On this mother’s day eve I’m finding myself once again reading passages in Marie Mongan’s book HypnoBirthing®  as I’m reflecting on babies, motherhood, fatherhood, and the world where all of us live.  I just finished ordering ten copies of the book from the HypnoBirthing Institute in preparation for my upcoming child birth classes and I fully expect that I’ll need every one of the copies in short order.

A passage that caught my eyes reads as follows: “In the early 1990s, the House of Commons in England officially mandated that the needs of birthing mothers be the central focus of maternal health care and that maternity services be fashioned around them, not the other way around.”  What a delightful concept, but sadly quite different from main stream maternity care in this country.

 Being from Europe myself, more specifically Danish, I grew up knowing that child birth was a natural event that did not require massive medical intervention except for in exceptional cases.  I was also familiar with midwives and always felt that the mother was the driving force in the birthing event.

 Imagine my surprise when I came to the US ready to give birth to my first son and they wanted to give me anesthesia followed by pain pills after the birth!  Naturally I refused and gave birth to a boy weighing 8lbs 7 ounces without difficulty.  I was also able to breast feed my baby right away to the surprise of the nurses who evidently harbored the impression that breastfeeding was difficult.  My son and I didn’t know that so we followed our natural instincts and everything was fine.

I chose to become a HypnoBirthing® childbirth educator because I want to help other mothers find the freedom of choice I enjoyed.  I want all babies to be born in a calm and relaxed manner so they can grow up and develop into strong, creative, smart, level headed people each reaching their full potential.

Having expressed my opinion I know wish all mothers and potential mothers a HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY.