Yoga Birth

The sounds of a laboring woman during natural childbirth stopped me in my tracks. I held my breath and felt my body start to perspire, my hands shook and my heart raced. The heavy hospital door and the dark curtain could not stop the power of the moans from inside the room. I stood there, frozen, selfishly eavesdropping on the most powerful moment in life, birth.

I have been spoiled to have two home births plus having the pleasure of attending another of my very close friends labor and delivery. Some may not like all the moaning and groaning and blood and tension and the unknown. But I love it. For me, its like touching God and its becoming an addiction. So it was torture to wait in the waiting room for my sister in law to labor.

And while I so desperately wanted to be inside the room, I want nothing to do with distracting the mamma. So twice, I snuck back to my post right outside the room and waited. Waited for a clue, a nugget, a little sound, a feeling in my bones.

And there it was. It knocked me over. Out of nowhere, a powerful, guttural, animalistic groan rumbled from inside the room. Tangible energy pulsed. A little wee one was about to born and there was no mistaking it.

What does this have to do with 21 days of yoga? Everything. This was my practice today. Being in the presence of birth and wallowing in the awe of it.

Now, that would be a cop-out, being that my intention is to do some physical yoga these 21 days. So, after I went home and put my niece (who just got a sister) and my babies to bed, I rolled out my mat. I did a little practice for the new baby. I checked into all my parts as though they were her’s – some yoga for my hands, my feet, my arms & legs, digestion and my spine, a little inversion as a reminder of how the baby has lived for many months, some grounding poses to welcome the baby to the solid earth. And then I sang the healing mantra for the mamma and climbed into bed for a mini meditation. Welcome wee one.