cultivates sense-free thinking” can attain experience of and insights into the spiritual world; Steiner wanted his approach to be as systematic and precise as “regular” science is within the physical world. Needless to say, this statement has generally been rejected by scientist and philosophers.

The truth is that Rudolf Steiner did a huge amount of empiric and trustful work, which gave birth upon others to Waldorf education, -one of the solely educations I know of that respects the child rhythm and nature, as well as his balanced need to learn from what he sees and what he doesn’t. This interdisciplinary learning integrates artistic, intellectual and practical elements, and emphasizes the importance of imagination, and Freedom. As Steiner was from the western world, spirituality concepts that are present in Waldorf education are based on Christian inspiration, but Spirituality is never narrowed to a single religion in this approach. You may find more information at the Wikipedia’s Waldorf education page.

Anthroposophy is also the source of Biodynamic Agriculture, which is of course organic, and shows with magistracy how spiritual concepts have a material application in order to high up our physical world: only a few drops of any biodynamic remedy applied at the right time (moon and astronomical time that is) and combined with a full approach will have Mother Nature give its most splendid fruits and Earth regenerate itself. A biodynamic farm should be one of the most wonderful landscapes that meets the eye. You may find more information at the Wikipedia’s Biodynamic agriculture page.

Steiner created anthroposophical medicine in conjunction with Ita Wegman. Anthroposophical medecine states that the body seeks an equilibrium in permanence, and that is what we call “health”. Using homeopathy, artistic and massage therapies, it ensures that the organism has everything it needs to recover its balance, therefore its good health. It perfectly accepts allopathic approaches such as surgery when needed, but it respects what each individual is and what his life has been up to the present stage. You may find more information at the Wikipedia’s anthroposophical medecine page.

From a birthing point of view, Anthroposophy is a meaning and respectful approach to life and labor. From a medical point of view, it allows to stress relieve the body and the maternity experience, as natural birth is greatly enhanced by applying anthroposophical remedies when needed, especially on a prevention basis.

From a spiritual point of view, Anthroposophy helps us know what our place is, and what the place of the newborn will be. From a karmic point of view, but also upon the different stages a soul takes to incarnate: it begins with conception, but the embodiment process ends only years after the baby is born. Knowing this greatly helps us and the child to embrace life and the physical world – as at first this may seem like an obstacle.

Steiner also created eurythmy, was contemporary of Franz Bardon ( Franz Bardon’s legacy is the best compilation of antic and practical knowledge, also known as Theurgy) and of the Theosophical Society (Helena P. Blavatsky, Annie Besant), where he met his second wife Marie Von Sievers. As theosophist weren’t ready to accept some of Steiner’s practical approaches, he left the society in 1912.

Sound has its own healing powers and there are, as a matter of fact, sounds and words so powerful themselves they can produce or stop things from happening. I will talk in another occasion of those, but just let’s keep in mind for this article that whatever a mother to be listens while she’s pregnant, her baby does too. And that sound will have itself a strong memory feedback once the baby is born: it will ease and calm him down, allow him to fall asleep with a sense of security.

I cannot imagine better sound to offer a baby than the one above, as it will also nourish parent’s souls too; wouldn’t it be ideal if this welcome and healing mantra could be song while birth is taking place too?

This mantra was recorded when a monk, who was very well loved by the Dalaï-Lama, was about to pass away. In order to help the transition, the Dalaï-Lama sat upon his bed and sang these mantras for hours until the monk left our world.

Those who witnessed the scene begged the Dalaï-Lama to record this wonderful song to share it with the rest of the world. A cd was recorded with the sole condition that it would never be sold, although it can be copied and shared.

The mantra goes as follows:

“Om trayambakam yajamahe
sugandhim pusti vardhanam
urvarukamiva bandhanat
mrtyor muksiya mamrtat”

And you can listen it from here:

Sri Mrutyunkaya Mantra for Healing by the Dalaï Lama.mp3

There is also this alternative spelling for Mrityunjaya Mantra (Victory over Death, also called- Mahamoksha Mantra, Great Enlightenment):

“Om Tryambakam Yajamahe
Sugandhim Pushthi Vardhanam
UrvaRukamiva Bandhanat
Mrytyor Muksheeya Mamritat “

Who I am and what I do is not really important as it won’t change anything in your life. As I write I’m in my early thirties, have worked for a number of years in IT fields and am now switching back to midwifery. Actually, back to midwifery education in order to obtain the most widely internationally recognized qualification, as I don’t intend to stay in Europe long. New Zealand seems to be a halt for a while, but time will tell.

I’m a male by the way :-) and if you’ve not already read it, just pop here to find out what my approach to birth and midwifery is.

I intend to update this blog on a weekly basis. Not only as to have a trustful, clear and free source of information on natural homebirth on the internet, but also to me as a tool for my midwifery practice.