Natural Birth Quotes

“It seems that in our twenty-first century modern world, many women have become estranged from their primal brain and the knowledge that lies within it. Women too often hand their power over to the medical world long before they enter labour and have the idea someone else will do it for them.”
― Maha Al Musa, Dance of the Womb - The Essential Guide to Belly Dance for Pregnancy and Birth

“The context needs to be that the goal is a healthy mom. Because mothers never make decisions without thinking about that healthy baby. And to suggest otherwise is insulting and degrading and disrespectful.”
― Jennifer Block, Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care

“With this pregnancy, unlike my others, I was fully aware of the possibility of blissful, painless, potentially even orgasmic, and fully natural, unmedicalized childbirth from the beginning. After reaching my second trimester, I was relaxing in the bath after my children had gone to sleep, when suddenly I felt a profound connection with the little girl within me. She communicated to me how this birth was going to go. How it was going to feel. In essence, I knew she would pass easily out of my body.”
― Adrienne Carmack, Reclaiming My Birth Rights

“Birth is, without a doubt, one of the greatest self -expressive and creative processes we can embark upon in womanhood. I believe that a part of a woman's birthing heart centre resides within the pelvis and hip area.”
― Maha Al Musa, Dance of the Womb - The Essential Guide to Belly Dance for Pregnancy and Birth

“The main goal of Bellydance for birth within the framework of actual labour is to fully allow the labouring woman to help nature by moving with and not against the contractions she welcomes. Instead of tensing her muscles and mind with fear and apprehension toward pain, she accepts and surrenders actively, consciously and as best she can to each contractile wave she experiences.”
― Maha Al Musa, Dance of the Womb - The Essential Guide to Belly Dance for Pregnancy and Birth

“And having four kids? Giving birth to them naturally? What is she, an animal?”
― Izumi Suzuki, Terminal Boredom: Stories

“Drugs and medical technology can be enormously beneficial when used to take care of real complications, but too often they are abused when applied to women birthing normally. These women are thus subjected to unnecessary risks. The key to this problem is informed consent, an ideal too seldom realized. Informed consent means that no woman during pregnancy or labor should ever be deceived into thinking that any drug or procedure (Demerol, Seconal, spinals, caudals, epidurals, paracervical block, etc.) is guaranteed safe. Not only are there no guaranteed safe drugs, but many of them have well-known, recognized side effects and potential side effects.

Informed consent should mean that no woman would ever hear such falsehoods as, “This is harmless,” or, “I only give it in such a small dose that it can’t affect the baby,” or, “This is just a local and won’t reach the baby.”
― Susan McCutcheon, Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way

“The smooth undulating movements of Bellydance for birth aid a woman's ability to deal with her labour in an opening rather than restrictive fashion. The soothing rocking motions of the circular, figure 8 and spiral movements set the scene for a birthing woman to flow with the natural rhythms of her labouring body - to become connected not only to nature and the universe but deeply bonded to her baby within.”
― Maha Al Musa, Dance of the Womb - The Essential Guide to Belly Dance for Pregnancy and Birth

“Birth is experiential. You have to experience it to fully know it. An exercise such as Bellydance for birth embraced during pregnancy can act as a purposeful tool to help a woman before she steps in through the gateway of birth. One of the key elements of the birth dance is that it can help bridge the gap between the primal brain (which knows how to give birth) and the modern woman (who may need to be reminded of her instinctual capacity), assisting her to claim back her most basic and inherent right as the Deliverer of Life.”
― Maha Al Musa, Dance of the Womb - The Essential Guide to Belly Dance for Pregnancy and Birth

“The birthing journey requires us as women to get back to a sense of life basics where our connection to intuition and instinct are normal, rather than a forgotten means of expression, when implemented in pregnancy and labour, the birth dance enables a woman to connect to her feminine source without fear or shame.”
― Maha Al Musa, Dance of the Womb - The Essential Guide to Belly Dance for Pregnancy and Birth

“Birth is as old as humanity itself. That means that simply by being human, you can birth. Your body will grow your baby and birth your baby all without you doing a single thing to make it happen. This isn't to say that certain things won't help it along and make it easier, but even without those things, you will birth. Your body knows how. It is your mindset and the culture that you live in that is the real obstacle to you actually getting a natural birth”
― Carly Bonderud, Your Empowered Birth: Get The Birth You Want

“Pregnancy and birth are the ultimate transitions and life transformations! You are going to learn more about yourself and your body than you ever thought possible. After birth, you will never be the same.

This can be a good thing if you go into it with all your power in your own hands...”
― Carly Bonderud, Your Empowered Birth: Get The Birth You Want