Let it go!

 It's so big to give birth, our ability to surrender. Yet, somehow I couldn't neatly package  the recent "aha" moment that I had with a friend about it, that surrender is not being submissive, forced action rooted in fear but rather expansion, that we become so enraptured in something that we are rekindled to the kind of enthusiasm that we all once had when we were children, that we loved so much that it was indeed a pleasure to give. Where and how could I fit such a powerful, lofty characteristic about surrender into an experience that is so heavily draped in contraction?  It had to fit somewhere into the equation though, since love is what got us here in the beginning, and if we chose, it is love that will carry us through to the end!

My teacher says that our ability to surrender requires our attention and effort and is a conscious choice on our part.  Help yourself surrender to birth with the following ritual.

At some point in the last trimester of pregnancy, after you feel complete that you have done everything in your power to give birth the way you intend to,  let it go and give it over to the god of your understanding. To help strengthen your surrender, consider integrating ritual.  For example, if your tendency was to explore every appropriate childbirth preparation book under the sun, take three flowers, each one representing the corresponding zodiac flowers for you, your partner, and your baby and place them in a page of your most inspiring, frequently visited pages. Or, if you are the scrap booking type, place them in your baby photo book. Or if you're like me and enjoy creative writing, place them in your journal.

As you close your chosen book with the flowers that are destined to become a very special triad book mark in its pages, verbally state your intention of letting go of your birth experience.

Say it out loud with feeling so that it becomes your mantra, words that protect, enliven, and guide.

"I surrender all my thoughts and concerns and energies about giving birth over to the almighty power that conceived my baby." 

With your days and nights leading up to birth, continue to steady your mind on surrender by repeating your mantra over and over again. I think that what you will find with approaching your labor in this way is that  you will be more likely to surrender to an experience like Nicole's who described herself as "euphoric"  just seconds after giving birth.

Together, forever, in our hearts,

Maurene