Feb 9, 2017
Scripture of the day: 

Revelation 12:2

• New Testament

And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. 


I am posting this because of a conversation I had with my daughter this evening.  She is pregnant with her first child.  She was sharing with me the efforts of her birthing class.  She has a good focus.

She shared a story of when she told another of her focus and that person just laughed at her.  I don't find it any funnier than my daughter did. 
That led me to wonder what does the scriptures say about childbirth.  I can see how someone might get the focus from the scriptures that childbirth is to be painful.  I never had such a vision.  I did have some pain during childbirth but it was the tearing that hurt more than the birthing.

But the scriptures say travailing in birth, I always thought of travailing as hard work or laborious.  The definition talks about pain or about hard work.  As for being pained to be delivered I saw that as the baby being pained (hurt, frustrated, angry, upset annoyed) for not being born yet and wanting to be. I see how some might look at that and think from a mother's perspective they could be the one who is pained.  I guess it is a matter of perspective.  I was also a nature birth kind of girl.  I had 2 at home and the first I tried but she turned her head at the pelvic bone and got stuck.  We transported to the hospital so the doctor got her head in the right position and then I pushed her out.  She has always liked to do things her way.  I support her choices to do it her way. 

I am well aware of other women making other choices.  It is always best to do what is best for them.
My daughter learned that because she had a mother who made natural birth choices it makes her more likely to do the same thing.  She is exploring what will work for her. 

I have had many decisions on my life where I wondered if I did the right thing but the way I had my children was never one of them. 

My daughter also commented on how it seems that women always share their birth stories when they ask her about her choices.  The stories are not always positive.  I wonder about that also.  I remember when I was pregnant with my first I saw parts of Rosemary's Baby, the movie.  Not a good choice, it terrified me for months.  I am glad I didn't see the whole thing.  That movie is scary when you are not pregnant.  Scary birthing stories are similar.  They scare the pregnant woman and I wonder why do we tell them. 

In my younger days I was so expressive of women's right in labor to make choices, to be allowed to make choices that my husband said I should become a midwife.  I thought that would be a disaster because I about fainted when I witnessed a cat struggling to have kittens.  I have grown a little because I watched (in a video) a dog giving birth today and I didn't feel faint or sick.  Which was an accomplishment since I am home with the stomach flu today.  However, I am not about to change careers. I am OK with letting that one go to the younger generation. 

It has been good remembering those memories today. The rest was
just a thought...