Birth itself can be a very healing and empowering event. Pregnancy and birth are such life changing events that they may give us the opportunity to rewrite the way we respond to life.
The way our mother responded to being pregnant and to life events around her while we were in her womb is stored within our subconscious. Her perception of events while she gave birth to us, as well as our own, are part of our ‘limbic imprint’. This imprint can work very much in our favour as we draw on our inner knowing that birth works and that all we have to do is surrender to the process. When our subconscious contains an imprint from our own birth that includes fear and disempowerment, it can be more difficult to trust the process and surrender to birth.
There are many ways of re-writing our limbic imprint, thereby giving our nervous system new options that include more ease, joy and the welcome embrace of support. Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova has written an excellent article called The Limbic Imprint. I have trained with Elena and am able to facilitate Birth Into Being workshops using her limbic imprint re-coding methods, see Elena's Facilitator List.
I have trained with Binnie Dansby, see her website Ecstatic Birth, and I am currently training with Karlton Terry and Ray Castellino in prenatal and birth therapy for both adults and babies. I did my craniosacral training at the Karuna Institute in Devon; Craniosacral Therapy can be excellent for gently releasing patterns held in the body that may have been there since birth or even earlier.
EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) and Family Constellation Therapy can also be used to resolve issues arising from your own subconscious or from your ancestral imprint.
Michelle speaks about using these healing methods during her pregnancy:
“My husband and I both had a lot of unresolved issues with our families ranging from abandonment to abuse and we really wanted to clear the negative feelings linked to them as thoroughly as possible before our son was born in order to provide a truly nurturing environment.
Julia taught us techniques that we found very useful for releasing negative thoughts and emotions from our own childhoods which was such a blessing. We spent many a night performing beautiful rituals to heal our relationships with family members and it was such a relief to feel things that had been pent up for so many years finally be released and transmuted. It also brought us closer together which made it even more special.”
I have many methods that I can draw upon to help you heal your experience of your own or your children’s birth. Please let me know if you would like to prepare for your baby’s birth in this way.
Talking to Baby
Talking to your unborn baby can be a beautiful way of healing your own inner baby. You may not have been listened to or spoken to with an awareness of just how conscious you were. Evidence from prenatal psychology shows that memory even precedes conception. The incoming soul is conscious of emotional and other influences from both parents as he arrives in the womb.
Your own inner subconscious baby will be listening as you are talking to your baby growing in your womb. The messages of love and reassurance will be healing for you both. Tell your little one what you would have loved to have heard while you were in the womb.
Talk to baby even when life gets tough, it is especially important to talk to baby at these times and say what you are feeling and why. Letting baby know how you’re feeling emotionally and that it’s not his fault when you’re upset, will help him to relax and get into a good position in the womb.
Your baby chose you as his parent, and he has been conscious since before the moment of conception. He is listening to the messages you are sending him and is very much a participant in the birth. Remember to tell him often how much you love him and how wanted he is. A baby who feels truly loved and welcome will flow with the birth process with ease, helping the experience to be a joyful one for both of you.
