I ask every woman I work with to begin meditating for 3 minutes a day.

Cue the horror! :) Most women resist, which is completely normal, and kind of the point!

What they don't know is these three minutes can make all the difference between a painful, slow labor and a smooth feel-good birth.

Meditation forces us to slow everything down and focus within, a practice our monkey brain and every fiber of our over-worked, busy-busy-busy, people pleasing, productivity-identified self resists. 

When we begin to meditate several things often happen:

1. we feel uncomfortable in our own skin, wanting to get up and get away
2. we get lost in our thoughts and judgements and feel like we are failing
3. we start wondering how much longer until the timer goes off

Whenever a mama shares the experience of any of the above, I say, that's GREAT! Keep going! These are all normal experiences AND exactly the kind of internal struggles we encounter during labor and delivery, which is why meditation is a gre...

Hands on mine. Black no-space swirling close and intimate around me. Everything outside melts away and I am deep below the surface.

Jeremy is near, I can feel his structural support as he holds my hand tight, his presence deep and affirming. The weight of my belly is buoyed up by the deep water and I am loving the soft relaxing warmth. The nurse fumbles around in the water with a heart rate monitor, pressing the metal and plastic onto my belly. Searching with the instrument and her voice.

“He’s not there”, I thought. I sensed him deep in the birth canal, nearly crowing, his presence closer and closer to the surface. Each surge took over my entire body, the chthonic motion drawing my insides down toward the earth, while a deep resonant rumble rose up from my throat. 

Then, as if reaching a long sought threshold, I let my focus go. Slumping against the side of the tub, I lifted my eyes to meet my love’s. “I don’t want to do this anymore.” The words fell quietly out of my mouth, bearin...

I stepped in from the cold. Eight fresh inches on the road had made for an amusing 45 minute drive to the hospital. I stamped my boots and greeted the woman at the window.

“I’m here to have my baby, I called ahead.”

The woman looked me up and down and said, “okay, well I can’t let your husband in unless you’re staying.” Ugh, covid.

“Ok, I’m staying, shouldn’t be long now.”

She eyed me closely and said, “If you are in labor, you’re the calmest woman in labor I’ve ever seen.” 

I smiled and adjusted my crown. Flowers encircled my head and amniotic fluid dripped down my legs as I stood in the fluorescent white tiled waiting room. I felt radiant, like a glowing quaking power source had turned on inside of me and I was eager to drop in deeper.

A short time later Jeremy and I were settled into a warm quiet room, and I closed my eyes as the midwife checked my initial progress. “You’re at a six”, she declared.

The nurse raised her eyebrow and I looked over at Jeremy laughing. “Well this ...