nature needs no help, just no interference.
Outside of Chiropractic, another passion of mine is birth. I am a birth keeper or doula, however you’d like to label it. I’m really just a woman supporting another woman during one of the most transformational moments in her life—birth.
Recently, I had the honor of supporting a client and friend during her freebirth. What is a freebirth? Well, it really is just a woman giving birth like all women did prior to birth being medicalized in the mid 1900s— undisturbed, and without interference. The way birth is designed to be. Women are innately designed to create and birth humans into this world. Birth is very, very rarely ever a true emergency and in need of medical intervention. We’ve shifted away from birthing at home because our systems instill fear instead of trust in the body, and convince women that they are not capable of birthing unattended. This friend had a clear vision of her birth and full trust in both her body and her baby. My role was to hold space, to love, and to witness as she brought her baby into this world with such power and grace.
Throughout her pregnancy my friend and I would continue to see the number 222, almost daily. I saw it on the clocks, receipts, gas station prices, lengths of voice notes, literally everywhere. We both were being divinely reminded. Her husband called me just after 1 am on the day of her birth letting me know it was happening and she was ready for me to be there. When I pulled into their driveway I looked at the time, and smiled because it was 2:22 am. I knew in that moment it was going to be nothing less than beautiful.
I walked into the most intimate birth setting I had ever been to—dark, quiet, candle lit bedroom. She was in the warm bath moving through the waves of contractions, feeling into her body and talking to her baby. It brought tears to my eyes instantly. She went from sitting to standing to kneeling to leaning to laying to squatting, shifting her body intuitively as the intensity arose. I sat on the ground next to the tub with her husband, and we took turns supporting her without speaking or interrupting her flow. She leaned into each contraction, fully embodied and present. The intensity climbed until she wept and said she didn’t want to do it anymore. In that moment we locked eyes and I reminded her that she was doing it and she was so close to meeting her baby. She held her belly and said “come on baby, we got this, we can do this” and on the next surge she caught her baby. I will never forget this sacred moment. The way her husband sat in complete reverence for her as she scooped their baby onto her chest and tears of love streamed down her face.
Her other two boys happened to wake up and made their way into the bathroom just after baby was born. They got to see their mom in a vulnerable, yet beautiful state, and curiously asked questions about the whole process. After the placenta was birthed we moved mom, baby, placenta and dad to their bed to rest, while the boys and I made breakfast as the sun came up. Once everyone’s belly’s were full and baby kisses and cuddles were had, they went back to sleep, and I made my way out.
Mom didn’t endure any tearing or excess bleeding, and baby didn’t need to be suctioned or vigorously patted in order to take his first breath. It was peaceful and healing for all. There wasn’t one moment during the birth experience where I felt worry, fear or doubt. I knew she was mentally, emotionally, and physically ready for this freebirth, and she knew it too. She didn’t have anyone telling her what her cervix was dilated to, what body position to get into or how to properly “push” her baby out, and yet she still had her baby. A wild concept for many to understand.
This was the most beautiful and raw experience I’ve been a part of. It was healing for my friend, for her family, for me, for women. I am so grateful to have witnessed it. Nature needs no help, just no interference.
