What this book is about
From an amazing reverence for life and new children coming onto the planet, this book has helped many parents welcome their new little ones in a safe, loving and connected way. It brings to light how the conventional birthing is to the new arrival and how we can make it a nicer, friendlier environment for those who have just arrived. Imagine, if you will, that you have been in a nice, warm, dark safe cave for 9 months. You are happy. Your every need has been anticipated and provided for and suddenly you are thrust into a world of bright lights and loud noises only to be taken far away from your place of comfort and safety. You are poked and prodded and placed on cold surfaces, as if you couldn’t feel. That wouldn’t be a great way to start a new life on earth, would it?
Well, Birth without Violencetruly does revolutionize the way we bring our children into this world. Since the new baby has been shrouded in darkness we dim the lights. Since all sound has been muffled by the mother’s body we speak in whispers. Since the baby has spent 9 months in the mother’s body we place the baby on the mother’s belly. Bonding begins and the new child feels safe, loved and warm resting there on the mother. And the mother’s belly is the perfect shape to rest on because the child is in almost the same curled up position that it was in the womb. Perhaps a bath will take place after the child is several hours old, the purpose of which is to provide a memory of the floating, warmth and freedom of the amniotic fluid the baby lived in up until now. It is a time of loving and consideration for the new one’s needs and feelings.
My experience
When we had our second daughter at the Birth Center in Bryn Mawr they knew all of this and incorporated it into every birth. So, fortunately, we didn’t have to get them all to read the book, they were already there. It was a beautiful time with loving surrounding our daughter and tenderness accompanying her first hours. It helped me too since I knew that what was going on around me was in line with my values and what I wanted for my children.
Comments
I recommend this book to all parents having a baby, even if you didn’t use it with your older children you can still provide a gentle emerging for your new babies, and they will thank you for it. Although this book isn’t in print anymore you can still get it from second-hand sources. You can find sellers through Amazon.com or check out your local library. I would like it if this book was republished so more families can benefit from its wisdom and ideas. Perhaps I’ll publish it again when I start Dawn of a New Day Publishing. In the meantime…
View book details at Amazon: Birth without Violence