Receiving Your Baby In Your Own Time

by  on  in Understanding "Natural" Birth • 0 Comments

 

Photo: Apple Blossom Families

Photo: Apple Blossom Families

“This is the moment of earthly bonding. Oxytocin, the hormone of love, runs high…higher than at any other time in labor and the family falls into love with each other. Mother recognizes her child, partner claims his family. The bonding occurs first on psychic and spiritual level, then the mother reaches to pick up her baby. Mothers have taught me that it is not appropriate to interfere with this important stage of birth. This is an incredibly high and holy moment and if we truly understood birth and the ramifications of returning from an altered state…the re-integration…we would protect the privacy of the mother and baby at this time more than any other. I have noticed that mothers are often not ready to hold their babies immediately after delivery. They need a moment, or two, or five. They need to experience their baby in an authentic and instinctive manner. We need not hand a baby to a mother and please, never remove a baby from the mothers field.”

~Whapio Diane Bartlett

I LOVE working with birth attendants who respect that moment between birth and when a mother / family greets their baby for the first time.

Check out the post I wrote for Birth at Home to read about the importance of receiving your baby in your own time!